Ginkgo's big break? Winery ships wines to China

MATTAWA - Build it, and they will come.

That memorable line from a 1989 baseball film rang true for Mike and Lois Thiede recently when they shipped 212 cases of their Ginkgo Forest Wines to China.

The Mattawa couple opened a Ginkgo Forest Winery tasting room near Tacoma's waterfront two years ago. Unbeknownst to them at the time, that opened the door to China for Ginkgo Forest Wines.

By opening the Ginkgo Forest Wine tasting room in Tacoma, Ginkgo Forest Winery became a Tacoma business as well as Mattawa business.

"That's an advantage we didn't know we'd have when we opened the tasting room," Lois said.

The Tacoma World Trade Center participates in The Cross-Strait Fair for Economy and Trade Convention in Fuzhou, Fujian, China, Tacoma's sister city. Last year's Tacoma delegation to China took along selected products that represented the city, including Gingko Forest Wines.

Many of the half-million convention visitors tasted the wines and were pleased, especially with Ginkgo Late Harvest Syrah. In January of this year, a delegation from Fuzhou included the Ginkgo Forest (Tacoma) wine tasting room on its trade tour of Tacoma.

It just so happened that the Thiedes were scheduled to be in Tacoma a day earlier for a planning session with their staff at the tasting room and their outside sales people. They decided to stay over to host the visitors.

"We had them taste several of our wines," Lois said. "They liked the sweet reds. We shared our Ginkgo Rosé with them, and they liked that and the Late Harvest Syrah."

An order was discussed, but it took a while to work out what the Chinese customers wanted and what they would pay. Paperwork had to go back and forth, and some of it had to be translated.

Finally last week, Mike himself loaded the 212 cases into a shipping container with a forklift. He and Lois were elated. This could be the big break for which they've been hoping and waiting.

"China's a big country," Lois said. "They think they have outlets for our wines."

The Thiedes starting growing wine grapes in 2000, and Mike toyed with wine making while selling most of the grapes. He sold his first wine in 2007.

Since then the Thiedes have been making more wine than they sell, including 36 that have won gold or better in competition. The order from China couldn't have come at a better time.

"It was a nice infusion of cash," Lois said. "It's nice when you can get rid of more than a bottle at a time, or a case at a time."