Sagebreaker wines are named after George Smith, who broke sagebrush from the ground in the Horse Heaven Hills a century ago. Today, his descendants – the Andrews family – carry that legacy forward at Andrews Family Vineyards, with groundbreaking Sagebreaker and Trothe wines. As winemaker of the impressive team, Ray McKee crafted these three noteworthy Sagebreaker wines. These wines show the same structure and finesse as Trothe’s luxury lineup, but feature more integrated oak. In a recent chat, Ray told us that he lovingly makes Sagebreaker like Trothe. However, he described Sagebreaker as “wines of yumminess meant to be enjoyed by anyone and everyone with food anytime. Sagebreaker helps people light up their mouths and progress on their wine journey.” Read on for details.
Category Archives: Roussanne
Hard Row
A visit to Lake Chelan AVA in north-central Washington isn’t complete without a stop at Hard Row to Hoe Vineyards. Our recent trip was no exception. We spent a couple of wonderful hours with owner/founding winemaker Judy Phelps and tasted their current, standout releases. This time, we didn’t see Judy’s husband, co-owner and vineyard manager, Don Phelps, or her managing partner/head winemaker son, Julian Shaver, who were both understandably immersed in Harvest. However, we met hard-working, genial assistant winemaker Clint Hepper, and friendly and knowledgeable hostess, Jasmine Shattuck.
Swirl Around BC 2024
In September, we had the pleasure of attending Swirl Around BC 2024 Wine Expo, an event in Vancouver held by Wines of British Columbia to celebrate BC wine. Forty-five wineries participated, and the two of us managed to share small pours from 15 of them. BC wine is indeed worth celebrating. In addition, several winemakers told us the good news that they are working with Washington state vineyards in the Horse Heaven Hills and Wahluke Slope AVAs to source their fruit, following an unprecedented BC crop shortage due to the area’s deep freeze earlier this year. Continue reading
Walla Walla Wine On Tour
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f you can’t make it to Walla Walla, the next best thing is to go to “Walla Walla Wine on Tour.” We drove to Seattle to do just that, and it was a perfect opportunity to celebrate stellar Walla Walla wine. We visited winemakers we’ve known for a while, like Trey Busch at Sleight of Hand Cellars and Joe Czarny at Canvasback, and said hello again to Emily Kiefer, the hospitality goddess at Caprio Cellars. In addition, we met some others for the first time – Doug Frost of Echolands, Tim Lenihan of Dossier, and Kelsey Albro Itämeri from itä wines. We tasted impressive new vintages of old favorites and enjoyed amazing wines that are new to us. Cheers to Walla Walla wine! And happy 40th anniversary to the AVA!