This is a blog post that I’ve been meaning to write for a long time: William Church Winery offers unique wines from wonderful people. Owners Rod and Leslie Balsley live true to their mission, creating limited productions of “wines that are approachable and delicious upon release but will also express themselves well over time.”

We first tasted William Church’s 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon in March 2008, thanks to my nephew Mathew in Vancouver, who was an early fan of William Church wines. I’ve written about these wines frequently — including that 2005 Cab (last September), the delicious 2005 Bishop’s Blend (I just bought a couple more bottles yesterday) and the soon-to-be released 2 Spires (can’t wait!).

Rod and Leslie are as friendly as their wines are indeed approachable. Whenever I visit, we never seem to have enough time to talk about everything they are interested in – the grape, of course; the art of blending; wine education; Woodinville wineries and events; Washington wine; and more recently, the importance of social media to the wine industry.

They recently joined Twitter @wmchurchwinery. And their talented and friendly assistant winemaker, Marcus Rafanelli, also manages their Facebook presence.

And that’s not all! Rod has a great sense of humor and always leaves us laughing – and he’s also intelligent, smart and handsome. (And no, he didn’t pay me to write that, but it was a dare!) And of course, Leslie matches Rod on every one of those attributes!

But the bottom line – I’ve always blogged about how Dave and I favor wineries with three important aspects – awesome wine, great people and fun events. William Church Winery has it all. Keep your eye on their new releases coming out soon!

Cheers!