South Sound wines flow in Arizona
Snowbirds headed to Arizona this winter will find a little sip of home to keep them company.
Three South Sound wineries have teamed up with a former Seattle wine shop owner to launch a market for boutique Northwest wines in the Grand Canyon State.
More than 70 of the largest Northwest wineries – such as Chateau Ste. Michelle and Columbia Crest – already have a foothold with Arizona distributors selling in bulk.
But the little guys?
“We would get lost in their book,” said Lloyd Anderson, winemaker and co-owner of Walter Dacon Cellars between Olympia and Shelton.
That fact inspired Dave Woods to start Wanderlust Trading Co. – his distributorship for boutique wine in June. So far he has signed up 42 small wineries including Walter Dacon Cellars, Donedei in Olympia and McCrea Cellars in Rainier.
Woods has a soft spot for the artisans. He opened Seattle Cellars Ltd., an upscale wine shop in Seattle’s Belltown neighborhood in 1996. Back then, he had roughly 200 Washington wineries to sift through. Today, Washington boasts more than 1,000 wineries.
The infiltration of artisan offerings into Arizona marks a continuing, steady growth trend for Washington.
“We’ve targeted the Arizona market as ripe for expansion, so Woods’ timing couldn’t be better,” said Chris Stone, marketing director for the Washington Wine Commission. “We’ve already planned a Washington wine advertising campaign for the region and slated a trade tasting in Phoenix for February.”
You might have still found Woods, 50, operating his Belltown wine shop today if not for a 2006 divorce that forced the sale of the family assets. The tumultuous time turned into a “blessing in disguise,” Woods said.
He traveled in Europe before returning to his home state to live closer to his aging parents. While there, he happened upon Washington snowbirds who used to buy from his wine shop and wondered why they couldn’t find their favorites in Arizona.
In less than four months, Wanderlust has 57 accounts. Woods expects that number to grow to 300 by October. Woods projects $1 million in sales for the first full year.
One of those accounts, Donovan’s Steak House Restaurant in Phoenix, had wanted to beef up its Northwest wine but couldn’t find distributors.
“This is terrific,” said Jennifer Hazard, Donovan’s assistant general manager. “Savvy wine drinkers in our area are increasingly requesting Northwest wines, but we just didn’t have a specialty distributor for the Northwest. With Wanderlust, we not only get Northwest wines, but we know they’re being hand-picked by someone who knows the Northwest wine industry inside and out.”
One of the wineries he knows, Donedei, makes big red Bordeaux-style cabernet sauvignon and merlot. Just 1,000 cases a year with a cult following – if you can describe wine that way. You can usually find Donedei at Tacoma Wine Merchants on Tacoma Avenue near Stadium High School.
Donedei co-owner Carolyn Lakewold said Woods’ call to represent her wines in Arizona came at the right time. The winery bottled its first commercial wine in 1999.
“From my standpoint, being small and very particular and very exclusive about where we place our wines … we needed to have someone like Dave who has such good knowledge of Washington wine,” Lakewold said. “This probably sounds goofy, but I think of our wines as my children, and I want to know where they’re at.”
Yeah, that sounds a little goofy.
“We go back a long way with Dave,” said Susan Neel, co-owner, of McCrea Cellars. “He’s quite honestly put together an astonishing portfolio of Northwest wines in Arizona. It’s an important part of our portfolio.”
McCrea, one of Western Washington’s oldest wineries at 21 years, puts out just 3,500 to 4,000 cases a year.
“Up until now,” Woods said, “so few wines from the region have been in Arizona. It’s really become my goal to turn people on to Northwest wines.”
And serve snowbirds looking for their old favorites