Idaho Grape-Growing Heaven

Location, Location, Location: Williamson Wine at Sunny Slope

The Year of Drinking Locally: Fruit Forward by Alan Minskoff
When Roger and John Williamson, who run Williamson Orchards and Vineyards, gather their broods for a group photo at their Sunny Slope orchard, vineyard or fruit stand, it takes a wide-angle lens. For this picture includes three generations of fruit growers, farmers, cider producers and in the last decade one of Idaho’s premier grape growers. Their award-winning wines begin with their south-facing, gently sloped vineyards. If it all starts in the vineyards, as many wine lovers and vintners claim, then the Williamson vines and trees have a legitimate claim to one of the best locations for growing grapes—not to forget apricots, peaches, apples, cherries and plums—anywhere in the 43rd state.

The Williamsons have been growing, packing and selling fruit for decades. Locals swear by their apple cider, which is entirely derived from Criterion apples; making it keeps this family enterprise busy in the winter months when the fruit stand is closed and the trees and vines are dormant; the wines aging in bottles and barrels.

Western Wine Adventures

Idaho’s Indian Creek: 2008 Winery of the Year

The Year of Drinking Locally by Alan Minskoff

Dubbed the godfather of Idaho wine industry, Bill Stowe, the founder and longtime winemaker at Indian Creek, has influenced some of the state’s most significant vintners and grape growers. Brad Pintler, longtime winemaker at his own winery and subsequently at Sawtooth, and Greg Koenig, who creates his own wines and is the winemaker for 3 Horse and Williamson, both worked at Indian Creek.

An Idaho native and Air Force veteran, Stowe traces his interest in grape growing and wine making to a stint in Germany. There he learned about the art of creating handcrafted wines while in the service. He even worked a couple of crushes and the seeds were sown for his passionate pursuit of making wines in his home state.

In the 80s Bill and his wife Mui bought more than 20 acres in Kuna while he was stationed at Mountain Home Air Force Base. As the story goes, he drove the same red International Harvester tractor that he still rides up from Mountain Home to his vineyard near Indian Creek. That was a quarter of a century ago.

A two-writer blog about local wine

Homeless Winemakers Pitch Tent Together

The Year of Drinking Locally by Alan Minskoff
Don’t let the name fool you; the only thing pink about The Urban Winemakers Cooperative in Garden City are the Rosés they handcraft on the premises. Here in a utilitarian warehouse, wines from Cinder, Syringa and soon-to-be-released Vail are blended, gestated, aged, sampled and sold. In December 2007 Cinder’s Melanie Krause spearheaded this group of three homeless winemakers to join together and share space and equipment costs; they did their first crush in the fall of 2008.

Melanie Krause, co-owner with her husband Joe Schnerr, makes Cinder’s wines. A Boise native, she studied biology at Washington State, speaks Spanish (“which helps in the vineyards”), taught English in China and, most importantly, worked for five years at Chateau Ste. Michelle in Washington where she started in the vineyards and ended up as assistant winemaker at a facility that produced a prodigious 400,000 cases per year.

She wanted to return to Idaho and began scoping out the Idaho vineyards. In 2006 she came home and did some wine consulting and thoroughly studied the local vineyards. She’s committed to local vintners. “I am buying all my grapes in Idaho. I totally believe this area can produce world class wines.” Cinder just released her second vintage of Viognier, Rosé and Syrah. She chooses her Viognier from three different vineyards and uses several winemaking techniques—up to six different yeasts and blends from neutral oak as well as stainless steel barrels.

Western Wine Adventures

Fraser Winery - Boise’s First

Idaho's capital city’s first winery sits in an industrial area not far from Anne Morrison Park in what was once Bill Fraser’s construction office. Often linked with the new wave of Idaho winemakers—Melanie Krause of Cinder, Gina Davis of Davis Creek and Mike Crowley of Syringa—Fraser’s wines may be recent, but he’s been around. Fraser ran a successful construction company for decades.

A wine lover and collector, Fraser had long been interested in growing wine grapes and making wine. In 2003 he found a five-acre site in Canyon County on Homedale Road, at 2700 feet Fraser’s vineyard sits at “the highest point in Canyon County where you can see the Blues, the Owyhees and Bogus”; he planted three of the acres, then built a casita with a patio.

Western Wine Adventures

The Year of Drinking Locally

Frenchman’s Gulch from Alan
Ketchum, Idaho may be best known as the town next to the Sun Valley Resort and the home to Bald Mountain, Idaho’s premier ski hill. But tucked at the end of 9th Street underneath the shadow of Knob Hill, Frenchman’s Gulch Winery and Tasting Room – elevation 5,750 feet—occupies a site that defines high altitude wine making.

On a bright winter day, few places can compare to the intimate tasting room in this picturesque stone and wood building with oak barrel hoist affixed to the gable.

Here Paul Hosefros, my wife Royanne and I sampled their award-winning 2005 Cuvée, a Merlot, Syrah, Cabernet Sauvignon, all 2005 vintage, and the 2006 Chardonnay. After each pour, we clinked glasses, swirled, sipped and swallowed. In the open courtyard we watched skiers corkscrew their runs down Baldy.