My Page: Alan Minskoff
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.
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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.
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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.
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