My journey in wine began as a Los Angeles attorney who spent way too much time learning from all of you on the Wine Berserkers boards. Eventually I took my hobby a bit too far and quit my job to return to school to study enology in my wife Kelly’s home state of Washington. I spent time working in Woodinville at wineries such as Savage Grace, Efeste and Darby before moving to Walla Walla for a job as Cellar Master at Dunham Cellars. We weren’t in Walla Walla long before we found a distressed winery property that was listed for auction. After nonchalantly putting in what we thought was not a very competitive bid we were surprised to suddenly find ourselves the owners of a small vineyard.
Grosgrain is a textile pattern that is ribbed and reminiscent of vineyard rows. We chose that name for our winery as a nod to my wife’s background in fashion design and she has brought her design talent to our labels and tasting room, as well as the vacation rental that is located at our vineyard and winery on the Southside of Walla Walla (come stay with us sometime!)
Our focus at Grosgrain is on fresh, light and elegant styles. Typically we are seeking less ripeness, more natural acidity and less overt oak, aging primarily in concrete eggs, clay amphora or neutral oak. We are also working with some less common varieties in Washington such as Albariño, Sémillon, Lemberger, Nebbiolo, Aglianico, Carignan and Grenache, while employing a lighter touch with more common varieties like Syrah and Cabernet Sauvignon. Sparkling wine is a major part of our production, and we are planting some of the Cava varieties from Spain (Xarel-lo and Macabeo) this year for future sparkling production. In the interim we are making both méthode champenoise and pétillant naturel from a variety of grapes.
We are currently developing about 20 acres of plantings on our two sustainably farmed estate properties (a second property at high elevation in the Sevein vineyard development adjacent to Leonetti and Doubleback was added last year) and within a few years we will be mostly estate sourced. You can expect many interesting things to come from us in the future. Check out our website for more info: grosgrainvineyards.com