I had a chance to talk with Gus White of Tempest Sol last weekend. He is also the owner of White Cellars up in Sammamish which makes hand crafted wines in small batches. His newest venture, Tempest Sol, will be on a bigger scale with about 2,000 cases a year. He will focus on Cabs, Syrah, and red blends. Gus started off making wine with some friends with about 150 pounds of Red Willow Syrah about 8 years ago and went on from there. White Cellars has been around about 3 years.
I had the chance to taste a few of the White Cellar wines. The first taste was of a white Merlot. Very interesting flavor, slightly sweet but without the tannins you would expect from a Merlot. I then moved onto the 2007 The Brick, a Yakima Valley Syrah, rich and full bodied with tannins. The last wine was the 2007 Lucid which is a Syrah with 10% Aglianico which gave it a bit more acidity. Trying the Lucid allows me to mark off Aglianico off on my Wine Century list! White Cellars is the first Washington winery to bottle a single varietal of Aglianico.
Gus also mentioned starting up a distillery. He will be making whiskey, brandy, and grape vodka.
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Patty Concannon 02.11.10 at 9:20 pm
The Aglianico is probably my most favorite of all of Gus’ wines. It’s great news that he is in the Woodinville Wine district. I am so looking forward to his latest creations!