10/19/07 Winery of the Year

Winery of the Year. I'm Greg Martin with today's Fruit Grower Report. Food & Wine magazine recently announced the winner of their 10th Annual Winery of the Year. Drum roll please..Walla Walla's very own Long Shadows Vintners. Allen Shoup, who has been making quality Washington wines for Chateau Ste. Michelle, established Long Shadows in 2002 and is pleased with the award. SHOUP: The award was voted on by a pretty large panel of wine writers and critics from even outside the magazine itself  it seemed to me that we had managed in a very short time to get that kind of critical mass of awareness that you look for when you're trying to launch a new brand or winery. Long Shadows is a project winery where Shoup has sought out the best of the best to make great tasting wines. SHOUP: What I tried to do with Long Shadows, the uniqueness of Long Shadows is that first of all I brought some of the worlds most famous vintners to Washington with the idea that each of them wouldn't be compensated in any way  they're not consultants. The only way they get paid is if their wines do well because they each have a 25% equity in the actual wine that they're making. Shoup sees the award as another way of helping to educate the rest of the wine world about Washington wines. SHOUP: This country is still not a wine drinking country. We still only consume about 2 ½ to 3 gallons per capita so I think this awareness that we see throughout the country of wine becoming a very important asset to the dining experience is going to continue and grow and so I think that we're very fortunate that the timing is perfect for us. That's today's Fruit Grower Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.