Posts from

The Florida Winery

The Florida Winery

Tuesday, February 12, 2013

It won’t take long for you to realize that we do things a little bit differently around here. We refuse to accept that wine must taste of grass, tobacco, or dirt. Around here we like our wine like we like our women and ice tea…sweet! We don’t mess around when it comes to wine either, just check out the over 50 awards and medals we’ve won in our first four years!

All talk and no walk you say? Well pony up to our tasting bar and we will let our stunning selection of highly enjoyable libations walk all over your taste buds. Relish in pure unadulterated pleasure without worrying about how your swirling the glass. Sit back, Sip, Enjoy, Relax, Repeat…responsibly of course.

The winery is where the magic happens. All of our wines are made right here in house, just steps from the beach, where you’ll find the most unique winery on earth. Beach real estate isn’t cheap, s0 we squeeze a lot of wine out of a small space: about 900 square feet! We use three 2,000-liter jacket fermentation tanks and nine 2,000-liter racking and aging tanks. Filtering is handled by our 40-plate plate & frame filter, and all the bottling is done by hand right in the front window.

It’s not a lot of room, but it’s enough for us to create the most amazing libations known to man.

Categories:

Latah Creek Wine Cellars

Latah Creek Wine Cellars

Thursday, September 22, 2011

Mike Conway — with over 34 years of winery experience — and his wife Ellena, pair to run one of the most successful small wineries in this relatively new viticultural region in the northeast corner of Washington state. Latah Creek Wine Cellars, established in 1982 in Spokane, is one of only a few family-owned and operated wineries in Washington.

While Mike assumes the management, winemaking and vineyard tasks, Ellena takes on the accounting, fiscal, tasting room, and gift shop. In 2005, their daughter Natalie joined the family business as an assistant winemaker.

Over the past 25 years, the winery has taken hundreds of awards in local, national, and international competitions and has had numerous wines featured in Wine Spectator‘s “Annual Top 100 Selections” as well as Wine Enthusiast‘s “Annual Top 100 Selections,” often with an added note of “Best Buy.”  Latah Creek, heralded by Wine Spectator as one of the top producers of Merlot in the state of Washington.

Mike started his career as a microbiology technician for the largest winery in the United States, E&J Gallo and the nearby Franzia Brothers Winery. After spending three years as an assistant winemaker with the Parducci winery in Northern California, Mike moved to Washington to start Latah Creek and The Hogue — joint ventures with grape grower Hogue and winemaker Conway. After two years, the two operations were separated so full attention could be given to Mike and Ellena’s own winery: Latah Creek.

The winery produces about 17,000 cases annually. Roughly 10 percent of that total consists of red wines while another 10 percent is devoted exclusively to Chardonnay. Sixty percent is comprised of their two most popular varieties: Riesling and Huckleberry d’Latah. The remaining 20 percent includes smaller lots of Muscat Canelli, Moscato d’Latah, and proprietary blends of Maywine, Spokane Blush and their newest wine, Natalie’s Nectar.

Categories: