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Volcano Winery

Volcano Winery

Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Aloha! Wine tasting in Paradise is just a sip away at Volcano Winery. We’ve been creating unique wine and fruit blends on the southern slope of Mauna Loa Volcano on the Big Island since 1986, making us the United States’ southernmost winery.

We gather local tropical fruits like the yellow guava and the jaboticaba berry and blend them with traditional wine grapes to create local wines inspired by volcanic fire and the bounty of the island. Our location near the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park lets us make vibrant wine that captures the playful spirit of Hawaiian paradise — and our relaxed, laid-back atmosphere.

In fact, our fruit -blended wines were so unique that the federal government (BATF) had to come up with new category designations to classify them!

We’ve seen many changes in our 25+ years, but the commitment to produce special, award-winning wines made with Aloha has always remained in our hearts.

If you plan on visiting the winery, you can enjoy a tasting with one of our fun and knowledgeable staff members and even drink wine by the glass out in the picnic area. Come relax and sip into “Hawaiian time.”

We’re open every day except for Christmas, from 10 to 5:30. Aloha!

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Tieton Cider Works

Tieton Cider Works

Monday, April 2, 2012

The fruit that is used in Tieton Cider Works Cider comes from Craig and Sharon Campbell’s Harmony Orchards. This land has been in our family since the 1920s, when our grandfather homesteaded it here in Tieton, Washington. It has been farmed organically for the last 25 years by an appreciative grandson.

The orchard is perched above the confluence of the Tieton and Naches rivers at an elevation of 2000 feet, considered high for a growing region in Washington State, giving us the advantage of growing our fruit at slightly cooler temperatures. The long sunny days, cool nights and fertile soils craft exceptionally great tasting apples, pears, cherries and apricots.

As a third-generation Yakima Valley farmer with a degree in horticulture from Washington State University and 33 years’ experience in marketing produce, Craig has always been curious about the back-story: the history, production, science, and industry of food. From his unique vantage point, he has studied what consumers are looking for in an apple. Growing new varieties of trees is truly what makes Craig happy.

Ten years ago he started looking for niche apple varieties that weren’t being overproduced in the commercial market. As a result, land that was once predominantly planted with Red and Golden Delicious now has blocks of Ambrosia, Honey Crisp, Jonagold and Pinova Apples. Four years ago Craig started planting cider apples, those gnarly, inedible wild apple varieties needed to make great cider. We now have one of the larger acreages of cider apples and Perry pears in the state.

A love of land, food and drink has inspired us to make cider with the fruit we are growing at our ranch, Harmony Orchards.  We know the ciders we make are an expression of the harvest and reflective of the fruit and the place that it is grown.

We are excited to present these ciders to you. They are a blend of our own organically grown dessert apples and full-bodied traditional cider apples. Most of all we are thrilled to be involved in reinterpreting the tradition of cider making.

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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.

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