{"id":306,"date":"2008-08-24T09:48:41","date_gmt":"2008-08-24T16:48:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/danthewineguy.com\/?p=306"},"modified":"2009-02-21T22:55:46","modified_gmt":"2009-02-22T05:55:46","slug":"smaller-boutique-wineries-find-their-niche-in-washington-state","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.danthewineguy.com\/?p=306","title":{"rendered":"Boutique Wineries Finding Their Niche in Washington State"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The term \u201cboutique winery\u201d gets tossed around a lot these days, and it\u2019s nice, almost fashionable designation that smaller, startup wineries like to use. The irony behind this is that most state wine commissions have no hard and fast rules as to what defines a boutique winery, so no one can really say what should or shouldn\u2019t fall into this category.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.fotosearch.com\/bthumb\/BDX\/BDX002\/bxp210989.jpg\" alt=\"null\" \/>Based my experience, I\u2019ve come up with my own guidelines for what I consider to be a boutique winery. They include the following:<br \/>\n\uf0a7\tTotal production is relatively small \u2013 usually fewer than 1,000 cases a year.<br \/>\n\uf0a7\tVineyard ownership, if any, is just a few acres. Grapes used in making the wines are nearly always purchased from outside vineyards.<br \/>\n\uf0a7\tThe winemaker and owner are one in the same, with lots of support from spouses, parents, and other family members.<br \/>\n\uf0a7\tThe wines are self-distributed, making them a bit difficult to find in smaller markets like the greater Bellingham area. (Note, however, that nearly all wineries have a web site where wines can be ordered online for home delivery.)<br \/>\n\uf0a7\tIn the friendly competition of winemaking, the boutique winery\u2019s best promotional tool is frequently a recommendation from another winery.<br \/>\n\uf0a7\tWhen you call the number listed for the winery, chances are it\u2019s the cell phone of the winemaker, who will often enthusiastically meet with you on short notice.<\/p>\n<p>Washington has scores of wineries that include themselves in the boutique category and many of them are turning out some really nice wines.  They have to, because their numbers continue to explode, which makes finding a niche among the State\u2019s 500+ wineries a bit of a daunting task.<\/p>\n<p>Since many of these wineries have been around for five years or less, developing consistency from vintage to vintage can be an early challenge; even for the state\u2019s talented pool of new winemakers. But as time passes, they gain experience, make adjustments and improve quality, assuring a home for boutique wineries \u2013 regardless of definition \u2013 in the future marketplace.<\/p>\n<p>Next week I\u2019ll feature a couple of boutique wineries from Walla Walla.<!--fa4981bc50f17bb68581b181d461a191--><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The term \u201cboutique winery\u201d gets tossed around a lot these days, and it\u2019s nice, almost fashionable designation that smaller, startup wineries like to use. The irony behind this is that most state wine commissions have no hard and fast rules as to what defines a boutique winery, so no one can really say what should [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-306","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-from-the-bellingham-herald"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.danthewineguy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.danthewineguy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.danthewineguy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.danthewineguy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.danthewineguy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=306"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.danthewineguy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.danthewineguy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=306"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.danthewineguy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=306"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.danthewineguy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=306"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}