Check in to see what we've been up to at 3100 Cellars as we work to bring delicious sparkling Idaho wines to your table. Whether it's a picture, or an article that is about 3100, or maybe just about the Idaho wine industry in general, this is the page to come to when you're needing an update on what's going on in our cellar.
"After a long and heavy winter wrecked much of southwest Idaho’s 2017 grape harvest, local vineyards and wineries alike are excited to see that this year’s harvest is on the upswing." We love seeing Idaho wine being mentioned in local press, and adore hearing about it on the radio! Check out this quick story from Boise State Public Radio about our 2018 harvest.
For the full article and to listen to this story, click here.
We had a lovely visit from Lenn Thompson at the beginning of the harvest season this year. He was visiting from the East Coast and we had a great time getting to know him. We really hope we get a chance to get on the river with him during his next visit to Idaho, we're glad to hear he liked it so much he'll be back!
To read his full article about his visit and the Idaho wines he loved, click here.
We had a lovely visit from Lenn Thompson at the beginning of the harvest season this year. He was visiting from the East Coast and we had a great time getting to know him. We really hope we get a chance to get on the river with him during his next visit to Idaho, we're glad to hear he liked it so much he'll be back!
To read his full article about his visit and the Idaho wines he loved, click here.
"When you think of Idaho, you might think of outdoor adventures and potatoes. But, wine? Believe it or not, the young, small, yet mighty and quickly growing wine community is producing some pretty fantastic wines." Ari Bendersky writes a great little review of many of our neighbors in this article.
For the full article, click here.
While our wines aren't featured in this article, Birichino's sparkling Malvasia is! We have tried this wine, and some of the others on the list, and think they are delicious! But the reason we are highlighting Birichino's Malvasia is because we hope to be making a sparkling Malvasia in years to come. If you can get your hands on some of it, please do, it's worth it!
To read the full Bloomberg article, click here.
We poured at our first Savor Idaho this summer! It was so much fun seeing so many familiar faces, and getting to meet so many new Idaho wine lovers. Next year is going to be a blast too!
Eric Degerman, from Great Northwest Wine came over to Boise to write about the event and check out all the new happenings in the Idaho industry. You can read his full story about the event here.
The Idaho Matters team talked to the Idaho Wine Commission about the explosive growth of vineyards and wineries in the Snake River Valley.
The Idaho wine industry is catching more attention from local, regional, and national outlets. Our own 6 On Your Side team featured a story about Savor Idaho, the Idaho Wine Commissions big event that showcases Idaho wines to people that attend the event. To watch the story from 6 On Your Side, click here.
Oraganoleptic is a word we heard a lot at the 2018 Sparkling Symposium. The event was hosted at the Northwest Wine Studies Center in Salem, OR, where we spent a day learning from a slew of speakers and panels about how to make better sparkling wine. As that word, oraganoleptic, kept being thrown around by speakers and panels, we were in the back googling away (thank goodness for smart phones). It's really a cool word, so let us explain it a little:
Organoleptic - involving use of the sense organs; being, affecting, or relating to qualities of a substance that stimulate the sense organs, i.e. taste, smell, color, feel.
The way the speakers were using the word, we also understand organoleptic to be a non-exact way to measure certain things, especially that pertain to an individuals experience and explanation about a sensory experience.
Try to use it in conversation this week, organoleptic!
The Party Details:
What - Spring Release Party!
When - May 19th, 4-6pm
Where - where we make the wine, at Telaya Wine Co.
We were named the 2018 Idaho Winery to Watch by Great Northwest Wine and Wine Press Northwest. The article that Eric Degerman wrote encompasses so much of our lives and includes so much information that there is no way we can start to paraphrase it here. We hope you take the time to read it and learn a little more about what we are doing
According to the recent history, our growing season "started warm, got wet and cold quickly, and then settled into a mostly mild pattern."
Nicole Foy writes a great perspective on the Idaho wine beat, especially focusing on the harsh winter of 2016-2017 that severely depleted the Idaho grape crop at harvest of 2017.
To read the full story, click here.
There is a lot of biology, chemistry, anthropology, history, anecdotes, and apparently physics in each bottle of wine. The physics become much more exciting with sparkling wine, because of all that pressure built up in the bottle. Helen Czerski did a great job explaining some of the basics of those physics in an article at the end of last year in the Wall Street Journal.
Sometimes learning more about the process of making wine (or anything for that matter) can be somewhat overwhelming and not add to the beauty of enjoying that wine (or whatever it might be); but Helen explains the physics behind opening a bottle of bubbles, and some of the interesting things that happen in the milliseconds after a cork is popped. Your friends might never believe you when you tell them that the temperature drops to -94F around the neck of the bottle when you first open it, but you'll know you're right and have Helen's experiments to back you up along the way. She makes learning about the physics of a bottle of bubbles a joy, so let's keep on learning about all the interesting things that happen with a bottle of bubbles.
To read the full article, please visit the link here.
Ronald Holden recently visited Idaho and tasted some of our outstanding wines as well as got to attend the grand opening of Sawtooth Winery's new tasting room... We hope he comes back to visit again soon, and maybe even stops in to try some of our bubbles when he does!
The Idaho wine industry is truly an amazing community. Right now there are over 50 wineries, and about 1300 acres of vineyard planted. That means we have the opportunity to know almost everyone in the industry, and it is a wide range of people! There are some formal education backgrounds in winemaking that have come to (or boomeranged back) to the Gem State, and some people that fell into the wine industry in Idaho... Our Idaho Wine Commission worked with some local people and took a pulse on what people love about the industry, and something they heard over, and over again was how welcoming it is regardless of prior wine knowledge. Here is a video that shows the diversity and open arms of the industry...
We still have some cases of 2015 Runoff Rosé left! And what better wine to take home to your sweetheart, the day of, or before, or even after St. Valentine's day!
Fun fact from Hailey - did you know the supposed reason we send love notes on this Saint's day is because...
Last week Hailey went to Unified, Grape and Wine Symposium, and spent some time researching new techniques, new equipment, and connecting with friends from across the industry...
DATE - November 11, 2017
WINE RELEASED - 2015 Runoff Rosé
The highlight of this party - We have already outgrown our party space! We'll have to think about where to have our spring release party, because we need a little more wiggle room. We also learned that lots of you enjoyed watching Marshall saber a bottle open, so I think that will be part of our releases moving forward...
We bottled the 2017 vintage on December 16th (the rosé) and 17th (the Chardonnay). It is a pretty simple, but labor intensive process. Here it is broken into steps, as well as I can explain them:
We had the opportunity to head over to Oregon State's Fermentation Science Department in December and take a Sparkling Wine Sensory Seminar. It was fantastic! On Saturday we spent the day in a classroom on campus, learning about the different processes of making sparkling wine as well as the different flavor profiles typically associated with specific sparkling wine styles. Oh and tasting a bunch of sparkling wines!
Happy New Year Dear Friends and Family!
We are so excited for 2018! 2017 was such an exciting year for us,first off, we started to share our wines with the you! It was such a great experience hearing what everyone thought of our 2014 Whitewater and 2015 Runoff Rosé and what foods to try it with, and even why some of the bottles were opened to celebrate. Now that we've had two releases, and learned a lot at both of them, there are so many things we are already looking forward to in 2018...
3100 Cellars returned to where it all started: Boundary Creek on the Middle Fork of the Salmon River, where Hailey and Marshall met.
We are so excited to (finally) share our 2014 Whitewater with you. It's been almost 3 years in the making, and it is completely worth it. On July 24th we hosted a little get together to share the wine and spend some time with you, the people that have supported us to this point.
Hailey recently had the opportunity to sit down with Michelle Leonardson and her podcast "Where The Wine Is" on two different occasions. The first discussion detailed getting started in the industry while the second focused on 3100 Cellars and the Idaho Wine industry. Both of these podcasts are available for streaming here: Episode 12 3100 Cellars and Idaho Wines, Episode 7 Career in Wine
Wow! We're so excited to be mentioned in such good company. We have not released any wine yet, but we are hoping to disgorge and release in the next few months... keep visiting our website for up to date details!
What a great blurb about 3100 Cellars from Mike Dunne at the The Sacramento Bee. We were lucky enough to meet him when he was up in Idaho this fall, and are excited to share some of our wines with him the next time he comes up!
Can’t wait to share our wines with everyone, especially the hardcore supporters like Eric Degerman who has been interested and sharing our story since day one.