Today I had the privilege to hang with owner Brian Morton and get a sneak peak of Prosser’s Blue Flame Spirits- Washington’s second commercial craft distillery. The Craft Distillery & Tasting Room (yes, I said tasting room) is located in Prosser’s Food & Wine Park on Lee Road- next door to Hogue Cellars, Alexandria Nicole Cellars, Heaven’s Cave, and just a short walk up from Mercer Estates and Kestrel Winery.
My first trip to Washington wine country was to Apex Cellars’ Winemaker Dinner with Brian Carter in 2001. My wife still remembers the final course… a dense pound cake served with fresh plump blueberries and drizzled with the winemakers Late Harvest Riesling, served with a dollop of lightly sweetened whipped cream. This was the trip that started me thinking about the endless possibilities available for me here in wine country.
First the name and introductions… “DavenLore” is taken from the names of the owner Joan Davenport (Dr. Dirt) and Gordon Taylor. Joan or “Dr. Dirt”- which is how her card reads- has a PhD in Soil Chemistry from the University of Guelph in the mid 80’s in Ontario, Canada. Joan is employed here in Prosser at the WSU Irrigated Agriculture Research & Extension Center and has been since early 1997. The two meet while Gordon was working up at U of Guelph after receiving his Ag Degree.
Being a Chef here in the Yakima Valley we get to meet some great people who are doing some really cool things. A couple of friends of mine who are doing just such a thing are Eric Leber, Ph.D. and Lori Ramonas, Ph.D. In early 2000 while a professor at Heritage University in Toppenish Leber challenged his students to come up with productive ways to utilize the waste of the growing wine industry. Many ideas were hatched with this project. One idea squeezed from the rest of the students in particular was to later become a business endeavor for these two semi-retired Ph.D.s called Après Vin- which is French for “After the Wine”. What Après Vin does is produce some incredible, healthy products from the waste produced after the grape has done its original job. Grape seed oil, produced by varietal, goes through a slightly complicated process; the grape seeds are collected from some the area’s finest wineries, kept separated by varietal, dried and later cold pressed with some of the finest imported oil presses in the world. “It takes 3,000 lbs of grapes (enough for 300 gallons of wine) to yield the 75 lbs of dried seeds needed to make a single gallon of grape-seed oil.”- Apres Vin
Have you ever wanted to ask a chef “How did you do that, you make it look so easy?” Or “Would you mind showing me that trick?” Well let me tell you about the place where you can ask just such a question or two, try some great wine and even taste some incredible food. At a Cooking Class/Chef Demonstration which seem to be happening all over the place.
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