Walla Walla '09 Holiday Barrel Tasting
I could listen to Gilles Nicault ,winemaker at Long Shadows, talk about wine all day.
I had the pleasure of meeting with Winemaker Gilles Nicault at Long Shadows in Walla Walla during the annual Walla Walla Holiday Barrel Tasting. Gilles is the winemaker for the Chester-Kidder label, and he's very passionate (a word that's highly overused in the industry, but applies to Gilles) about his wine making. This wine is really really good.
Giles enthusiasm was evident as he talked about the Chester-Kidder wine we were tasting at the Holiday Barrel Tasting event. He made the experience very memorable.
Dane Narbaitz, president of Long Shadows, talks about the vision of Allen Shoup, formerly at the helm of the Stimson Lane wine group. For years he had envisioned a joint venture with highly acclaimed wine makers from different regions of the world. His goal was to bring their expertise to Washington to create some of the finest wines ever crafted from the region’s fabled viniferous grapes.
The wineries of Long Shadows include Chester-Kidder, Feather, Pirouette, Pedestal, Poet's Leap, Saggi, and Sequel. OK, back to Gilles — he took us through a vertical tasting of the Chester Kidder, and if my memory serves me right, it was from '04 to '07 (that was still in the barrel). The combination of his expertise and French accent made him very easy to listen to. Gilles is also the resident winemaker, overseeing all of the vineyards and production.
