Abbe Vineyards

Isn’t serendipity a beautiful thing!? I actually feel like I have a lot of serendipity in my life. [plus I just like saying the word… serendipity!! Hahaha] I don’t know if any of you have ever heard of The Joint Chiropractic, but Shawn and I use this service regularly. They have offices all over the country, and on this day we were heading to a location we found in Federal Way, WA. [much closer then Tacoma, where we use to go] When we were making one of the turns somewhere along the way, I just so happened to see a sign for Abbe Vineyards!! [now that's… serendipity!!] Who am I to question chance!?

Anyways, I was able to convince Shawn to stop by on the way home. The gates were closed at the driveway indicating that they were not open. [frowny face] Do not fret, I went back on my next day off!! I drove up the beautiful drive that wound through the vineyard up to a parking lot and an old looking barn. They had the walkways well marked to take you up to the tasting room and gorgeous patio. I walked up through more vines [seen below] and was greeted by an energetic brown lab. The rest of the tasting room was deserted. I looked around a little and talked to the doggie, but it wasn’t long until I met the sommelier, Dainis.

Dainis Svarcs is not only the wineries sommelier, but he is also the winemaker. He partnered with Vilnis Kleper [a retired civil engineer] and his wife Guna, [a retired pharmacist] when they founded the winery back in 2009. They planted their first grapes on about three acres, and decided this winery would be their retirement venture. “One grape, one vine, one acre at a time.” Abbe Vinyard and Winery is tucked away from the hustle and noise of city life. They are also the first winery in the city of Federal Way, but not without a few hiccups along the way. Permits!! Ugh!! [I’ll get to that in a sec]

Believing that “to truly have a good crop (for producing wine), it would take five years,” Dainis and the Kepler’s diligently kept watch over their vines. You see, Abbe Vineyards is a little different than other small wineries. They grow, [even though the local winemakers said it was too difficult to grow grapes in the Puget Sound] harvest, ferment, and bottle all their wines onsite. Things were right on track, with no plans of expanding operations but… they wanted to add a small tasting room. This is when they ran into their first obstacle.. Federal Way’s zoning and code regulations would not allow for this type of business to be conducted within city limits. [Grrrrr...]

The partners [Vilnis and Dainis] from Abbe Vineyard went to the Greater Federal Way Chamber of Commerce for help. They spoke to Rebecca Martin, [the Chambers CEO] and she said she didn’t even know there was a winery in Federal Way!! Long story short, she realized the benefits that having a tasting room could bring, so she made some calls. It wasn’t long until the city came up with measures that would solve the permit problems almost immediately; and voila, a small tasting room [seen above] that could accommodate roughly 30 people came to life.

Chardonnay, Cabernet, Merlot, Malbec, Syrah, and Pinot are the wines that make up the tasting menu. [sorry no Riesling] You can tell this is Dainis’ dream job, when you hear the passion in his voice as he tells you about the processes used to create the wine you are tasting. [including no nitrates!!] He claimed you could drink an entire bottle of their red wine and not suffer a headache!! [challenge accepted.. LOL] I really enjoyed my experience here, and the wines. So much in fact, that I organized an outing with my awesome work peeps at St Joe’s in Tacoma to join me for a team building experiment!! The outcome was… total success!! Haha [see below] I may have revisited several other times with several other friends, as well.

Ok.. I told you last week about a glass that can make your wine taste better. The glass is made by Riedel, and Dainis is the one who told me all about it. I do not think I would have believed him, but he actually brought a glass out for me to try. I watched him pour the same wine into two different glasses. One of them was the Riedel glass, the other one of their random tasting glasses. I was totally shocked at the difference in taste.

Riedel claim the difference is the size, shape and rim diameter of the glass. Something to do with aeration, texture, and mouthfeel that just makes it taste better. Others say it’s all in your head, like a placebo effect. All I know is that at the time, it really did taste better in the Riedel glass!! I challenge you to buy Riedel and test the theory yourself!!

Join Wine with Wixy next week as I start a weeklong wine tasting extravaganza with my girl Katie Gordy. [who you’ve met several times] We will be taking Steele to explore more island wineries, one each week over the next month or so!!   

Cheers to you my wine loving friends, and TTFN!!