Barrister Winery [June 2021]

Anyone who truly knows me or has ridden with me in the car, knows how dependent I am on my GPS. If you look up “directionally challenged” in the dictionary, there is probably a photo of me!! Haha!! As dependent as I am… GPS sometimes steers me wrong, it is not always 100% accurate, you know!? That is the case on this particular day. I feel like because the winery was in an alley [which I didn’t know prior to going, even though the address was Railroad Alley!!] it was hard for GPS to get me there.

I’m pretty sure I parked close and found it on foot. [GPS walking.. LOL] As you can see in the photo below, it was worth the time it took to find!! Steele agrees!! Haha!! This beautiful 1908 historic brick building is not only the tasting room, it is also Barristers main production facility. When I rounded the corner and saw the gorgeous “urban garden” patio [second photo down] I couldn’t wait to see what the inside looked like!! One of the times I was there, they were setting up for a wedding and it was incredible!! [they still let me sneak in for a tasting!!]

Barrister got its name because it means lawyer in British. Interestingly enough, the winery was started by two lawyers, who also happened to be best friends and drinking buddies. Greg Lipsker and Micheal White, along with their families were taking a holiday in British Columbia back in 1997. I don’t know the entire backstory, but they ended up buying a Zinfandel wine making kit from a local shop. The five gallons they initially made turned into them making fifty more gallons, then they increased their production to about 1 ½ tons of grapes, all in Greg’s garage. After winning a few gold medals for their "garage wine" they decided to become an official winery in 2001.

They took classes at Walla Walla Community College and spoke with a lot of local Vinters. Then in 2004, they bought the three-story warehouse, formerly an auto parts facility. It used to be connected to the railroad by a bridge, allowing new automobiles to be brought in and cleaned before being sold. Obviously, the space was renovated, but what Greg and Micheal didn’t know what housing their barrel room in the basement [which I wish I would have known was there before or I wouldn't asked for a tour!!] would do to provide a unique aspect to their production process.

You see, there are trains traveling through the area on a frequent and regular basis. Who would have even given a thought as to how it may affect the wine being stored below ground!? [certainly not I] The boys had an expert come in and it was verified that with the some 25,000 annually passing trains and the motion that they created was gently vibrating the barrels. This in turn settled the solid particles in the barrels to the bottom, and gave the wine a soft mouthfeel. Barrister Winery is known for this!! Again, who would have thought!? It’s almost as easy as rocking a baby in a cradle!! Haha!!

As Barrister grew, so did their recognition. Earning awards like “Best of Show” and consistently having a 90+ point wine rating by the industry’s leading magazines. [I believe I told you about the wine point system in a previous blog] Barrister Winery opened a second tasting room in 2015. I did not visit that location, but I can’t imagine that it has any more to offer or is any more unique than the alley wine room!! [seen below] I think since it is more centrally located, they wanted to offer their wines to people who were in town sight-seeing, downtown shopper, and theatre goers!!

What do you think of when you hear the word Nectar? I don’t know about you, but it makes me think of honey… which makes me thing about mead. If you remember I wrote a blog about mead [all you mead is love??] Anyway, I’m very careful when looking for wine rooms as I wasn’t a huge fan of the mead. When I came across next week’s stop: Nectar Wine, I was pretty hesitant. If you want to know what I found, then come on back next week and Wine with Wixy will have a "tell all" HA!!

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