Jackson Hole Winery [July 2003]

This is going to be another special week for me since Jackson Hole Winery is currently one of my absolute most favorite wineries!! I honestly do not know how I did not know about this place last summer or maybe I did know but it was a little bit of a drive, so I put if off, but that was a big mistake on my part!! I will say that it is not a place I frequent weekly because of the distance, and maybe that is a good thing for my wallet… LOL!! [since they are a little more on the pricey side] However, I have joined the wine club [two photos down] because in my opinion if you love every single wine you taste it only makes sense!! Plus, they work with me and let me do my pickups when we get in at the beginning of the summer then again before we head back to Phoenix.

I have so much to say about this winery, but first let me introduce you to my sweet, beautiful, fellow travel nurse friend, Scout Hathaway. We met while we were both on assignment at Valleywise in downtown Phoenix several years ago. If you remember this is also where I met my very good travel friend, Sherri. [whom you should know by now!!] She and Scout were there at different times so have never met each other... blows the mind right!? Anyways, I don’t think I need to tell you that Scout and I hit it off right away. Oddly enough, we didn’t hang out very often until she moved back to Montana. We get together a couple times a summer since she use to work in Jackson Hole and we have visited several of the wineries tasting rooms. She is now an ENT, NP and has moved to Billings, but we still meet up at least once over the summer!!

Jackson Hole Winery, named after the valley in which it is situated, was founded by Anthony [my favorite name, if you didn’t know.. LOL] Schroth and his family in 2009. Now the valley is named after and early 19^th century mountain man and fur trapper by the name of David Edward “Davy” Jackson. The “Hole” part refers to the broad, flat area that is the valley and is surrounded by steep [gorgeous] mountains. Anthony grew up in Jackson Hole and after graduating high school his parents, Bob and Linda encouraged him to take the baseball scholarship he was offered for Sonoma State University to study business. Anthony sustained a shoulder injury that would end his baseball career… so now what!? Long story short, he ended up taking the only class available in order to get the credits he needed to graduate, and it changed his life!!

It was a Wine Class... Anthony never thought about wine as being a career opportunity for him before, but he started to intern at a small family winery in Napa. After seeing the layout of the Napa winery, it reminded him of his family’s 17-acre homestead in Jackson Hole. It used to be a dairy farm, but he started to see the possibilities, and wrote up a business plan to convince his parents. He purchased the necessary equipment and made plans to renovate the 100-year-old barn into a tasting room. The property sits right outside of Jackson Hole with an elevation of 6,220 feet and sits along Spring Creek. He realized that with the unpredictable and often late snowfall that he would have to source his grapes from somewhere else. He and his mom rented a budget truck, filled the floor with dry ice pellets and drove the 17-20 hours trip overnight so they could de-stem and crush the grapes for fermentation.  

Ok, so maybe Anthony cannot grow his own grapes at the Jackson Hole Winery, but he discovered some unexpected benefits to fermenting wine grapes at over 6000 feet. “There is 18% less oxygen at this high elevation and the climate is cooler,” he reported, “so the grapes ferment slower, allowing more juice to skin contact. In California fermentation takes 2-3 weeks, but in Wyoming it can take 3 to 4 weeks.” This allows for more integration of flavors and higher quality wine. “We also use less energy in our barrel room because it is naturally cool most of the year.” Today Jackson Hole Winery produces 48,00 bottles or around 4,000 cases of wine per year and they are one of only a handful of wineries fermenting at such a high elevation. This could be why all of their wines are so delicious!!

Unfortunately, there were issues with the tasting room on the homestead in the barn, something about residential zoning. They have moved around a little, opening a tasting room on a side street in Jackson Hole Town Square and another at Teton Village. Then they moved into an upstairs spot on the main street on the square. [photos above] They do still have special events and fundraisers at the homestead, so when they were featuring the life-size bronze sculpture of Grizzly 399 on its route to the Wildlife Museum and offering wine and small bites with the artist Jocelyn Russell… well, let’s just say the picture above is worth a thousand words!!

I have so many more memories and photos involving the Jackson Hole Winery, but our time this week has come to an end. Next week’s blog with help you to unleash your wild inner animal [maybe a grizzly!? LOL] as Wine with Wixy will be visiting a tasting room called Unleashed Winery … Hahaha!! P.S. I am drinking one of my favorite Jackson Hole winery Pinots as I’m writing this..,

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