- "Washington Grown" is made possible by funding from the Washington State Department of Agriculture and the USDA Specialty Crop Block Grant Program, and by the potato farmers of Washington.

Learn why Washington is home to the world's most productive potato fields and farmers by visiting potatoes.com.

- Hi everyone, I'm Kristi Gorenson, and welcome to "Washington Grown."

Wineries and vineyards all over the state are going to great lengths to make good wine and make sure that their growing practices are good for the planet.

In this episode, we learn all about Sustainable WA.

I'm visiting Seven Hills Vineyard to learn about the Sustainable WA program.

- I think that being Sustainable WA shows consumers and the public that we really care about our people in Washington and our land in Washington.

- And I'm making a special roasted carrot dish at Latah Bistro in Spokane.

- That's pretty good.

- Yeah, pretty good.

I love it when chefs are surprised.

Ah, it's not bad.

Then Tomás is at Sagemoor Vineyards meeting Miguel the man, a vineyard manager with a special award.

- If I had my name on a wine bottle, I'd feel pretty special too.

- Yeah, I feel special.

- All this and more today on "Washington Grown."

[upbeat music] - It's a flavor-cation for your mouth.

- Flavor-cation.

- I'm just gonna hold on.

[pilot laughs] - You got a long ways to go, let's go.

- Okay sorry.

I know, get with it.

- You were not kidding about a party of flavors.

Wait a minute, where are all my pears?

- Eat two, pick one.

- Exactly.

- I'm gonna stick around a while.

- We're changing hearts tonight.

- Yes, we are.

- Wow, I got work to do.

- Yeah, you do.

- All right, let's go.

[gentle music] - Looking for great food with the vibes to match?

Then come on down to Latah Bistro here in Spokane.

With a lush patio full of flowers and a romantic and cozy interior, this place is the perfect spot for a relaxing lunch, a night out with friends, or a date night over a tall glass of wine.

- Like this is a place I wanna bring my friends.

This is a place I just wanna hang out and chill.

- Just very charming and kind of a little cozy spot.

- Spokane's best secret.

- What do people say when they come here for the first time?

- I didn't know you were here.

This is a little secret gem hidden away.

- Owner Susan Shelby has worked tirelessly to make Latah Bistro a destination spot for Spokane.

Alongside her team in the kitchen, they're using Washington's bountiful fresh food to take things up a notch.

- It's been really inspiring to me, watching the kitchen and Chef Dylan source local fresh ingredients in honor of all the farmers that grow those.

Using fresh ingredients makes our job easy to put out a really delicious plate that people will remember.

- We live just up the road, so it's easy to come down and have a nice meal without driving too far.

- Like the farm to table, locally sourced is really like what brings me back.

- Good vibes for sure.

- Don't go anywhere, because later in the show, Latah Bistro's chef Dylan and I will be making a special roasted carrot vadouvan.

Shall we?

- Yes, yeah, go ahead.

- You're gonna join me?

- Yes, I will.

- Okay, don't make me eat alone.

- Yeah, no.

[upbeat music] - If you're a wine connoisseur, you most likely already know how amazing Walla Walla is.

As one of the best places in the US to grow wine grapes, it's no surprise that the wines coming out of this region are absolutely delicious.

Today I'm at Seven Hills Vineyard to find out how they're growing the perfect wine grapes.

- We're looking at 160 acres of some of the best wine grapes in the world I think.

- Sadie Drury is the general manager at North Slope Management.

Here in the Walla Walla growing area, wine makers of all kinds take pride in making their vineyards perfect in every way.

- Walla Walla in particular, is such a special space to grow grapes.

We do Syrah really well.

We do Cab really well.

We do Merlot really well and a lot more.

- But growers like Seven Hills are taking things up a notch.

They're involved in a program called Sustainable WA, focusing on making sure that Washington's vineyards are good for more than just growing wine grapes.

- Sustainable WA is really an awesome program.

It focuses really heavily on all three pillars of sustainability, not just one.

So that's taking care of your land, which means doing what's best for the environment, taking care of your people, so the people who work in the vineyard, and the people who visit the vineyard, and then taking care of the business.

So it's having a business plan that's gonna allow the vineyards to have longevity.

- One of the ways they take care of the vineyard is how they control pests.

Viticulturist Monique Ortiz is hands-on in the orchard every day, checking the health of the plants and making sure pests are being managed without the use of chemicals whenever possible.

Sometimes the natural food chain takes care of itself.

- A few years ago we found Spider Mite Destroyers.

They look like a tiny drop of oil on a leaf, and I kept finding it everywhere.

I'm like, what is this?

And I reached out to our OSU Extensionist, Cody Copp, and he's like, oh, those are Spider Mite Destroyers.

They can actually eat about 30 mites a day.

So it's really nice to make sure that we are targeting the specific pests so we can keep those beneficials 'cause they're doing a lot of our job, which is nice.

- Another part of Sustainable WA involves irrigation.

- In all of our vines, we use drip irrigation.

This is the best way to irrigate grape vines because you have the least amount of water waste.

It's really important to us to continue with drip irrigation and to manage our water responsibly because it is truly the most precious resource we have.

Farming grapes is monocropping.

So we try to do everything we can in our power to not make it monocropping by letting our vineyard floor grow, maybe be a little more weedy than other places, but also planting pollinator pathways.

- Yeah, we seeded an acre of land purely dedicated to pollinators.

Here's there's a lot of different things growing from poppies to clarkias to blue tansies, all things that are really, really good for bees to forage on.

This is like their grocery store or something.

- This is.

Well, I can hear 'em.

- Yeah, and then the flowers here bloom throughout the entire growing season.

So as the poppies drop off, another flower may pick up and it provides food year round.

- It's kind of part of the bigger picture, not just specifically for growing grapes, but for the ecosystem itself.

- And it's pretty.

- It's really beautiful, absolutely.

- Yeah, it's really beautiful.

I feel like we should be frolicking or something.

- Go ahead and frolic.

- Frolic, go ahead.

- I think that being Sustainable WA shows consumers and the public that we really care about our people in Washington and our land in Washington.

You can put that stamp on your bottle.

It really is something that consumers can go online, learn about, something we can teach them about, to show them that we're doing what's best for everybody.

- So the last time Kristi and I were together in Walla Walla was 10 years ago for the Walla Walla Sweet Onion Festival.

Remember that?

- Onion eating contest.

- I'll never forget it.

- Yeah.

So this is a little more my speed.

- Well, yeah.

We thought we would try another commodity that Walla Walla is known for, wine.

- Wine.

So we're gonna learn how to taste some wine here at Gramercy Cellars.

- All right, let's give it a shot.

- Today, wine maker Brandon Moss is going to show us how it's done.

Starting with Gramercy's Rosé.

- Whenever you're wine tasting, I always like to kind of break down what kind of fruit you're smelling.

You know, citrus fruit, you can be a stone fruit or it can be a tropical fruit.

- I'm smelling citrus.

- I think berry was like my first.

- Was that the hit?

- Hit, then I thought it was wrong so.

- There's literally no wrong in wine tasting.

Smelling what you smell is about you.

- What's fun is like, it kind of has this nice little pop on the back of my palette.

- Yeah, it's got this really bright acidity.

It's supposed to be really fresh and light and enjoyable, and that's really kind of what we're going for here.

- To me, very refreshing.

- Yeah.

- Tart at first.

- So now we have our 2020 Forgotten Hill Syrah.

It retains a lot of kind of like red fruit and black pepper.

It's a lighter style of Syrah.

- I don't know if I would've thought of pepper had you not said it.

- So this is 95% Cabernet Sauvignon and 5% Merlot.

It's all from our own estate vineyards in the valley.

It's gonna have a more oak impact too.

So with Cabernet we use a little bit of oak.

Cabernet has these like really sweet fruit characteristics.

And so oak compliments Cabernet Sauvignon very well.

It's gonna add to the tannin.

- I think that's what I'm smelling.

- Yeah, you're probably smelling some of that oak.

- I am smelling oak.

- Chocolatey, espresso, caramel, vanilla.

- Sounds like a sundae.

- Cabernet sundae.

You know, the main thing I'd say is don't feel intimidated.

There's nothing to be intimidated by.

We don't care if you say something that doesn't make any sense.

We'll help you to like learn new things.

You know what I mean?

That's what we want to do.

That's like what our job is.

That's what we enjoy.

- Keep it simple, and like what you like.

- So what was your favorite out of the three that we tasted?

- I enjoyed the Rosé.

- Did you?

- Maybe it's just the time of year, but there was just something really refreshing about it.

- Yeah, I liked it too.

I think I would say the Syrah.

- Are we converting you maybe?

- Yeah, I know, right?

Cheers.

- Cheers.

Yours is empty.

- I know.

That's okay.

[upbeat music] - Washington is the second largest wine producing state in the nation.

How many wineries do we have?

I'll tell you after the break.

- Coming up, I'm making a special roasted carrot dish at Latah Bistro in Spokane.

- That's pretty good.

- Yeah, pretty good?

I love it when chefs are surprised.

Ah, it's not bad.

And we're in The Kitchen at Second Harvest, trying Chef Laurent's Apple Chutney recipe.

[upbeat music] - Washington has over 1,000 wineries producing more than 17 million cases of wine.

- We're back at Latah Bistro in Spokane.

Although this restaurant is relatively close to downtown Spokane, its location in the Latah Valley makes it feel like a cozy getaway from the city.

With great food and an atmosphere to match, it's keeping people happy and full, day in and day out.

- Something business casual you can come to, have a cocktail after work, can actually relax, talk with people.

It's got a community around it too.

- We live just up the road so it's easy to come down and have a nice meal without driving too far.

A little cozy spot that a lot of people in Spokane don't know about.

- We're really a neighborhood restaurant.

- Owner Susan Shelby got involved with Latah Bistro after falling in love with it as a customer many years ago.

She's worked hard to make this a special spot for the community that surrounds it.

- We know a lot of our locals by name, and we have a lot of regulars that have been coming and dining with us since inception, and I'm one of those.

I used to come down here with the original chef.

- The vibe is just friendly.

Like, this is a place I wanna bring my friends.

- The food is great.

Pizzas are phenomenal.

- And the wine, the wine is amazing.

- Being in Spokane, Washington, we of course like to have a lot of the Washington local wines.

I've personally spent a lot of time in Walla Walla.

It's been really fun to have that personal relationship and connection with those vineyards.

It just makes picking wine a little more fun.

- I like that they have a variety, and they have a fresh sheet every week when you come in.

So there's different wines to choose from.

So it kind of opens you up to trying new kinds.

And everybody that works here is really knowledgeable about types of wine.

- What are we gonna make today?

- Dylan is going to do a roasted carrot vadouvan.

- I don't know what that is, but it sounds great.

- It's delicious, yes.

It's aromatic and full of fresh herbs and wonderful spices and curry.

And we paired it with some of our favorite Washington wines, the Dunham Cellars Rosé, and then the Cymbal Sauvignon Blanc from Long Shadows.

- That sounds amazing.

- Yeah, I can't wait.

I'm excited.

- It's gonna be fun.

- So we're gonna be making a vadouvan curry with labneh and pistachio dukkah.

- You will explain all of that as we go, because those are words that I have no idea.

- You're just gonna make your first cut, and then you're gonna quarter turn it and then another 45 degree.

- What the heck.

What am I doing wrong?

- I don't think you're doing anything wrong so.

- Okay.

Here, there.

- Perfect.

- Perfect.

I mean, they're carrots, right?

- Yes.

- Next we tear up mint, basil, fennel fronds, and pea shoots.

Then we roast the carrots on low heat for 45 minutes with olive oil and some seasoning.

Now it's time for the vadouvan butter.

- So this is butter that is infused with shallots, garlic, a bunch of ginger, toasted spices.

- That's like the best smelling butter.

- Yeah.

- I have ever smelled before.

- So here I have some labneh, which is a strained yogurt.

It's seasoned with lemon zest and salt.

- Creamy yogurt with roasted carrots.

- Yeah, it's delicious.

- It's like the perfect combination.

- It is.

- These are definitely not the ones that I cut.

[Dylan laughs] - I just have some golden raisins that I plumped up in a simple syrup that was infused with oranges, rosemary, and ginger.

I have some pistachio dukkah that will just give it a little crunch.

Dukkah is a Middle Eastern condiment, consisting of nuts, toasted spices, and sesame seeds.

- Learning so many new words.

- Yeah.

And to finish, our herbs that we picked.

- Okay.

- And there's no rhyme or reason to this.

- Yeah, just kind of build it.

- Over the top.

- And we're done.

- And that's it.

- That is so gorgeous.

We have some Walla Walla wines to pair it with.

- So here we have a Rosé from Dunham Cellars.

- Awesome.

- And here we have a Sauv blanc from Long Shadow.

They will pair very nicely with the curry.

- And we love our Walla Walla wines.

Shall we?

- Yes, yeah, go ahead.

- Shall we?

You're gonna join me?

- Yes, I will.

- Okay, don't make me eat alone.

This is always the hard part is finding a bite where I can gracefully put it in my mouth.

- Yeah, yeah.

Trying to get the perfect bite.

That's pretty good.

- Yeah, pretty good.

I love it when chefs are surprised.

Ah, not bad.

Oh my gosh, the carrots are so sweet.

And that butter adds something exotic, I guess.

- Right.

- Is kind of what I'm tasting.

- Yeah, yeah, it's not spicy.

It's a mild curry.

So it pairs nicely with the sweetness of the carrots like you said.

- It's a hearty dish.

- It is, yes.

- And I think that's why the wine works so well with it.

- Pairs nicely.

Keeps you wanting more.

- I could eat this any time of day.

- Yeah.

- To get the recipe for Latah Bistro's roasted carrot vadouvan, visit us at wagrown.com.

Coming up, Tomás is at Sagemoor Vineyards meeting Miguel the man, a vineyard manager who received special recognition.

- If I had my name on a wine bottle, I'd feel pretty special too.

- Yeah, I feel special.

[upbeat music] - Here in Pasco, acres and acres of vineyards are heavy with grapes all headed to the same place.

A delicious bottle of Washington wine.

Here at Sagemoor Vineyards, brand ambassador Kent Waliser knows that the history of these grapes plays a huge role in what makes them so great.

- We are located right now at two of our vineyards, Bacchus and Dionysus, both planted in 1972 and '73.

- Really?

- Yeah.

- Wow, okay.

- So some of the oldest vines in the state of Washington in production, they'll be here after I'm gone.

They will.

- So how long have you worked here?

- I'm going to 45 years.

- 45 years?

- They can't fire me.

And so I'm still here today.

- Miguel Rodriguez started pruning nectarines for Sagemoor many years ago.

Today he's become a celebrated vineyard manager.

So I understand that you actually have a particular wine named after you.

- Yeah, the company gave me that privilege and it's called Miguel the Man.

- Miguel the Man.

- Which has been more harder, got to make it better now with my name on it because everybody and my face right there, you know.

- Exactly.

- We'll see like yeah.

- It better be good.

- Be very good, you know.

- So I found some Merlot and Cab Franc blocks that he had planted in '97.

We sat around after it was made and talked about, what are we gonna call it?

And we kept talking about Miguel and his impact on the vineyard.

Finally, somebody says, why don't we just call it Miguel the Man?

- It's like an award from my company, recognizing my hard work that I put into the company all these years.

- But before we can see what a bottle of Miguel the Man is all about, we have to see where it's made.

Director of wine making, Aryn Morell, is at the start of the busy season because making wine doesn't happen on its own.

- We're just receiving the first bit of fruit so that fruit will be here bright and early in the morning.

So it's really kind of the beginning of our busiest part of harvest.

And hopefully you see how clean everything is.

You know, the guys spend a tremendous amount of time cleaning, probably spend more time cleaning than anything else in the building.

Sagemoor is more a story of vineyards and places than anything.

You know, I get the luxury of making wine from some of the most historic vineyards in the state.

You know, for us, the beauty is that you got to grow something.

You then cultivated that into a dedicated crop that you get to distill down into a product, that in the end, 2, 3, 4 years down the road, you get to enjoy.

- All right, let's see what Miguel the Man is all about.

Miguel the man.

That is pretty cool, man.

- Thank you.

- I mean, I mean really, like you said, it is an award.

I mean, if I had my name on a wine bottle, I'd feel pretty special too.

- Yeah, I feel special.

- It's very fruity, it's bright.

- This wine, you don't have to drink it to know that it's good.

Just by the smell.

- Right, seriously.

- You can tell, you know.

- Well if the smell is making me smile.

All right, cheers brother.

- Cheers.

- It's got some spice to it.

- Mhm.

- Like you.

- Yeah.

[both laugh] - It's really rich.

- Yes.

- And robust.

Ah, Miguel the Man.

How many bottles of this do you have at home?

- I got a 12 pack right now.

I need to ask my boss for more.

[Tomás laughs] I guess I need to start charging.

- That's right.

- For this job.

- This is a true testament to not only Sagemoor, but to the work that you and all of your workers are doing here.

- My work, yeah.

Thank you.

- Gracias.

- De nada.

Pleasure.

- Down in Walla Walla, the scenery can only be described as gorgeous.

With majestic hills covered in vineyards and wheat, the scenery is almost magical.

Add in a nice glass of Washington wine and you've got a perfect day.

I'm meeting with marketing coordinator Stephanie Forrer at Echolands Winery.

Sitting here in the tasting room, the wine is perfect and so is the view.

It's like you can see a wheat field, you can see some vineyards.

- Walla Walla on steroids right?

- Yeah.

- We're sitting on 340 acres of what was a wheat farmed property.

There are some grapes on this property, but not a lot.

We were gonna plant this in 2025, but we're really focused on the soil being as good as it can be.

And we're not in a hurry.

We wanna do it right.

Good soil and living soil is really the keystone of regenerative farming.

And so making sure that the soil is healthy, is where it all starts.

- But Echolands isn't waiting around in the meantime.

Using some grapes from other vineyards like Seven Hills, they're making some amazing wines.

- So this is our 2023.

A Poét-Nat is a natural sparkling wine.

You've got bubbles like a champagne, but this is not the champagne wine method.

This is the natural way to age a wine which is in the bottle.

Let's cheers.

- It's so pretty.

- And have a sip.

- Let's do it.

That's delicious.

Really easy to drink.

Like with the bubbles.

- Dangerously easy.

- Another part of regenerative farming is water savings.

In order to reuse water, they're using something less glamorous than wine.

- All the water runoff from the production facility goes down to a filtration system at the bottom of this hill, goes through this incredible worm filtration system.

You can take a peek in here.

There are earthworms in here you can see.

This is actually also gonna eventually be used for composting.

I don't wanna say the ugly side of wine making, but the not as glamorous side, if you will.

We use that water in the wine production, you know, because when you're going through harvest and you're spraying out a thousand gallon tanks and doing things like that, you really are using a lot of water.

This is the water that's filtering down and being cleaned that goes back up to water those vines.

We're proud to be stewards of this land and it's just a benefit that we get to make great wine.

- Yeah, I know.

- And have you guys come try it.

- Well, it shows.

Thank you for the tour.

- Of course.

- And everything.

- You'll have to come back and have some wine.

- Absolutely.

- Okay.

All right.

[upbeat music] - We are in The Kitchen at Second Harvest Food Bank in Spokane, where we get to taste some wonderful recipes created by Chef Laurent Zirotti.

Thank you very much.

- Well, thank you so much for having me.

Anytime you invite me with a glass of wine.

- I know, we lured you in.

- I'm ready to be here.

- We lured you in right?

Cheers.

- Santé.

- Salut.

- Santé, santé.

There we go.

And this is a Sauv blanc from Arbor Crest, which is here in Spokane, and we featured them on our show before.

We learned sort of how to taste.

- Yeah that was fun.

- It was really fun.

- All the way down in Walla Walla.

- Yeah.

- So what did you learn?

- What did we learn, Kristi?

We gotta learn.

- The earliest in the day is better right?

- There was some swirling happening.

- The nose.

- The nose happening.

- Yeah, some swishing around the mouth, aerating.

- Yeah.

- So what do you smell in that wine for example?

- Citrus.

- Yeah very much so.

Peach, citrus.

- Yeah.

- It's very, very typical for Sauvignon blanc to go in that direction.

- And so wine is always good with maybe some cheese and some crackers and some other things, right?

- Oh yes, exactly.

I'm glad we have the white wine because a lot of people think that cheese should be eaten with red wine, but not all cheese.

The acidity of the white wine cuts.

- That richness?

- That richness of the goat cheese and the strength of the goat cheese.

It's more palatable.

It's better, it's much better.

- So we're gonna showcase Washington apples.

- Yep.

- With some apple chutney.

- Chutney, a little recipe.

- A recipe of yours.

- Exactly that, you can use on your charcuterie board.

- Okay.

So let's take a look and see how we make it.

- Let's do it.

[upbeat music] - Awesome.

Did you check out those knife skills?

- I know.

- Definitely not my knife skills.

- We teach that at the college.

And that's a perfect brunoise.

It's called the brunoise.

The little.

- Little cubes?

- Brunoise.

- It looks beautiful.

That would eat it just plain on a cracker or?

- Yeah, they're good.

Try it plain and then put some other stuff on it.

- Or just out of the bowl.

- I didn't expect it to be sweet.

I expected to have more of that vinegary bite that I would get from a chutney.

- More acidic, yes.

- But this is very just sweet and delicious.

- So you gotta be careful when you drink or taste wine with the vinegar.

That will kill the taste, the flavor of your wine.

Anything really creamy is great with white wine because that will sell that richness.

Like you said, the fat, you know in your palette.

Beautiful.

- Are we fans?

- Divine.

- Divine.

- Divine.

- We love it.

- And if you feel like you're too fancy for a chutney, no, come on.

This is perfect.

This is a way to impress the friends and family.

- Absolutely.

- So I think the balance with the sweetness of your chutney pairs very well with that charcuterie.

- Thank you for sharing.

This is delicious.

- My mouth is happy.

- Cheers everyone.

- Cheers.

- Indeed.

- Cheers.

- To get the recipe for Chef Laurent Zirotti's Apple Chutney, visit us at wagrown.com.

The next time you raise a glass of Washington wine, make a toast to the growers and wine makers for putting that extra effort into every bottle.

That's it for this episode of "Washington Grown."

We'll see you next time.