Of The Washington State Wine Founding Fathers, Bob Betz is the G. O. A. T.
I am old enough to have known, worked with and certainly benefited from the Founding Fathers of our Washington State Wine industry. Standing on their shoulders I could see firsthand the contributions and amazing achievements they have made for us. Without ignoring the important successes that many others have contributed, it is hard to argue that anyone has contributed as much to our industry as Bob Betz. He led the way.
As with all things, wine starts in the vineyards and so does our list of Founding Fathers. Walter Clore was a pioneer in wine growing and agricultural research here in Washington state. Born and raised in Oklahoma with a degree and passion for agriculture, the great depression brought him out to greener pastures in Washington State. He went to work for the Washington State Agriculture Research Center in Prosser, working with small fruits and vegetables. At one point he was known as the “King of Asparagus” helping Washington become the number one state for that crop. Considering his upbringing, he was no wine connoisseur and didn’t drink. But as wine grapes were part of his research, he became convinced that Vinifera grapes would grow well here. Everyone told him he was nuts because of our cold winters. But he knew that Washington concord grapes and apples did well in our sunny, dry summers and falls, so, vinifera grapes could flourish here as well. He directed his career towards researching varietal grape growing and was instrumental in showing us how to best get this done within the parameters of Yakima valley and our own climate. He championed so many projects that they named the Washington State Wine and Culinary Center in Prosser after him.
Allan Shoop along with Bob basically put Ste Michelle (and along with-it Washington State) onto the legitimate American wine map. They took a fledgling winery making a lot more fruit and fortified wines than table wines and turned it into an industry leading, nationally distributed, premium winery producing award winning wines from Columbia Valley. Allan’s wine career started with Gallo, but he had the foresight to know that the future of Washington state was in fine varietals, not with jug wines like Gallo. He discovered that cheap volume grapes like Thompson Seedless didn’t flourish in Washington so we couldn’t compete with California on that level. However, he also knew that the industry was moving towards finer wines anyway. That is why he was often called the Robert Mondavi of Washington State. The two friends both pushed their states towards the fine wine market.
David Lake was my mentor and friend. A quiet British Canadian who brought Washington state winemaking up to a consistently high-quality level back in the early days of our industry. He was a rare winemaker who was also a certified Master of Wine. There were less than 100 MWs around the world at that time and to have one make wine here in Washington state was a real advantage for us. He started his winemaking career at Eyrie Vineyards, Oregon’s first Pinot Noir producer. From there he joined Columbia Winery, which then was called Associate Vintners. AV was a group of University of Washington professors who lent their talents to the winery. Lloyd Woodburn was the chemist of the group, so he was appointed winemaker. The results were inconsistent and sometimes poor. Their best wine was a Gewurztraminer which a lot of Americans thought was a type of sausage. In two short years, David brought up the quality of all the wine production to a premium level. He then got busy improving the vineyards because he knew that this was where the quantum leap for Washington wine existed. Together with Mike Sauer (another Founding Father) Red Willow Vineyard started producing some of the best red wine grapes in the state. To this day Red Willow produces some of the best Merlot and in the 80’s they started growing some of the state’s first Syrah, helping establish Syrah a main stay of Washington reds.
Though I am not a Masters of Wine, David and I both came from wine appreciation backgrounds. The hours we spent together tasting and talking about great wines around the world were very special to me. All of our discussions were with Washington State in mind. We both knew that Washington had the inert potential to be among the great wine growing regions of the world. It was never if but instead how and when. One of the most important things David taught me about vineyards from a winemaker’s point of view, “Get your butt in the vineyards and keep it there. When you finally come out, go back in.”
Rick Small and Gary Figgins absolutely put Walla Walla on the map. Gone are the days that Walla Walla was synonymous with onions. The thing is they did it solely with the quality of their wines. At Leonetti, Gary spent a great deal of time studying the oak influence on wines. He tasted and blended oak barrels from all over the world. He even harvested 200-year-old oak trees from Oregon and produced his own barrels. The results were often harmonious blends of seven different barrel producers in his Cabernet that impressed everyone. Meanwhile at Woodward Canyon, Rick was producing outstanding wines of elegance and style. He and I were the first in the state to produce Bordeaux blends. Rick encouraged me to produce a white Bordeaux blend at DeLille, so I created our Chaleur Blanc. Rick killed the reviewers getting high 90 scores, top 100 list and even got his face on the cover of the Wine Spectator. Gary received equally high scores, and Robert Parker called Leonetti the Latour of Washington. Gary was really the first to establish Merlot as a high-end wine for Washington State. Hats-off to both of them who are still making Grand Cru wines today.
There are so many individuals that were important for developing Washington State into the Grand Cru wine region that it is today. People like Dick Boushey, Alex Golitzin, Jim Holmes, Marty Clubb, Dr. Wade Wolfe and more. I am truly grateful to them all. And then there is Bob. Bob Betz (MW) has clearly been the most influential person in Washington State wine history. There have been leaders in winemaking, wine growing and marketing of our state. Bob however, seemed to be able to combine all aspects of our region and armed with a ton of information promote it around the country and world. He was the one answering the question, “what side of the Potomac are you on?” He knew that our state had a unique combination of proper grower degree days, beautiful soils stolen from Montana, and a long dry fall that stood out in the wine growing world. He established the term “Yakima Valley.” He is elegant and informative and is the one that always spoke for us because we trusted him to always have Washington State’s best interest at heart.
Bob taught me the meaning of “enlightened self-interest” during the great freeze of 1996; Ste. Michelle’s crops were down approximately 25% and yet he convinced his company to allocate about 100 tons to the small wineries that were important to the WA wine story. At Delille these grapes were a real savior.
While pushing Washington State around the world he also pushed himself. Adding to his busy schedule he studied for years to achieve his Masters of Wine certificate of which there were only about 100 Masters worldwide. Along the way he was awarded the Robert Mondavi Award for the Best Written Test of the year.
His next achievement was to convince European Wine giants to invest in WA. This drew Piero Antinori to become a partner in Col Solare on Red Mountain. It also brought Dr. Ernie Loosen to produce Eroica Reisling here. These great European wineries bring a validity to Washington that you can’t buy. And if all this wasn’t enough, Bob invested everything he knew into his own winery. Betz Family Winery has in every shape and form truly become one of the Grand Crus of Washington State. What else would you expect?!
Throughout Bobs long and illustrious career Bob has earned more awards and lifetime achievements then even he can remember. So adding G.O.A.T. to his title seemed appropriate.
Recommended Wine: 2022 Col Solare Cabernet Sauvignon.
With Stephanie Cohen at the helm, Col Solare is making stunning wines starting with this Cabernet which shows the great combination of fruit and structure Red Mountain is famous for. Expressive and vibrant and delicious. Get yourself some.
