Yessiree, it’s winemaking time!

There is nothing like the smell of a cool, clear, bright blue sky first thing in the morning.  On the bump of a hillrise out west off Ahtanum, we find ourselves winding through apple trees down a dirt road leading to Gilbert Cellars Hackett Ranch.   Hopping out of the car, we know it’s going to be good.  The smell and the sky pair with the undulating landscape of vineyard and orchard as we walk toward a beautiful high walled corrugated tin building to meet with winemaker Justin Neufeld.  As office space goes, this ain’t too shabby.  Walking through the giant slider doors to enter the space, we need a moment to take in the spread.  Wooden barrels line the walls straight up to a bank of windows that fenestrate the roofline bringing in lots of light.  Wood planks and giant beams decorate the ceiling above, and plastic bins and containers with grapes in various stages of development litter the floor before us.  Yessiree, it’s winemaking time!

Justin has been in grape harvest for about a month when we visit.  Although tired from the long hours, he has a calm passion about wine that spills over us like warm syrup. One of the things he really loves about his craft is the mind to mouth connection; how really thinking about what he was tasting and feeling and smelling when it came to wine, and how he could feel a different part of his brain wake up as a result, is something that really led him into his career.  This explanation leaves us wanting to run out and start a more mindful tasting right then and there.

As we stand and chat, his purple stained hands gesticulating a point, we can hear the cranking of Geoff Howell, the assistant wine maker, grinding sample grapes from various fields into juice that will be tested to make sure picking conditions are optimal for the creation of a superb vintage.  With all ag-dependent products, the pressure is on to get it off the vine at just the right time.  Wine grapes in particular have rockstar demands to their fruitage, as their later performance in the bottle is affected tremendously by the state of the grape at the time of picking.  Of course, everyone wants a good show.

A Naches native, Justin is in the club of prodigal children who swore they would never come back home.  But as his desire to be a part of the wine industry grew, being back in the Valley was an easy choice—after all, this is where the wine grapes are.  “A huge part of making wine is how you grow the grapes and I wanted to be a part of that. “  Now home again, he has found the appreciation that only comes after an absence. Raising his three sons here with wife Brooke, he sees what a beautiful place this is and says there is a connectedness to nature and the land that you can’t get somewhere else, and that connection is good for the soul.

In addition to making wine for Gilbert Cellars, Justin started his own label called JB Neufeld.  Having no other standard to follow but his own, this currently all cabernet line can be found in Seattle, Nashville, Florida, New York City, and Yakima.  In the heady glow of our winemaker experience, we went immediately to the store and cleaned all the JB Neufeld off the shelf at Wray’s that day, then sat in the warm sunshine of Aileen’s backyard with some take out pizza and made our own mind to mouth connections.