February 26, 2020
Written by Jenneffer
We started WineMaker Wednesdays!
This special evening featured six courses expertly paired with five wines from the Washington State winery, Isenhower Cellars Cellars.
Featured commentary by:
DENISE ISENHOWER
Denise grew up in rural Fairland, Indiana in a farming family. Denise earned her Bachelor’s of Pharmacy degree from Butler University in 1993. Brett and Denise were married in 1995. Denise agreed to Brett’s winemaking dream but said they had to stay in the Western USA. Together they moved to Walla Walla, Washington in 1998. Denise enjoys swimming, gardening, and reading.
The Isenhower’s have three daughters, a Red Labrador Retriever, and two felines.
MINIMALIST WINEMAKING
Minimalist Winemaking is a philosophy of only light intervention in the natural process of winemaking. This style of winemaking produces wines with a lightness of touch and a depth of character. Every bottle is age worthy, fresh, and interesting.
“Our grapes are primarily picked by hand. However, we are experimenting with a Pellenc mechanical harvester at a couple of vineyards. At harvest, we seek to emphasize bright acidity, tension, and a lower extraction of tannins through lower fermentation temperatures and addition of whole clusters into the fermentation vessel.
Isenhower Cellars was founded in 1999 by Denise and Brett Isenhower and was the 18th winery in Walla Walla. Denise is the General Manager and Brett is the Winemaker. Brett researched every state in the Western USA and chose Washington because of the wide-open, entrepreneurial nature of the wine business. They started Isenhower Cellars in the prettiest town in Eastern Washington, Walla Walla. Isenhower Cellars is one of the few medium sized Washington wineries that is 100% husband and wife owned and operated.
The Isenhower’s built their winery in 2002 and opened the Woodinville tasting room in 2009. Currently Isenhower Cellars produces 7,500 cases a year.”
Hand Harvested
Vineyard workers physically clip the clusters from the vines, collecting each cluster and move down the row picking grapes into buckets or shoulder suspended baskets. This is hard, intensive work. Vineyard workers are in high demand and paid well.
Sustainable, Conventional Farmed Grapes
What does it mean:
Our farmers use very gentle antifungal sprays to prevent the growth of powdery mildew and other grape funguses. Most farmers use mechanical weed removal to rather than weed sprays. The farmers are using foliar nutrition sprays to feed exactly what the vine needs and not over fertilize. The sustainable, conventional farming is safe for vineyard employees and delivers excellent grapes to Isenhower Cellars while decreasing costs to our vineyard farmers.
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