Spotlight On: Watermill Winery
Watermill Winery is located in Milton-Freewater, Oregon, in the heart of the Walla Walla Valley AVA just 10 miles from downtown Walla Walla, Washington. Watermill Winery was founded in 2006 by the Brown family, a third generation apple-growing family and the owners of Blue Mountain Cider. Before launching their own winery, grapes grown by the Brown family were used for other prestigious wines from Northstar Winery, Seven Hills Winery, and Saviah Cellars. The Brown family owns some prized land in an area called “The Rocks” by the locals. They have pulled up some of their apple orchards to plant vineyards there, and there is potential for even more vineyards to be planted on their land in the future.
“The Brown family is well known in the area for producing ultra-premium fruit and their wine grapes are no exception.” –Rich Funk, winemaker
Even though Watermill is a new winery, the Browns are veterans when it comes to producing the highest-quality fruit. When you take the Browns’ superb fruit and pair it with the winemaking talents of Rich Funk, Watermill’s winemaker and also the owner and winemaker for Saviah Cellars, the results are outstanding. We have had the pleasure to taste Watermill’s wines on two recent trips to the Walla Walla Valley as well as had them in several blind tastings at home. Our favorite of their current releases is the 2005 Reserve Syrah, closely followed by the 2005 Syrah and the just-released 2006 Cabernet Sauvignon. Watermill’s expected production for 2008 is 4,500 cases.
With the facilities and infrastructure already in place with their cider business, Watermill is already a leg up on many other new wineries. They have stainless steel tanks, a high-end bottling/labeling machine, and a spacious barrel room. Their tasting room, located in the historic Watermill Building on the same property as their production facilities, also has a beautiful dining room, library, and kitchen which can be used for winery functions as well as rented for special occasions. They are also adding on a patio at the back of the building for entertaining and have plans to plant some vines adjacent to the building.
As if it is not enough that they produce great fruit, excellent wines, and have nice facilities, they are also wonderful people. Nancy (Brown) Kezele and daughter-in-law Kelli Kezele are the “faces” of Watermill Winery. They run the tasting room and oversee the facilities. Both ladies are so nice and welcoming. If you are in the Walla Walla Valley, be sure to stop by Watermill Winery for a truly memorable visit. And regardless of whether you are able to visit or not, try to get your hands on a bottle or two of Watermill wine and enjoy.
It all began on April 8th of this year; a road trip through 23 states covering 12,360 miles. Since then, I’ve posted 16 times from the road as we visited almost too many wineries to count in search of that next great bottle. Obviously, I hope that you have read all of my posts from the road and that they have helped you find some new wines to try. But in case you haven’t read all of them yet, you will find links at the end of this post.
Top Winery Discoveries (wineries we didn’t know before this trip):
Watermill did not disappoint; they are making excellent wines and are truly wonderful people. We had a fabulous visit with Kelli and Nancy in the tasting room and then Nancy took us on a tour of their barrel room and production facility.
Incidentally, Rich is also the winemaker for Watermill Winery. After the standard tasting, Rich gave us a tour of Saviah’s facilities and treated us to numerous barrel samples. He is already making great wines and has some exciting projects in the works.
Last Tuesday, Dad (John) and I attended the 
tasted a total of 45 wines, 44 Syrahs and one Syrah blend. We gave a 4 star rating to seven wines. We especially liked the 2006 Cline Los Carneros Estate Syrah and the 2006 Cass “Rockin’ One” Red Blend. We look forward to picking up some of these and adding them to our blind-tasting lineup to see how they stack up against some of our proven favorites. Look for posts on these tastings in the coming weeks and months.
Our first stop was at 
Our next stop was at 
This event, held last weekend at the Dempsey Indoor on the University of Washington campus, brought together two of my favorite things, Huskies and wine. As a graduate of the University of Washington, I am a tried and true Husky fan. In fact one of my favorite pastimes is attending UW sporting events with my family. So an event that features wine and supports the Huskies is right up my alley. In its third year, 
As with any event like this, it is impossible to taste all of the wines offered. So Colby and I chose to visit the booths for wineries whose wines we had not previously tasted or had not tasted in a long time. We made a few discoveries and look forward to picking up some bottles and adding them to our blind-tasting lineup to see how they stack up against some of our proven favorites.
Our most exciting discovery of the day was 
We tasted a total of 31 different Zinfandels (26 from California, 3 from Washington, and 2 from Oregon). Last Wednesday was the Championship Round which included the winners from each of the first five rounds plus two wild card entries. Considering that there were only five non-California wines in the entire event, I think that it is quite remarkable that one Washington and one Oregon wine made the Championships as winners of a previous round. While they did not medal in the Championships, they certainly made a good showing. So while California continues to make excellent Zinfandels, I encourage you to branch out and try some Zins from Washington and Oregon as well.
We found visiting 
Now, in which of those environments do you feel an obligation to buy? For me, the easy answer is Australia. Even though I am not able to visit Australia frequently, the positive experience that we had there, not to mention the fact that they produce outstanding wines at reasonable prices, makes me want to buy their wines and encourage you to do so also.
This blog is for busy people who enjoy wine and want to be savvy wine consumers, but who do not have the time or inclination to do the research themselves. We want to be your Wine Peeps. As a regular reader of this blog, we hope that you will learn everything you need to know about selecting, tasting, and enjoying good wine. You’ll be able to impress your friends with your knowledge of wine. 