Kurt Johnson, his brother, Charles, and their wives all live in Queen|Anne, and they run the neighborhood's first winery. Located at 1405 Elliott Ave. W., the Ward Johnson Winery is named for the men's father, and the business was launched in|the spring of 2004, said Kurt. "But we had been doing it for seven years."
The family doesn't own a vineyard. They buy grapes in half-ton totes from vineyards in Eastern Washington and turn the grapes into red and white wines, first in their homes and lately in a climate-controlled space that was formerly part of the Elliott Avenue Wine Storage business next door.
A former grade-school teacher in the Fort Lewis area, Kurt is the management end of the business, while his brother is the main wine maker when he's not piloting a tug taking fuel barges to Alaska, Kurt said.
His mother bought half a ton of grapes for the men, and they turned it into a merlot in Kurt's basement, he said. "That really, really turned out well," Kurt said. "That gave us the impetus to move forward."
The brothers make both red and white wines in a process that involves fermenting the grapes in stainless-steel tanks and pouring the results into French-oak barrels for aging, Kurt said. The red wines also go through a secondary fermentation process in the barrels.
The red wines - merlot, cabernet sauvignon and syrahs - take about two years to age before they are ready for sale, while the white chardonnay they make is ready for sale within six to eight months, Kurt said. The business also bottles its own wine, and Kurt spent hours on the computer to design the labels, he said.
"Counterbalance Chardonnay is really what got us going," he said. The white wine is a cash-maker because it doesn't take as much time to make as the reds, Kurt explained. Still, it represents only 15 percent of the winery's output, he added.
Their chardonnay wine sells for $20 a bottle, the cabernet for $25, and the merlot and syrah sell for $30, Kurt said. The winery is holding three open houses (see ad this issue) to sell the wine this holiday season, but normally the wine is sold only in a select list of restaurants like the Palisades and in wine bars like the Bricco in Queen Anne.
"We have about 300 cases this year," Kurt said, adding that he estimates the winery will bottle about 500 cases for sale next year. But the growing popularity of the family's wines is a mixed blessing for the small operation.
"If we have a lot of exposure, we won't have the wine to sell people," he explained. That almost happened when the business held a one-day open house in August and sold half its stock of syrah, Kurt said.
Kurt declined to discuss the amount involved, but start-up costs for the winery turned out to be much higher than expected, he said. But money matters aside, Kurt and his family find great satisfaction running a winery. "Sometimes my brother and I walk in here and just smile at each other," he said.
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