CdA Cellars finds nice blend

Sit around the table with the team from Coeur d’Alene Cellars and one thing quickly becomes clear: Winemaking there is all about the team.

First, there’s Kimber Gates, the dreamer and business brains of the operation. The spark for her fascination with winemaking began when she was a mere high school student studying in France’s Burgundy region. It was later fueled by a stint working in the business offices at Waterbrook Winery in Walla Walla. Coeur d’Alene Cellars was started in 2002 when she and her ex-husband Bob Harris dared give up their day jobs for the dream of a family-owned winery in Coeur d’Alene.

To her right is Sarah Gates, Kimber’s mother and a winery co-owner; her watercolor paintings are featured on the Coeur d’Alene Cellars wine bottles. She also serves as vineyard consultant, racing back and forth twice a week to the vineyards during the harvest to check the fruit, using her experience as a landscape architect and gardener to inspect grapes for the vineyard. And she’s the resident gourmet.

Then there’s Robin Chisholm, longtime Gates family friend and winery marketing director. When Chisholm is not working on her own family project of converting her father’s old apple ranch into a vineyard, she rides shotgun with Sarah Gates on the vineyard runs in the Columbia River Valley.

“You should see these guys, they’re like Thelma and Louise,” says Kimber Gates.

And finally meet Warren Schutz, Coeur d’Alene Cellars’ winemaker, an enology graduate of the University of California, Davis, who just finished his second crush with Coeur d’Alene Cellars. Before that he served as assistant winemaker at California’s Napa Valley wineries Far Niente and Chappellet Vineyard.

The Coeur d’Alene Cellars team focuses on making syrah and viognier wines, along with a chardonnay and some Bordeaux-style red varietals.

“The philosophy is to make wines of great intensity and character, complexity and balance, highlighting the fruit character of each variety, and using traditional methods including aging in French oak barrels,” Schutz says. “We make our wine from fruit from a number of Washington’s best vineyards which allows us to blend each wine from several sources to make the best wines possible.”

In its first year, when Kimber and Bob Harris served as winemakers of the fledgling winery, they made just 250 cases of viognier and 300 cases of syrah. Now, Coeur d’Alene Cellars makes 3,400 cases of wine at its production facility on Schreiber Way in Coeur d’Alene. This fall, the winery crushed 60 tons of grapes. The Harrises divorced last summer and Bob Harris still has a part ownership in the winery. Kimber Gates is the winery’s general manager.

The winery recently received recognition for its 2002 Syrah from Wine Enthusiast magazine. Editors ranked Coeur d’Alene Cellars’ 2002 Syrah ($25) as the best of Washington State syrahs at any price, giving it 90 points. The wine beat out other exclusive Washington offerings that sell for up to $125 per bottle. There is still a limited supply available.

The winery also just released its 2003 Syrah ($28). “I think this is tasting even better than the ‘02,” says Sarah Gates, pouring samples at Coeur d’Alene Cellars’ downtown tasting room, called Barrel Room No. 6. Other new releases include the 2004 Viognier ($18), Sarah’s Cuvee ($22) also made from viognier grapes, and 2003 Meritage ($25). In the next month or so, Coeur d’Alene Cellars will release its first Opulence, a higher-end syrah that will sell for $46 a bottle.

Here’s how they’re describing the wine: “With cherry blossoms and dark fruit on the nose, this firm concentrated style displays huckleberry, blueberry, cracked pepper and spice notes. Great fruit intensity and pronounced vanilla, smoky, woodsy flavors linger on a long finish. A tightly focused syrah which will age four to five years beautifully.”

At Barrel Room No. 6 (named because the winery has five barrel rooms), all of the current and new releases are available for tasting. Cheeses, chocolates and appetizers to complement the wines, including bruchetta and pizzas, also are being served. The tasting room also carries a rotating selection of visiting wines.

Winemaker Schutz is on hand at the Barrel Room once a month for “wine school” in which he leads a wine tasting and discussion. Earlier this month, he presented a tasting of “Harvest Reds,” which included 2002 Kiona Lemberger, 2003 Foppiano Petite Sirah, 2004 Tamarack Merlot, 2003 Argyle Pinot Noir Reserve and the 2002 Andrew Will Sheridan Red.

“We like to call it ‘wine school’ because it’s not just a tasting, it really is educational,” says Sarah Gates. The Dec. 14 tasting will focus on sparkling wines, she says.

Schutz says his favorite meal to serve with the Coeur d’Alene Cellars syrah is salmon, recalling a delicious dinner he whipped up using soy sauce, ginger, garlic, olive oil and a touch of sesame oil for the fish. He served it on a bed of bok choy. He said he also enjoys the varietal with steak, lamb and beef burgundy stew.

But most of the time the Coeur d’Alene Cellars team relies on Sarah Gates to keep them surrounded with delicious food during crush and special events. She shared some of her recipes and her favorite pairings including: Grape Leaves Stuffed with Rice, Currants and Herbs with the 2004 Chardonnay; Wild Mushroom Pate, which she loves with the 2003 Viognier; Cabernet Sauvignon Chili served with the 2003 Meritage; and Herb Roasted Chicken with Pasta Stuffing served with the 2004 Syrah.