Steve Burns just might have the best job in the wine industry — and the most difficult.
The Pied Piper of Washington wine is the ebullient Burns, executive director of the Washington Wine Commision. He’s a consummate optimist who, when asked about a hot new winery, can be counted on to exclaim, “Phenomenal!” in the course of conversation.
It’s a rare wine lover who attends a Washington Wine Commission event and comes away disappointed. The annual Taste Washington in Seattle, for example, quickly outgrew the quaint quarters of the Paramount Theatre and now resides in the vast, if sterile, Stadium Exhibition Center and attracts 3,000 enthusiasts craving the 175 wineries and 85 restaurants that come together under one roof.
Burns and his frenetic group at the wine commission are tireless and omnipresent. This week, it’s Seattle. Next week, it might be Tokyo, New York or Bordeaux. The frequent-flier miles are piling up almost as quickly as the sales success of Washington wines.
“Part of the drive for this is what we saw the Aussies do in the U.K.,” Burns said. “They were nowhere, and they had a really focused marketing vision” that led to explosive worldwide sales of Australian wines. “We started the same thing here. The irony is they’re no longer doing it.”
Burns is happy to fill the void, and the success is obvious as Washington wine has been mostly impervious to the painful price drops that Europe, California and Oregon endured the past two years. While a number of California wineries will not even bother to crush grapes this fall because of the mountains of inventory bulging from warehouses, Washington wineries and vineyards are cautiously expanding. Washington is bullish on wine and is poised to reap even greater benefits when the nation emerges from its economic funk.
A few years ago, Burns realized what kind of special event he had on his hands with Taste Washington. He took it on the road so wine buyers and influential media could see first-hand the quality of Washington wine. It was an unmitigated success, and now there are as many as 10 per year. New York, for example, is always on the list, and 60 to 70 wineries go along. For the most part, it’s the winemakers and owners behind the table pouring, not simply a PR flunky or a local volunteer. The results are tangible, as more Washington wines show up on store shelves and wine lists nationwide, and retailers gain a greater understanding of Washington and its wines.
This year, the wine commission took a guerrilla marketing approach by staging a blind tasting with 50 top New York wine experts — retailers, wholesalers, chefs, wine stewards and writers. All of the wines were Cabernet Sauvignons or blends from the ’99 vintage, with four from Washington, two from Napa Valley and two from Bordeaux. The least-expensive wine was Columbia Crest’s Reserve Cab at $28 per bottle, and the most expensive was the Chateau Mouton Rothschild at $150. The New York crowd picked the four Washington wines as their favorites, with the Columbia Crest on top. The least-favorite? The Mouton Rothschild.
A month later, an identical tasting was held in Chicago. The top wine: Columbia Crest. The bottom wine: Mouton Rothschild. On the surface, this would appear to be horribly risky, but Burns has confidence in the product he promotes — plus he wanted to show the relative value of the Washington wines.
“Even if we didn’t win, the wines still look pretty good for the price.” Perhaps even phenomenal.
As much success as Washington wine is enjoying across the country and worldwide, one glaring market keeps Burns awake at night: Washington. A year ago, Washington wine constituted just 18 percent of sales inside the state. Today, that statistic hasn’t improved one bit, but Burns believes it will. The commission is recognizing restaurants that focus on Washington wine and targeting those that don’t. It’s working with retailers to increase Washington’s visibility. And the Taste Washington concept that works so well around the globe is expanding at home. The first Taste Washington Spokane was this summer, and a Taste Washington in the Tri-Cities is scheduled next spring.
Burns won’t rest until Washington enjoys the same kind of market share California and European wine regions command. And it’s gotta chap his hide that the official wine of the Seattle Seahawks — in the same building where Taste Washington is held! — is Gallo of Sonoma.
“Building hometown awareness and pride and getting home-field advantage is one of our greatest challenges.”
And if anyone can accomplish this, it’ll be the Washington Wine Commission.
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