WOODINVILLE — When it comes to “what have you done for me lately,” DiStefano Winery did it back-to-back in Wine Press Northwest single-blind competitions during 2007.
Mark Newton earned and maintained respect for his Woodinville, Wash., winery years ago. However, chart-topping showings and versatility in peer judgings — first for Viognier, then Merlot — have brought he and wife, Donna DiStefano, another honor: 2008 Washington Winery of the Year.
“People are realizing that we’ve been making pretty good wines for a long time, but the wines today are tasting really well,” Newton said.
And it’s timed to the arrival of winemaker Hillary Sjolund.
“I’ve been trying to get good scores for the Sauvignon Blanc for years,” Newton said with a chuckle, “and she does it with the first wine that she releases.”
That was Sjolund’s first as a head winemaker after three years as assistant winemaker at Pine Ridge, a famed 70,000-case winery in Napa Valley.
“This was an opportunity to step out on my own creatively,” she said. “Mark basically handed me a winery and said, ‘Here’s 7,000 cases and don’t screw it up.’ ”
Instead, the 27-year-old from Manchester, Calif., ratcheted up the quality at the winery Newton first launched 25 years ago in the Seattle neighborhood of Ballard.
DiStefano’s 2005 Viognier from the Columbia Valley, which Sjolund put the finishing touches on, ranked No. 2 in our 2007 judging of 39 Northwest Viogniers. It’s noteworthy that the other “Outstanding” wines in the competition were of the 2006 vintage, so Sjolund helped keep the 2005 fresh.
“I can take some credit for that, but not all of it,” she said.
A couple of months later, the 2003 Domenica — a tribute to Donna’s Italian immigrant grandmother, an amateur winemaker — outscored all others in our 2007 judging of 120 Northwest Merlots.
And the 2007 season began with the 2003 Cabernet Sauvignon grabbing gold at the San Francisco International Wine Competition.
“You have a direction and a plan and a hope for each one of those barrels, and I have copious notes on each one,” Sjolund said.
A quick study she is, but a love of science first led Sjolund down a much different path as a freshman at the University of California-Davis.
“I was going there to be a surgeon. That was my ambition,” she said. “I had to take an elective, and Carole Meredith was teaching an introduction to winemaking class. It fit perfectly into my timeslot, and I just fell in love with it.
“Mom and Dad weren’t crazy about that at the beginning — especially when I called them as a freshman and told them, ‘I think I want to start making wine. Will you pay for my education to do that?’ ” she added.
By 2000, Sjolund still was a student when she landed a lab tech position in the high-rent Stags Leap District.
“I wasn’t even legal to drink when I started at Pine Ridge as an intern, but I loved titrating and being the lab rat and taking samples,” she said with a smile. “It was pretty pathetic, but it’s what I loved to do. And I still love it.”
Her job description with Newton, a computer hardware product developer, includes consulting at the adjacent EnoLab, which tests samples for commercial and amateur winemakers.
“It’s expanding all the time,” Sjolund said. “People bring in samples and say, ‘Taste this and tell me what you think.’ Sometimes, that’s a loaded question.”
Still, she finds time to enjoy her new stomping grounds. “I love going to baseball games,” she said. “I was a big Giants fan, but now that I’m in the Northwest, I watch the Mariners. And I go the ballet or go out to restaurants.”
There also is some business travel.
“I get a lot more opportunity to step out in the vineyards, work with growers and talk with growers,” she said. “There’s so much activity in Washington. It’s the gem that’s being discovered. People are flocking up here — Pine Ridge purchased property (in the Horse Heaven Hills) — so it’s an exciting place to be.”
* DiStefano Winery, 12280 Woodinville Dr. SE, Woodinville, WA, 98072, 425-487-1648, distefanowinery.com.
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