Monday, Feb. 01, 2010

Remembering Tom Stockley

By Andy Perdue, Wine Press Northwest

Sunday marked the 10th anniversary of the crash of Alaska Airlines Flight 261 off the coast of California. Among the 88 passengers and crew who perished was one of the most cherished people in the Northwest wine industry: Tom Stockley, the longtime wine columnist for The Seattle Times.

"Tom Stockley was such a witty, fun, soft and kind gentlemen," said Coke Roth, an international wine judge, Red Mountain vineyard owner and former beer and wine distributor. "I loved judging wine with Tom."

Stockley, a University of Washington graduate, began working for the Times in 1967 and became its wine columnist in 1973. His last column ran Feb. 2, 2000, three days after he and his wife, Peggy, died. He was 63.

"I remember Tom well," said Bob Woehler, Wine Press Northwest's tasting editor. "He was my mentor. He had been writing a wine column for a few years prior to mine, and I tried to emulate his approach to wines. He was a most polite man who helped launch Washington's wine industry in the early days."

These days, writing about the Pacific Northwest wine industry is not difficult, given there are more than 1,200 wineries in Washington, Oregon, British Columbia and Idaho. But when Stockley published "Winery Trails of the Pacific Northwest" in 1977 - the first book to focus on the wines of this region - he had much less material to work with and an industry he was busy helping to introduce to the rest of the world.

That book, subtitled "A complete guide to the wineries of Washington, Oregon & British Columbia," had just eight Washington wineries to focus on. Today, only four of them are still in business. In that book, he also profiled 12 Oregon wineries, five B.C. producers - and none from Idaho.

By the time the second edition came out a year later - rechristened "Winery Tours in Oregon, Washington, Idaho & British Columbia" - Oregon's winery list had expanded to 16, while Washington and British Columbia had stayed the same and Ste. Chapelle had opened in Idaho.

Wines & Vines magazine later named him its 1990 Wine Writer of the Year. In describing him, the magazine wrote: "Tom Stockley may not be as widely known as some wine writers in the United States, but his impact on the growth of wine consumption in the state of Washington over the last two decades pushed that state into the forefront of wine consumption nationally and helped in the development of one of the nation's most energetic wine country areas. In that time, Tom became one of the most reasoned and articulate voices discussing wine, without pretense or folderol, as he unveiled the emerging American wine scene to emerging consumers."

"Tom was a gentleman," said Ron Irvine, winemaker/owner of Vashon Winery and former owner of Pike & Western Wine Shop in the Pike Place Market. "This served him well as a writer because he really liked people, he liked writing about what they were doing, and he liked passing on to his readers his 'finds,' whether wine or people."

Irvine, who wrote "The Wine Project," the definitive history of the Washington wine industry, added, "Tom and Peggy loved to 'do the Pike Place Market' on most Saturdays that they were in town. He would often stop in to Pike & Western just to say hi and share a quick laugh. He was very supportive of the Northwest wine scene and was always trying to balance his love of wine (and the people behind the wine) with his readers' pocketbook and interest level.

"He was very careful to not be snobbish, as he believed wine was second to a good meal with friends."

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