The Browns strike gold

NORTH CENTRAL WASHINGTON

Best Red, Double Gold 2018 Carménère

Gold 2018 Syrah – Best of Class

2017 Old Vine Cab

2017 Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon

Don Seabrook photo A quartet of Beaumont Cellars wines earned either Double Gold or Gold honors in the 2020 North Central Washington Wine Awards competition.

Pete Beaumont started auspiciously as a new winemaker a dozen years ago. He entered three of his 2009 vintage wines at the first North Central Washington Wine Awards held in 2011. Two of the wines won Gold medals, the other Silver. One of the Gold medal winners was judged Best of Show. The other was the runner up.

It may have been a hard act to follow, but Beaumont Cellars has managed just fine, garnering top awards in the competition year after year. This year was no exception.

Judges awarded Beaumont Cellars four Gold and five Silver Medals at the 2020 competition. Honors included a Double Gold Medal and Best Red

Pete Beaumont is seen here at Beaumont Cellars’ tasting room near Quincy.

Wine Award for Beaumont’s 2018 Carménère and a Best of Class Award for the winery’s 2018 Syrah. Other Gold Medals were awarded to Beaumont’s 2017 Old Vine Cabernet Sauvignon and 2017 Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon.

After growing apples, pears and cherries on Quincy’s Babcock Ridge for more than 30 years, Pete and his wife Katie were looking for something new and engaging when they opened their tiny winery and tasting room at the ranch.

Socializing with tasting room visitors and wine club members has brought a direct connection with customers and a convivial aspect to farming that other crops don’t offer.

And the challenge of turning the fruit of the vine into great wine is something that Pete particularly looks forward to and enjoys. Beaumont’s wine selection has increased from three wines those first couple years to 17 wines today as Pete tries his hand at new varietals and styles.

Take those two Gold Medal-winning Cabernet Sauvignons for example.

“I wanted to make two different styles of Cab,” he said. It was a learning process. For the 2016 Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon, he used lush grapes from the Dick Shaw Vineyard in the famed Red Mountain growing area. The resulting wine is big, bold and with fruit forward flavors of black cherry, blackcurrant and blackberry. Fermenting grapes were punched down once a day and time on the skins was kept short to produce a smoothdrinking, fruit forward wine with softer tannins that pairs well with fatty, umami-rich food like charred burgers and braised short ribs.

Grapes for the 2016 Old Vine Cabernet Sauvignon were sourced from Rosebud Vineyard in Mattawa. It was the first vineyard in the Wahluke Slope area, planted in 1982. Pete said he handled those grapes differently, with a lengthy cold soak, multiple daily push downs and an extended maceration time before pressing to produce an even bigger, bolder Cabernet with

Rick Steigmeyer photo

beefy tannins that produce a long, velvety finish.

The 2018 Carménère was made from Benton City grapes grown in a vineyard near Red Mountain. The wine was cellared for 18 months, using 30 percent new French and 70 percent neutral oak barrels.

Judges unanimously gave it Gold and then voted it best among all the reds in the competition. Judges’ notes after tasting the wine included: “spiced with sweet herbs, a little pepper and blackberry fruit.” “Blackberry and blueberry on the palate, juicy acidity and a nice long finish with a scrape of chocolate and the light taste of jalapeño without the heat. A really pretty wine.”

Beaumont’s Gold medal 2018 Syrah was named Best of Class. Pete said he’s been sourcing his Syrah from the Greg Jones Vineyard in Mattawa for years. “It’s a really good spot for growing that grape,” he said.

It seems like Beaumont Cellars wines have found their sweet spot. F