Royal City, Wash. – Gård Vintners proudly welcomes award-winning winemaker Aryn Morrell to its team, effective with its 2010 vintage of red wines. Morrell is a Washington native who has worked with several notable Napa Valley wineries, and is currently winemaker at Matthews Estate and Tenor Wines in Washington state.
Morrell’s talents will be applied to the red wines of 2010 and to all Gård wines in the 2011 vintage. He will also be instrumental in consulting on viticulture practices at Lawrence Vineyards, Gård’s estate vineyard, from which he has sourced grapes for three years for Matthews Estate wines and visits weekly throughout the year.
Morrell is the successor to Gård’s former winemaker, Robert O. Smasne, whom Gård attributes to its successful launch into the wine industry.
“Robert Smasne gave us a fantastic start in the Washington wine industry and we extend our gratitude to him for making great Gård wines over the past four vintages. We look forward to continuing to provide grapes to Smasne Cellars and share our Woodinville tasting room with Robert’s brands,” said Gård managing partner, Josh Lawrence.
Lawrence added: “We are fine-tuning our viticulture practices and winemaking approach, and are excited for Aryn to join us in crafting our next generation of wines and shaping our vineyard for the future.”
“As completely estate programs are rare in Washington, I am excited about the future at Gård and the ability to begin to craft wines that reflect the purity and immense potential of the vineyards that they own,” said winemaker Aryn Morell.
With the change in winemakers, Gård will move winemaking facilities from Grandview to Walla Walla. Gård will continue to operate its tasting rooms in Ellensburg and Woodinville.
ABOUT GÅRD VINTNERS
Gård (meaning “farm” – a tribute to the family’s Scandinavian heritage) is based in Royal City, where its award-winning estate vineyard, Lawrence Vineyards, is located. The Lawrence family has been farming the Royal Slope for more than 45 years, and started planting vineyard on the Frenchman Hills in 2003. Gård uncorked its first wines in 2006, and now produces about 3,000 cases a year. The winery has tasting rooms in historic downtown Ellensburg and the Woodinville Warehouse District.
Gård wine has won numerous awards including 90-point scores from Wine Enthusiast Magazine, Double Gold and Silver medals from the prestigious San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition, “Top 100 Wines in the Northwest” from Seattle Metropolitan Magazine and more. www.gardvintners.com
ABOUT ARYN MORRELL
Aryn grew up in Western Washington and left to attend the University of Nevada Las Vegas, originally for the golf program but ended up studying Chemistry at theCollege of Sciences there. Looking to continue that path to a career in Chemical Engineering, he spent a weekend in Napa Valley and was convinced by his brother that he should come to the Valley and experience the wine industry. After a few great meals and some great bottles of wine, Aryn began work in the wine industry of NapaValley in late 2003. He started as a lab technician for Golden State Vintners, who at the time was the fifth largest winery in the United States. He soon moved to share time at their ultra-premium property, Edgewood Estates. Aryn left GSV to go through an official winemaking internship at Silver Oak, Napa Valley. Looking to further his knowledge, he then went to work for a company that focused on Chemical Engineering within the wine industry from 2005 – 2008, and it was here that Aryn says he gained huge insights on the industry as the company had almost 900 clients. Through this company Aryn personally worked at wineries such as Joseph Phelps, Quintessa, Hundred Acre, Husic, Hartwell, Chimney Rock, Caldwell Vineyards, Vineyard 29, Chappellet, Rutherford Hill, Spring Mountain Winery, Stags Leap Winery, Turnbull, Elyse and countless others. He has always said that being able to achieve something in the winery usually means you needed to experience it at another place. Well, having been in most of the wineries that we all love, he has the unique ability to say he has actually seen those things first hand.
Aryn has been in Washington state since 2007 after taking over the winemaking at Matthews Estate in Woodinville. Since that point he has made some of Washington’s highest rated Sauvignon Blancs, as well as Syrahs that have never scored below 91 points in Wine Spectator. He also makes the wine for Tenor Wines, a new winery with a reserve-only program focused on making Washington’s greatest single varietals and one proprietary red blend.
Lisa Lawrence
Vice President, Marketing
Gård Vintners
lisa@gardvintners.com
509-346-1232
www.gardvintners.com