Kirkland, WA — Eccolo Cellars is a boutique collaboration focused on expressing Piedmont grape varieties in Washington State. With his heritage in Northern Italy, owner Adam Ashley Bernstein began his journey in wine a long time ago, sharing bottles with friends during Italian-style dinners. After moving to Washington from his home in upstate New York, he quickly jumped into the local world of wine by becoming the manager and wine buyer for The Grape Choice in Kirkland. After several years of meeting many of the local winemakers and learning about the region’s vineyards and varietals, a serendipitous discussion began one morning with his friend, winemaker Morgan Lee, while they both walked their dogs in Heritage Park.
Winemaker Morgan Lee has successfully experimented with natural fermentation for several vintages.
Kirkland local Morgan Lee is an already well-established winemaker, starting out with Columbia Crest, he now makes wine at II Vintners, as well as Covington Cellars. A rising star, Morgan has been making a Barbera for several years with fruit sourced from StoneTree Vineyard. Learning that Morgan was no longer going to be working with the fruit under the Covington label, a simple conversation sparked their collaboration.
One Vineyard. One Variety.
Morgan recounts their first conversation. “After I mentioned that I was no longer working with the Barbera from StoneTree Vineyard, Adam exclaimed that he wanted to contract the entire block! I laughed and told him, ‘Whoa, calm down now. Do you know how much wine that will make? Let’s start small. Don’t go nuts. You can always get more in the future.’ ”
So Morgan contacted vineyard manager Tedd Wildman and secured one acre of Barbera, planted in 2002, for Eccolo Cellars. StoneTree Vineyard is located just outside of Mattawa, Wash., on the south side of the Sentinel Gap. Unique in its location, the soil has remnants of fossilized trees. The name of the vineyard is derived from the fact that there are a large number of petrified tree fossils found in the surrounding hills. Many of the top bottlings in the state contract with StoneTree Vineyard for fruit including Darby, Guardian Cellars, even Chateau Ste. Michelle.
Simplicity on the Bottle. Complexity in the Wine.
From the beginning, Eccolo Cellars meant to keep it simple, to express the brightness of fruit and natural acidity of Barbera, while the winemaking was to be as non-interventionist as possible. The first vintage was fermented in two distinct styles, with two-thirds fermented using commercial yeast to express the richness of the fruit and one-third was allowed to ferment naturally, according to the lunar cycle, to showcase the earthier flavors, thus creating two distinct flavor profiles. The wine was aged in neutral French and Hungarian oak, all medium-plus toast, and aged for 36 months. The oak influence accents the grapes natural fruit and does not overpower the wine, invoking flavors of spice and sandalwood, more so than the toast and vanilla notes from newer oak.
Adam remembers quite clearly when he first told Morgan that he wanted to harvest the grapes on the new moon, which was October 26th of 2011. Morgan scoffed at the idea of using the lunar cycle as a guide for winemaking. “Hippy,” he said. But Adam believes in it entirely. When using natural yeasts to get the fermentation started, it usually takes a while, but if it goes too long without fermenting, bacteria can get introduced and ruin the entire batch.
Almost two weeks had passed and the grapes had not started to ferment. Winemaker Morgan told Adam, “If it doesn’t get started by Monday, we will have to pitch in yeast in order to get it going. I don’t want to have a stuck fermentation—it can introduce bacteria and ruin everything.”
Adam checked the lunar calendar and found that not only was a full moon close, but as well he noted that a large asteriod was passing by the planet on Tuesday evening. “Do not worry, by Wednesday morning when you arrive at the winery, fermentation will have begun!” Adam said. Morgan continued to shake his head and told him, “You’re crazy.” On that Wednesday morning when Morgan got to the winery, the fermentation had begun. “I still don’t believe in it,” says Morgan skeptically, “but he does.”
Eccolo’s inaugural vintage will be released on Saturday, June 8, 2013 at The Grape Choice under two different bottlings. The first is an expression of the blend of the two flavor profiles, aged for 18 months in French and Hungarian oak, and is Adam Bernstein and Morgan Lee’s attempt at creating the best Barbera in Washington state.
The second bottling, not yet released, will be aged for 24 months in only Hungarian oak, all of which is a single cooperage from a single vintage of barrel, to invoke the spirit of a true Italian-styled Barbera. A new label will be introduced to separate the two, the second being known as Vinificazione Naturale.
Moving forward for the winery, Eccolo Cellars now accesses fruit from both StoneTree Vineyard and Boushey Vineyard, and uses all vintage Hungarian oak. There is talk about expanding the grape varieties offered, but as Morgan stated, “You can always make more.”