Owner/winemaker Angela Jacobs is a veteran of the Washington and Oregon wine regions who came to Manson, Wash. in 2010 to pursue her potential in the Lake Chelan Valley AVA. WineGirl reflects the work-around-the clock attitude of its owner. Located on Manson’s main street in a former garage, the winery combines tasting room and production. Crush gear jostles with cases and bottles of finished wines. The bar serves as a vantage point to observe punch down, fermenting, bottling or whatever else is Jacobs’ to-do list for the day.
“My winery and my wines reflect every aspect of my life,” says Jacobs. “I’m not finished [as a person] and so my wines aren’t finished in the traditional sense. I’ve learned to let the wine do its own thing. It doesn’t want to be managed.”
While female winemakers are hardly new to the Washington wine arena, Jacobs notes that she deliberately crafts wines far away from the stereotype wines of delicacy and gentle flavors still foisted onto women winemakers.
Her flagship wine, My Derby Wife Scarlet Leather Rosé, is a Syrah-based effort that illustrates Jacobs’ drive for distinction. “I went for the intrigue with this different take on a Rosé. It’s got all the classic elements but the Syrah gives it an edge. This is no Barbie doll wine.”
Punching with power, her wines reflect her drive for the intense and the memorable. Forget pastoral scenarios on her packaging; the labels are inspired from Jacobs’ love of the roller derby sport: Scarlet Leather, Pia Mess, Mona Lethal and Primp Daddy.
Jacobs has a special affection for the intense Syrah grapes she secures from Chelan vineyards. “You walk in and out of a Chelan vineyard and you smell like Syrah,” she notes with a wry smile. “That’s the intensity I’m after.”
While Jacobs enjoys the left of center humor she injects into her creations, her wine chops stem from serious study and work. She holds degrees in degrees in biochemistry and cell and molecular biology, though even then, wine was a passion (she titled an undergraduate project the “Wine Levels of Hell” inspired by Dante’s Divine Comedy). Her initial aim for a career in Big Pharma didn’t last long. “It didn’t suit me,” she said with a quick dismissive shake of her head.
Instead she followed wine harvests around the world before doing a stint in the Willamette Valley as a winery lab manager. Driven to make her own wines, by 2008, she was back in Seattle, working in pharma again while she pursued an MBA. By 2010, WineGirls was in full swing and Chelan was home.
“Chelan offers everything I want in a wine region—a climate that goes hot and then cool, creating higher acidity levels and longer aging potential in the wines. The intensity that I’m after? I find it here.”
My Derby Wife 2013 Scarlet Leather Rosé, $20
Editor’s Choice – Outstanding
Inspired by Angela Jacobs’ skating days with the Rat City Roller Girls, this Syrah-based Rosé is energetic and brash.
Nose: Copious aromas of tropical punch, watermelon, cherry blossom and citrus with nuances of clove and spice.
Taste: Packs a delicious punch with pie cherry, strawberry, grapefruit and lime zest. Balanced, with tangy acidity leading to a lively finish.
WineGirl Kamari 2011 Reserve Cabernet Franc, $38
Editor’s Choice – Outstanding
Kamari is the reserve label for WineGirl Wines. This sultry red wine was made with Columbia Valley fruit.
Nose: Floral, dusky aromas of crushed violets, lavender, cedar, red and blue fruit.
Taste: Tightly-focused with high-toned flavors of early-pick blueberry, raspberry and salmonberry seasoned with herbes de Provence. Fine tannins and river rock minerality on the finish.
Website: www.winegirlwines.com