RIDGEFIELD — Labor Day weekend proved busy for Windy Hills Winery, which hosted a concert and a wedding the same weekend as county wineries’ long weekend wine and appetizers events.
Nine Clark County wineries joined the weekend event, where participants were encouraged to tour local wineries for snacks and tastes of different wines as a weekend trip. Windy Hills co-owner Dave Kelly described it as an effort of the area wineries association to help generate buzz for the regional wine scene.
“It’s just a way to get folks to kind of experience Southwest Washington wine,” he said.
Over the weekend, and when he helped staff the Southwest Washington Winery Association’s booth at the Clark County Fair, multiple people told him how surprised they were to learn about the wine making, and number of wineries, in the area.
Events like the weekend’s, and the events put on by individual wineries, are helpful to the local wine world, he said, in that they help create buzz.
“It gets folks out,” he said. “To go to see some different spots and experience that we’ve got a wide variety of wine.”
The Southwest Washington wine scene is still quite small.
Of the more than 900 wineries in the state, according to the Washington State Wine Commission, 15 or so are in Clark County.
Every winery has its own niche, he said, and the fact the different owners might be retired, people working as a second job, or enthusiasts with wine as their passion project means they each have their own style and capacity as far as promotion or reach.
Like the Labor Day weekend wine event, the local wine community’s coordination is fairly informal, said Mark Mahan, a co-owner at Burnt Bridge Cellars in downtown Vancouver.
His winery was part of the weekend wine events, and he’s been heavily involved in the Southwest Washington Winery Association.
On the one hand, the wineries are competitors as well as peers, and there are few resources, as a group or individually, to do more marketing.
Still, while he conceded it felt a bit like corporate PR-speak to say so, he felt the local winery association helps communicate what’s unique about Southwest Washington wine.
“Slowly, we’re acquiring more members, and I think we’re making ourselves more relevant all the time,” he said, adding its a good sign nobody’s leaving the group.
Compared to Oregon’s Willamette Valley, or the wineries on the east side of Washington’s Cascades, “We have a different world up here,” he added.
Both vintners said they were excited about what the expansion of the downtown Vancouver waterfront, and its planned Maryhill Winery tasting room, will mean for the area’s wine industry.
“I think there’s probably enough business on the north side of the river to keep us all very happy and profitable,” Mahan said. “But there’s this huge, untapped market on the south side.”
