Clearwater Canyon Cellars Blog

Enthusiast Club Fall Release      Reflecting on our 20-year journey, building Clearwater Canyon Cellars, conjures many vivid memories.  Of those, planting the first vines of Umiker Estate Vineyard with grandpa Ralph firmly marks the beginning in my mind.  It felt wild, like ripping the lid off a time capsule, planting vines on our family’s century-old farm, with the hope of relaunching the famed pre-prohibition era wine industry.  So eager to taste wine grown in this legendary region, we forged ahead, establishing Clearwater Canyon Cellars without a clear expectation of what might come of it.  Boom or bust, we were so…

Moving forward after harsh winter weather The day the vineyard froze; this photo was initially taken to display the beautiful white blanketacross our vineyard, not knowing what was to come that evening. During a mid-winter freeze in January, our vineyard suffered unprecedented damage.  Temperatures dipped to -12°F and failed to rise above 0°F for over 50 hours, which is too cold for too long for the exposed woody parts of vines.  Fortunately, 6 inches of snow on the ground provided a blanket of warmth for the roots.  This bitter cold snap caused significant damage to vine wood above the snow line.  Our spring months were spent cutting the…

Our 2021 Albariño grapes, from the Crawford Vineyard in central Washington, saw a number of “firsts”.  They were the first fruit harvested, producing the first finished wine of that vintage and of Coco and Karl’s parenthood.  Then, Clearwater Canyon’s 2021 Albariño went on to win a double-gold medal, Best of Class, AND Best of Show at the 10th Annual Great Northwest Invitational Wine Competition in Hood River, Oregon in October.  This was the first time one of our wines won Best of Show!  From Eric Degerman’s article, on Great Northwest Wine’s webpage, ““That was the first vintage that Stella helped…

Almost 500 wines from 103 Northwest wineries were recently judged over a four-day period in July at the Bellingham Northwest Wine Competition.  The judging panel was composed of by a diverse group of professionals, all involved in the wine industry.  From winemakers to educators and retailers to sommeliers, they blind tasted and scored wines from some very well-known wineries, as well as a few wines from up-and-coming winemakers from Washington, Oregon, and Idaho. We are excited to announce that our 2020 Renaissance Red took home a Double Gold, a score of 97 points, AND tied for highest rated red wine…

After being named 2020 Northwest Winery of the Year we felt many eyes watching to see how we would uphold this distinction at the Platinum competition at the end of 2021. To our surprise we secured 9 Platinum Awards, the most awarded to any winery in 2021 and a record haul for Clearwater Canyon Cellars. We have competed for the past 9 consecutive years of the 22 years of the Platinum Awards competition. In that relatively short time, we have scaled the all-time Platinum leaderboard and secured the #6 spot! We are thrilled to be hanging closely with wineries we…

Although, we were named Pacific Northwest Winery of the Year in 2020, we finally received the award in-person!

2022 Enthusiast Club dinner! Come celebrate the 18th year of Clearwater Canyon Cellars! Dinner will be featured on multiple nights the last two weekends in January. Make your reservation today!