Vibrant Artist

Hi Wine Friends~

Years ago Steve and I were visiting a winery in Napa where we picked up a t-shirt for our then eight year-old son.  The front of the shirt had a frog with his tongue outstretched to snag a fly in the air. The back of the shirt said "Time's fun when you're having flies".  Many times over the last eleven years when we're having a really good time, one of us will look at the other and say "Times fun when you're having flies..." Last month at the release for Stevens' Si wine, we found ourselves repeating that phrase pretty much all night long.

We first experienced Stevens' wine in 2006, the first year they released their Black Tongue Syrah.  It was a December night during the Woodinville St. Nick's celebration. We were a bit late getting started but decided to go to a couple of wineries in the main section of the warehouses, and then to visit Stevens' since it was a little off the beaten path and on our way home. The other two wineries we'd visited were noisy and crazy, and pretty much what we expected during St. Nick's. A little impersonal and you could barely hear each other speak.  The wines were good and we had fun, but a little too crazy for our taste. When we arrived at Stevens' we were pleasantly surprised as we were greeted by Tim and Paige pouring a bottle of their then newly released syrah, Black Tongue. They introduced themselves and the wine, and we could actually hear every word Tim was saying as he described how he made it. Personal and personable are the words I would use to describe that evening.  

Four years later at my first Stevens release (what was I doing when I missed all the other release parties? Whatever it was, I won't be doing it again), I thought of this. We now stood in their larger space among 97 other people who first responded to their SI release invitation (they cut the list at 100 two days after the invitation went out), and it still felt personal.  Tim and Paige were still personable, greeting everyone who came through the door with "Thanks for coming", pointing out where the first course and our glass of Viognier was, handing out corks for us to write our names on for a "surprise game later", and making us feel like we were a gathering of their closest friends.

The food that night was superb--course after course was brought out on a gurney by Tim and a another guy I thought was the professional chef. When I stopped the other guy to ask for his business card after he delivered the fourth course, Kalbi marinated beef tenderloin and rosemary potato with a caramelized onion aioli, he told me he didn't have a business card because he was a fireman. He said Tim made all the food, with a little help from his friends. I looked around the tasting room at some of Tim's art, paintings of the labels he'd created for their wines, clay masks, and my favorite, his barrel stave art pieces. 

Paul Gregutt points out that "There are many winemakers who are artists, who make wine from the gut more than the lab, and who display a refined sensibility akin to a fine painter. But there are very few visual artists who are winemakers.  In the Northwest I can think of only James Frey at Trisaetum winery in Oregon, and Tim Stevens at Stevens winery in Woodinville."

 I wonder how many have culinary talent that matches their expertise in winemaking, visual art and who studied English literature in college.  I'm guessing Tim is alone on that list. That fact and the lovely, inky, earthy wines he and Paige create at Stevens, won me as a fan. Time's fun when you're having Stevens' wines!

Descriptions and Recent Scores:

2007 STEVENS424