The Costco Connection - September 2017

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Potomac do you grow the grapes on?’
That’s the wrong Washington.”
What’s so great about Washington
wines? Baseler explains, “They’re some-
where between the fruit intensity of Cali-
fornia and the re;nement of Europe, which
is a wonderful place to be.” He notes that
Washington and Bordeaux share the same
latitude and similar terroir: “We have great
fruit character, and they are re;ned wines,
not quite as high [in] alcohol as some wines
in the world, but they have that tremendous
structure. One of the things that we see in
France and Washington is we have cool
nights, and that keeps the acidity up a little
bit. Acidity is important for ;avor.”
To date, Chateau Ste. Michelle has re-
ceived ;; Winery of the Year honors from
Wine & Spirits, and ;; of its wines have
blind tasting conducted by the Los Angeles
Times, and won, giving it the deserving
exposure the company sought. But as a
consequence, the young winery was sold
out for the next decade, and it struggled to
grow enough grapes to meet demand.

Baseler, a Seattle native, had served as the winery’s advertising account manager at an outside agency. After taking the vice president of marketing position at CSM in ;;;;, he worked his way through the executive ranks, becoming CEO and president in ;;;;.

When Baseler joined, there were ;; wineries in the state, “most of them struggling,” he says, and about ;,;;; acres of vineyards. Today, those numbers have soared to nearly ;, ;;; wineries and about ;;,;;; acres of vineyards.

been ranked in the Top ;;; by Wine Spectator. Baseler himself received Wine Enthusiast’s Man of the Year award in ;;;;. Despite his accomplishments, Baseler is soft-spoken and approachable. He prefers to emphasize that in the same year as his Man of the Year award, Wine Spectator named Columbia Crest Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon (made by an a;liated winery—more on that later) as the best wine in the world.

Before CSM

While the winery is celebrating half a century of existence, its roots run much deeper, to the end of Prohibition. In ;;;;, two wine companies were founded in Seattle: Pommerelle and National Wine Company (NAWICO). They merged in ;;;; to create American Wine Growers. To stay competitive, the o wners developed a European winemaking style—a big departure from the fruit wine and forti;ed dessert wines that dominated the state’s ;edgling industry at the time.

The daughter of a company executive had studied in France and visited Mont Saint-Michel. This inspired the brand’s initial name, Ste. Michelle Vintners, formally established in ;;;;. Its ;rst run produced ;,;;; cases of cabernet sauvignon, sémillon and pinot noir.

In ;;;;, the winery participated in a

Building an industry and an empire

Baseler says one of the biggest endeavors that changed the trajectory of CSM, and Washington’s wine industry, was the winery’s participation in a total quality management program in the early ;;;;s. The goal, as the phrase suggests, was to improve the wine’s quality and boost production. “As a result, we were able to taste a lot of great French wine, and we did a lot of scienti;c [research into] what made those,” he explains.

Their ;ndings prompted the winery to lower its vineyard yields and increase its usage of French oak barrels, in addition to tweaking the fermentation process. “That jumped our wine quality ;; points,” Baseler says.

With its improved product, CSM participated in blind tastings around the world for the next decade. “It would really surprise people, customers and distributors, how good these wines in Washington were,” says Baseler. He adds that he formed critical relationships with industry connoisseurs and internationally renowned wineries in Europe, which continued to increase the state’s popularity and production.

As word about CSM spread, the company began opening up global distribution for all Washington wines. “We’re kind of like that snowplow in the front of the train that opens up the tracks for everyone,” says Baseler. “That’s our philosophy. We’re really more interested in creating an environment for Washington wines than worrying about market share. It’s something that’s

Top to bottom: 50th-anniversary ;ags line the walkways at the winery; white wine is bottled in the production area; steel fermenters hold sauvignon blanc; for the winery’s 50th anniversary, Chateau Ste. Michelle completed a multimillion-dollar renovation of the winery’s tasting room, which includes a theater and an interactive blending room, where customers can bottle their own wine.