Willis Hall Wine

Photo by Lorelle Del Matto

Wine, Food and Balance

With over 750 wineries and some 12 million cases of wine produced annually in Washington State, it’s easy to get lost in the crush of choices. 

Once in a while you run into a winemaker who rises above the multitude.  Given winemaking’s razor-thin margins, hard work and battles balancing art, science and mother nature, no one enters in the business without great passion.

Then there is John Bell.  Bell adds an underscore, bold and all-caps to the word “PASSION.”  I’d say he redefines the word. 

Photo by Lorelle Del Matto

Don’t look for a quaint Woodinville-style tasting room with smiling young pourers and a foyer full of corkscrews, dishtowels and jams for sale. Skip window dressing.  John Bell makes Willis Hall wine in a garage, literally, and pours his energy exclusively into the bottle.  You will find his wines at The Tasting Room at the Pike Place Market and select restaurants.

I felt like I should have a passport on the long drive to a private tasting at Willis Hall in Marysville. I admit that I wasn’t expecting a lot.  Another retired Boeing engineer adopting a second career as an artesian?  Doubts deepened when we entered the garage and I saw M&Ms on the table of nibbles.  M&Ms and wine? 

Photo by Lorelle Del Matto

Knowing the refined wine palates of our hosts, Spencer Johnson and Braiden Rex-Johnson of Northwest Wining and Dining  I was wrong to have doubts.  

John Bell doesn’t aim to impress; he is so confident in the what, why and how of what he does that he more or less lets his wine do the talking.   But if you ask, he fills in with fascinating detail. Not only does he apply engineering expertise to his craft, he is a chemist, schooling us on such matters as the copolymerization of tannins and anthocyanins in relation to color and taste changes during red wine aging.

I asked a few question to get a bead on his inspiration and methods.  What does he look to achieve in his winemaking?  Bell’s one-word answer, “balance,”  is embellished with an explanation that his palate has been cultivated over 35 years of tasting wines from all over the world.  Want to know about cab from Lebanon?  Ask Bell.  “Paul Gregutt said I ‘make new world wines in an old world style.’”  

How many winemakers show you his teeth in answer to a question about grape selection?  

Bell typically makes 3 to 4 trips to the vineyards each fall where he starts by looking for ripeness in the stem color.  He moves on to examine the color of the seeds.  If he sees mottled brown coloration he’s on the right track.  He chooses one of the greener seeds and mashes it between his front teeth to release tannins and looks for a retro-nasal aroma, reminiscent of nutty, burning mahogany.   The process continues on the drive home by nibbling on a handful of grapes to assess the flavonoids which he can detect under the skins.  The drive home gives him time to consider which of several dozen yeasts he might use for fermentation.   

To produce some 4 mainstream wines and small lots of less-known varieties each year Bell works with about 100 barrels of wine.  His blending techniques has been so fine-tuned over the years that now  he  can achieve “the right blend” after only one or two tries. 

Why does he make a lot of merlot?  “It’s the best grape in Washington!”  Tasting a ’94 and two ’95 Willis Hall merlots, one can can’t disagree with his focus. 

Photo by Lorelle Del Matto

 Getting back to the M&Ms, John wanted us to understand that he makes wine for the table, to accompany food, and encouraged us to explore different pairings of cheese, charcuterie, milk and dark chocolates to see what worked on our palates.

In case we didn’t know, he was adamant that general “wine and chocolate”  pairings are rarely harmonious.  That said, he presented us with some of his favorite wine accompaniments and pointed us to good combos like pepper-infused boursin with a peppery merlot. 

Photo by Lorelle Del Matto

I didn’t like dessert wine until I tried Willis Hall Symposium – it could become an after-dinner habit. Fruit wines?  Never – until I put my nose in a glass of John’s Razz- Ma-Tazz raspberry wine. 

Photo by Lorelle Del Matto

Shockingly fresh raspberry aroma delivers you to a seductive, sip of dessert.  It begged for a dark-chocolate M&M. 

The next day we sampled a Willis Hall merlot (2005) with a Sunday dinner of wild king salmon – a spot-on  match.  Tasting the merlot for the first time, our dinner guest used Bell’s exact descriptor, “balanced.” 

© 2013 Lorelle Del Matto