- Washington Grown is made possible by funding from the Washington State Department of Agriculture and the USDA Specialty Crop Block Grant Program.

And by The Potato Farmers of Washington.

Learn why Washington is home to the world's most productive potato fields and farmers by visiting potatoes.com.

- On this special season of Washington Grown, we're following Washington Produce around the world.

- Here we go.

- I mean, there's just stuff happening everywhere.

- Breakfast, lunch or dinner.

- I'm doing all, all the work over here.

- That's a Tomás deluxe.

All good things are better shared, right?

- Cheers, my friend.

- Cheers.

- I can't even walk.

- We got a lot to explore and a lot to do.

So let's get to it.

- To Washington.

- To Washington.

- Hi everyone, I'm Kristi Gorenson and welcome to Washington Grown from a wine importer in Vietnam.

Now we know Washington wines are very special, but the secret is out.

Washington wines are beloved here in Vietnam and around the world.

In this episode, we're gonna show you why.

I'm helping out at Horse Heaven Hills wine making facility.

Can I screw this up?

- You might.

- And I'm making oyster tacos with rhubarb salsa at Duke's Seafood in Seattle.

- Probably should wait a second.

- I have definitely burned my mouth before on things like that.

Then we're visiting a wine shop in Vietnam.

I like the Riesling too.

I like the Chardonnay as well.

And the Merlot and the, yeah, and the...

I like them all.

All this and more today on Washington Grown.

One of the many magical things about Washington State is its absolutely stunning waterfront views and being so close to the ocean means fresh seafood.

Here at Duke's Seafood in South Lake Union, they're taking full advantage of the freshness of the Evergreen state.

- Oh you have to come to Duke's, you have to come to Duke's.

- It's the one place when I want a really, really good meal that's fresh.

It's high quality.

- The view is fabulous and the vibe, it's just really nice.

- Chef Amanda Herrera gets excited about fresh food from the water and on land.

The variety of Washington produce creates many unique opportunities to delight her guests.

- We don't like to take ourselves too seriously here, but we're serious about serving really good food, sourcing well and giving you great drinks.

- Duke's has gotta be the quintessential Seattle seafood place to go to.

- We did have stuffed shrimp, but now I'm stuffed.

- It just feels like home when you eat it, honestly.

It's just like, oh, so good.

- You know, using more local ingredients, you do taste the difference.

It's nice to know that it's not coming from across the country to get to you that you're serving, so.

- Don't miss later in the show, when Chef Amanda and I make oyster tacos with rhubarb salsa.

You know what one of my favorite ingredients is?

Wine.

- I mean, it's a good ingredient.

That's for sure.

[bright music] - Washington has all four seasons and that includes hot summers.

But these scorching days are perfect for growing amazing wine grapes.

That's why we're braving the heat at the Canoe Ridge Estate Vineyard.

Chateau Ste.

Michelle's Vice President of wine making, Katie Nelson is showing us what makes this area so perfect for wine grapes.

- The Horse Heaven Hills is an AVA that was established in 2005.

You know, there's some really unique characteristics about Horse Heaven Hills, and what an AVA is is it has, you know, kind of a defined set of characteristics which separate it from other growing areas.

So wind, of course, it's not very windy today.

- Not at the moment.

It's very hot though.

- But usually it's very windy and that kind of shuts down the vines to protect themselves from water loss.

So it makes for really concentrated bold wines.

During the summer months, we get really long, sunny days.

- Yeah.

- So we'll get very long daylight hours.

- Okay.

Depending on the variety, grapes are usually ready for harvest in the late part of the summer or early fall.

So how far away are these guys from being harvested?

- Probably about a month, maybe five weeks.

- Hmm.

- Are you taste more acidity and you can get kind of a little bit more green methoxypyrazines which is like bell pepper right now but that'll go away as they ripen and it'll just be really fruity.

When these are ripe, they're a lot sweeter than the grapes that you'd get in the grocery store.

- Oh really?

- My kids absolutely love wine grapes because, you know, sugar converts into alcohol.

So we want... - There we go.

- An alcohol in our red wines 13 to 14.5%.

- Before long, the 110 degree heat started getting to me a little.

The sweat just started- - I know.

- To pour off of me all of a sudden.

Oh, there we go.

- You need it really close.

- To get out of the heat, Katie and I went inside to their wine making facility.

This is amazing, and nice and cool.

- So this is our cellar.

- Okay.

- It's we're getting all cleaned up and ready for harvest, but in two to three weeks we're gonna have a ton going on here.

- Madhouse.

- A lot of people working, the grapes will be coming in.

We'll be running 'em through a sorter, crushing them and putting 'em in the tank and where we add the yeast and start the fermentation process.

- So this is gonna be super busy with action.

- Super busy.

- During harvest.

- Wine going everywhere.

- Well, it's no wonder though, that your wines go all over the world.

Where do you go?

- So we're in 50 states and 60 countries.

- That's amazing.

- Around the world.

- Yeah.

- So people enjoy our wine all over.

All different cuisines- - Does that feel good?

- It does.

That's my favorite part about what I do.

Just knowing that you know, somebody's gonna be drinking 'em in another country on vacation with their food, or.

- It's great to reach so many people.

- It wasn't long before I was recruited into the job of racking wine from a barrel into a tank.

Can I screw this up?

- You might.

- So I'll follow you.

- Okay.

So you're gonna pull up on it, release the pressure, right?

- Yeah.

- Lift it up outta the barrel.

- You need some muscles for this job.

- And we're gonna put it in the barrel.

- Oh, I see, it does come out.

- Displaces some wine.

- Push it in there.

- Okay.

- So it creates a good seal.

[high pitch sound] Okay, and then open the valve here.

- I'm afraid.

- Turn the- - Oh, supposed to sound like that.

- We did it.

It's on its way.

- Okay.

- So there's 59 gallons of wine in here and you just spilled a little bit.

- And I just spilled a little bit.

- So it's a form of clarifying.

So the leaves and dead yeast and little particulates settle out in the barrel and we're taking the clean wine off the top.

- Awesome.

- And leaving what's behind so we rinse that out and then we go back to barrel and as you do that, that's a form of just clarifying our wine so it's clean in the bottle.

Let's do a barrel tasting.

- Okay.

- We typically do that after we put a blend together.

We'll come out and taste from each barrel.

'cause each barrel imparts different flavors.

- Sure.

- Depending on the forest and the toast, and how long the wood staves have aged or seasoned.

This is a Cabernet.

- Okay.

- 2022 vintage.

- Smells good.

- Picked last year.

- I'm just doing what you do.

- I'm getting a lot of dark.

- What are you smelling?

- Dark fruit like blackberry, black cherry, roasted nuts, little tobacco.

- I mean, I'm getting none of that, but I'm not an expert.

I think it smells really good.

I do get like a toastiness to it.

- It's big.

It's gonna age another year, which will soften the tannins.

- Oh yeah.

- Really well balanced.

- So why did you decide to get into wine making?

- I grew up in Illinois.

My great-grandfather was Italian and he made wine in his basement.

- Oh, fun.

- So wine, we had to go to these Sunday dinners every single week for hours and hours, and we'd eat courses of pasta and wine was always just part of those lively family gatherings.

- That's lovely.

- And I just remember thinking, I loved how it brought everybody together.

I loved how it brought, you know, the farming and the science and the art altogether.

- Right.

- And no two days are ever the same in the wine business and being a wine maker, which is also really fun.

I've been making wine for almost 30 years and- No two vintages are ever the same.

And mother nature always throws curve balls so it's always a challenge.

- So when we open up a bottle like this, we can think of you.

Thank you Katie.

We appreciate you.

- One of the coolest things about wine is being able to compare different varieties and tastes, and Washington state has that covered in spades.

With its amazing grape growing regions, it's hard to decide which wines to taste.

That's why today, I visited Rapport on Capitol Hill, where owner David Clauson is shaking up the world of wine tasting with this self pour wine concept.

This is pretty unique.

So it's just like- - Yeah, in fact, it's pretty much the first place in Washington state doing this type of thing.

- Okay.

- For wines on tap, we have 80 wines, so no lack of choices.

- Alright.

- Some amazing Washington wines, but also really kind the whole world of wine here.

So you can get like, just a little taster pour.

You can get a half glass, you can get a full glass.

- So if I just want to taste this to bring up my glass and I just hit the button?

- Yeah, perfect.

- Hey.

- There you go.

- Look at that.

- You're already an expert.

- This really allows your imagination to just go wild and try things from all over the state, all over the world.

- No, exactly, that's the point.

A fun way of making wine more fun.

- Yeah, I like that.

- And you know, I think like that's the problem with wine.

Like, you know, sometimes it can be a bit intimidating.

- Little stuffy.

- Little stuffy, exactly.

All these like, you know, hard to pronounce things and names and whatnot, you know, none of that makes it more relaxing.

And we want it to be fun, relaxing, you know, just a good time.

You happen to have wandered past one of our high-end real estate sections, you might say, this is our rare wines.

Some of these bottles are a 100, 200, $500.

What have you.

- Right.

- And there's a chance, like even if you don't get a full glass and get a little taster pour, you know, that's affordable.

- Right.

- And just try something pretty amazing.

- Well, you know what they say when in Rome, I had to try one of these expensive wines.

And the Cayuse from Walla Walla definitely caught my attention.

Wow, it's very fragrant.

It almost has like a minty kind of brightness to it.

If you wanna try a $500 bottle of wine, but you just can't do it, come here, get yourself an ounce or two and then you can say you've tried it.

- So this is a super cool sparkling wine from a wine maker here called Jay Anderson.

This one is actually part wine, part cider.

- Okay, well.

- Made actually in this case, not with apples, but with pears and then Riesling grapes of all things.

- Let's check this out.

- So, let's give it a try.

- Oh, look at that.

- First of all, cheers.

- Cheers.

- What I like to say my highest compliment.

Highly drinkable.

- Well and dangerously drinkable.

- Even better.

- What is it about places like this that are just a necessity?

- It's all about like, socializing, being that kind of third place, home.

You know, where you go out with your friends.

That's what we're trying to create here.

Again, just a great fun time.

What I love about, you know, people in Washington is they're curious about wine.

You know, we're obviously in a big wine producing state.

You know, there's definitely like some amazing, you know, full-bodied red wines that we're known for making, but at the same time lots of up and coming smaller producers.

So, just that kind of excitement.

And you know, you see that in the customers too.

- See these barrels behind me?

How many bottles do you think each one of these holds?

I'll let you know right after the break.

- Coming up, I'm at Duke's Seafood in Seattle making oyster tacos with rhubarb salsa.

You know what one of my favorite ingredients is?

Wine.

- I mean, it's a good ingredient.

That's for sure.

- It's a good ingredient.

- And we're in the kitchen at Second Harvest, trying Chef Laurent's homemade Boursin cheese.

- So each one of these barrels holds 300 of these bottles of wine.

- We're are back at Duke's Seafood in South Lake Union.

Phenomenal views, and even more incredible food means the guests always leave with a full belly and a smile on their face.

- We wanna try everything 'cause it all looks so good.

- The scenery's been perfect.

It's just been delightful.

- If I want like a good seafood meal, I come to Duke's.

- We really focus on using local and organic products here.

- Chef Amanda Herrera keeps an eye on the season catering the menu to make sure fresh Washington grown produce compliments her menu perfectly.

- We are serving Washington asparagus as our seasonal vegetable.

I'm really looking forward to zucchini season.

When the berries come into play here in the summertime, those will be featured on some seafood dishes as well.

- You have it all?

- Yes.

- That's great.

- Yeah.

- And what pairs better with seafood than wine?

- We have really cultivated a lot of relationships with Washington wineries.

We actually have on our boutique wine list that's on our menu is all Washington wines.

- Nice.

- The large variety that we have here in this state of the wines that we actually produce here, it really lends itself to be able to go with a variety of different foods.

This wine in particular, it's from Chateau St Michelle, which everyone knows about.

- Yeah, we love it.

- And this one is from Horse Heaven Hills Vineyard.

It's a Sauvignon Blanc.

I think it's delicious.

I think it's gonna pair really nicely later with the dish that we're making.

- What are you and I going to make today?

- Today we're gonna prepare a pan fried oyster taco with a pickled rhubarb salsa.

- Ooh, it's springy.

- Yes.

I'm excited to see what you think about it.

- And then we're gonna pair it with some Washington wine too?

- I think it's gonna go great with the Sauvignon Blanc here.

- Okay well, cheers.

I can't wait.

Thank you so much.

- Cheers.

You're welcome.

- I see you have these oysters, but these are gorgeous.

- Yes.

- Tell me about these.

- These are two types of oysters.

The bigger one is a Pacific oyster.

- Okay.

- All grown here.

- Yeah.

- And the smaller ones are Takaras - Takaras, okay.

- Yeah, so a little bit smaller.

- Okay, let's get started.

- Perfect.

- I started chopping some rhubarb for the salsa while chef breads the oysters.

So I don't think I've ever thought of rhubarb and oysters in the same realm before.

- Yeah.

- How does that work?

- I live down by a bunch of farms down in Pierce County and there's so many rhubarb, you know, bushes growing right now.

- Absolutely.

- And I love rhubarb and I love it pickled.

- Yeah.

- And I thought it would be a nice combo.

- We put our rhubarb into a bowl with salt, honey, rice wine vinegar, and water, and let it pickle overnight.

Next we add red onion, cilantro, jalapeño, salt, cumin, and olive oil in with the rhubarb and mix it up.

What a good idea.

I never would think rhubarb in a salsa.

- Well, and I think a lot of people associate rhubarb with desserts or something sweet.

It's always been a favorite ingredient of mine since I was a young girl.

My grandma made a rhubarb pie that I just always loved.

- You know what one of my favorite ingredients is?

Wine.

- I mean, it's a good ingredient.

That's for sure.

- It's a good ingredient.

Now we fry the oysters.

What is it about white wine that goes well with some of these flavors?

- Yeah.

You know, white wine's especially the Sauvignon Blanc has that acidic crispiness taste to it so it just pairs well.

I mean, you have the acidity coming from the pickled rhubarb and so they compliment each other.

You know, it's like when you have a margarita and you have that lime, it helps cut through some of the fat that's coming in to.

- These are hearty.

- Yes, definitely a hearty taco.

And that's, it's kind of the Duke's way, you know.

- The Duke's way.

We add some avocado crema and our rhubarb salsa and then it's time to eat, almost.

- Probably should wait a second.

- I have definitely burned my mouth before on things like that.

Well, cheers.

Have a little taste of this first.

- Cheers.

- Thank you so much.

- You're welcome.

- That's really good.

- It's really good, isn't it?

- Yeah.

But we need to eat some food too.

- Yes, we do.

- I'm gonna make a huge mess.

- Me too.

- Okay, dig in.

- Okay.

- That's really good.

The tartness from the salsa on top.

Really, really good.

- Yes.

Tastes like the northwest.

- It does.

What a great way to use rhubarb because everybody has rhubarb in their backyard just about.

And what a great way to, you know, showcase our Washington oysters and the wine.

- Almost brings out the, a little bit more of the fruitiness of the wine the second go around.

- You're right.

- Yes.

- Very, very good.

I'm gonna have another bite.

- Perfect.

- Dig in.

To get the recipe for Duke's oyster tacos with rhubarb salsa, visit us at wagrown.com.

Coming up, we're visiting a Vietnamese wine shop that loves Washington wines almost as much as I do.

I like the Riesling too.

- Good.

- I like the Chardonnay as well.

And the Merlot and the, yeah.

I like them all.

[bright music] [lively music] We went to many places on our trip to Vietnam and when we were scheduled to meet with wine importers Phú & Em group, we never expected the warm welcome we were met with.

This tiny shop in Ho Chi Minh City was filled with people happy to talk about Washington wine, but perhaps the most excited of all was the matron of the house, Miss Ngoc Dinh.

And I feel like I'm at home because I'm surrounded by Washington Wine.

Thank you for having us.

How long have you been doing this?

How long have you been in the business?

[speaking Vietnamese] Oh, that's a long time.

- Yeah.

- Yeah, good job.

- I work in before when I'm young, very young.

- When you were very young.

Phú & Em is a family operation, which means her sons are very involved in the business.

- Ten years ago, nobody know about Washington Wine.

When they talk about American wine, they just talk about Napa Valley.

We choose Washington wine also because we think like, okay, nobody knows so we can be the best.

- It's only been within the past 10 years or so that the people of Vietnam have really begun enjoying wine.

As a relatively new beverage in the country, Phú & Em Group has been influential in showing people how amazing wine can be.

With help from partnerships, they're importing great wine from around the world.

- My name is Inishiday from the Kamei Corporation.

The Kamei Corporation is a trading company in the Japan.

When the I visited Vietnam first time, I was surprised for the Vietnamese preferred to drink the beer.

However, for the, some people can drink the wine and everybody happy to drink, wow.

Incredible.

- Yeah.

- Do you have a favorite Washington wine?

- I would love for the Riesling.

- I like the Riesling too.

- Good.

- I like the Chardonnay as well.

And the Merlot and the, yeah.

I like them all.

- Before in 1992, you know, in Vietnam, they don't know anything about wine.

When they see the wine they say, "What is this?"

- Yeah, what is this?

- Yeah.

They don't understand what it's made from.

So I mean like they don't understand anything.

But my mom is the first lady importing the wine into Vietnam.

- It sounds like the people of Vietnam are learning a lot about wine.

- Because of my mom, I think.

- Yeah.

- It's true.

- Because of your mom.

- It's true, it is true.

She the first lady...

I really proud of my mom.

It's true.

- Yeah, yeah.

She the first lady to import her wine.

- That's incredible, girl power.

- Yeah, I think that's power.

- Before we left, we sat down with Phú & Em's sommelier wine specialist.

- I'm Jean-Bernard Baudron.

I'm French and I'm a sommelier.

Washington state are producing very amazing good wine, thanks to the climate, which gives a lot of freshness, a lot of elegance to the wine.

So I love very much this wine, especially this brand.

- Although we're far from home, it's never a bad time to try some Washington grown Chateau Ste.

Michelle Sparkling wine.

- Talking is good, but tasting- - Drinking is better.

- Yeah, exactly.

Okay, cheers.

- Tell me yes, cheers.

- So you can see we have a very nice, pale yellow color.

Nice bubble, very tiny bubble.

- Yeah.

- So this is sign of quality for the sparkling wine.

Very fresh, very citrusy, green apple.

A lot of freshness.

Very nice texture.

- Easy to drink.

- Easy, easy, easy.

The bubbles are creamy.

Very a lot of creaminess.

- Yeah.

- It's very smooth.

- Wonderful, well thank you for sharing.

- You're welcome.

- Yes, pleasure to meet you.

- Cheers.

- Cheers.

[bright music] - We are in The Kitchen at Second Harvest Food Bank in Spokane and I'm here with my awesome taste testers.

We have Chef Laurent Zirotti.

Thank you again.

- Hello Kristi.

- And my co-host Tomás.

- Indeed.

It's a pleasure to be here with you.

- I love it when they put wine in front of me.

- I know, it's the best episode.

- It's so great.

Yes, and so we have a Chateau Ste.

Michelle, it's their Horse Heaven hills Sauvignon Blanc, which is amazing.

Basically we've followed this wine.

- You did?

- All over the world.

We went to the vineyard and saw the grapes.

- On a very hot day.

- On a very hot day.

We got to see in Vietnam how much they are loving Washington wine specifically.

They had gift boxes and you know, they'd put Washington pears together with our Washington wine and you know, that's how people would celebrate Tet.

You know, the new year celebration there.

It was really awesome to see.

- You must feel proud to see that and coming from that beautiful state and say.

- To see these products go and take on a life of their own that you don't even realize.

You just, you see 'em in a store.

"Okay, great, I'll have some wine with my fish."

But then you see how other countries take these products and transform them and make gift boxes like you said- - And celebrate them.

- Yeah, celebrate them.

It's just fun to see.

- Yeah.

I mean we're like, we love Washington wine and we know that it's delicious, but to see it being celebrated in other parts of the world was really cool.

And I love the wine and we're gonna pair- - We're gonna pair- - Some food with it.

Yes, yes.

We decided to pair it with cheese obviously.

Lot of people will tell you, well, you know, I'm gonna have a red glass of wine with one cheese.

Some cheese are not meant to have a red wine in pairing.

- Yeah.

- And especially this, this is a kind of a goat cheese.

It is Boursin.

Boursin is a brand.

- Yes.

- But we are not buying the brand, we are making our own mix.

- Oh, fun.

- From goat cheese.

I feel that goat cheese is very acidic, right?

It has that tartness.

It goes great with the white wine, especially with Sauvignon Blanc.

- So this is the one.

- Love it, okay.

- This is the one, exactly.

- All right.

- Let's try that.

- Yeah, we're gonna see how it's made.

- Yes.

[cheery music] - It smells good.

- It does.

It smells really fresh and herby.

- I feel so sophisticated with this.

- You are so sophisticated.

- It's the wine.

It's 8:00 AM we are having wine, right?

- Exactly.

- Don't tell them that it's 8:00 AM.

- The tang of the goat cheese is there, but it's not overpowering.

- No.

- And you'll see.

- I love that freshness.

- The wine will balance.

- Okay, let's follow it up.

- Yep.

- Oh wow.

- So if you are not sure about how it tastes... - That's great.

- You go again.

- Yeah.

- And again and again.

- Until you need a refill.

- Exactly.

That's the idea.

- It goes so great, it pairs so well.

- Yeah, that's nice.

- The goat cheese is, like you said, it has tang, but it's also rich too.

- It is very rich.

- And so this kind of- - Lightens it up a little bit.

- I love this.

This is so good.

- This is so good.

I feel like after we're done here, we'll need to step to the library for cigars and port.

- You're feeling fancy, aren't you?

Tomás is feeling very fancy.

If you would like to try this recipe, just go to wagrown.com.

You can only find these recipes on our website.

So thank you so much for this, Laurent.

- You're very welcome.

- Yes.

- Santé.

- And santé.

Cheers to you.

To WA Grown.

To get the recipe for Chef Laurent Zirotti's homemade Boursin cheese, visit us at wagrown.com.

Washington Wine is special from the vineyard to the winemaker, to the importer, to the glass, all the way across the ocean.

That's it for this episode of Washington Grown.

We'll see you next time.