Meet the Locals: Sailor Vineyards
by James Robinson, Your Co-op Sommelier
When it comes to drinking local, there are few operations as legit as Sailor Vineyards – a gravity fed, solar powered, practicing organic winery dedicated to wines made from estate grown fruit just minutes from downtown Port Townsend.
Founded in 2009 by Kit and Claire Africa, Sailor Vineyards has anchored itself to the production of wines made from Maréchal Foch – an obscure, difficult to pronounce, deep purple varietal that does well in our region.
“It’s cold hardy, disease resistant and thrives in our damp, maritime climate,” Kit Africa said. “We wanted to work with a grape we thought would do well here. It’s grown in New York’s Finger Lakes and throughout Canada’s Okanagan and even the San Juan Islands.”
Nestled deep in what is known as the Puget Sound American Viticultural Area (AVA), Sailor Vineyards struggles with all the appellation’s usual challenges – cool, damp conditions and powdery mildew chief among them. However, if the quality of their wine is any indication, the Africa’s have overcome the AVA’s hurdles and their grape of choice appears to thrive.
Big and juicy, with blue fruit notes anchored by spice, Sailor Vineyards’ ‘Captain’s Red’ is reminiscent of Cru Beaujolais or the cool climate reds of Alsace, Austria and Germany. For the Africa’s, their Maréchal Foch is the ultimate daily drinker.
“We like to drink it with whatever is being served – snacks, almost any dinner … mac n’ cheese,” Africa said.
Africa said he practices organic farming, picks and sorts by hand and takes a decidedly low tech, low intervention approach to vineyard management, harvest and production. As part of this approach, Africa said he ages the wine only in used oak barrels. This use of neutral oak, Africa said, allows layers of lush, beautiful fruit to shine without being masked by heavy handed aromas of vanilla or other oak overtones.
While the 2019 vintage bears all the hallmarks of Sailor Vineyard’s delicious, drinkable Captain’s Red, a barrel sample of the soon-to-be-released 2020 vintage foreshadows that the best from the Africa’s may be yet to come.
Big and opulent, yet balanced with soft tannins, low alcohol and food friendly acidity, the 2020 is utterly, and dangerously, quaffable. Africa said the difference between the two vintages might have less to do with the weather during the growing season and more to do with the fruit selection process. In years past, Africa said he often relied on friends and volunteer labor to help sort fruit. In 2020 however, with Covid-19 in full force, Africa said that just he and Claire picked and sorted all the fruit and the result was that only the vineyard’s premier grapes made the final cut.
“Nothing snuck by us this time,” Africa said. “The quality of the fruit was spectacular.”
Super selective sorting aside, Sailor Vineyards never produces large volumes of wine. They are a three to five barrel operation, Africa said, which translates into about 100 cases of wine each year.
Of those 100 or so cases, about 12 arrive at the Port Townsend Food Co-op. With Taste Washington Wine Month in full swing and all Local 5 wines discounted, there is no time like the present to taste Sailor Vineyard’s ‘Captain’s Red’ – a gorgeous little wine made from a grape you’ve probably never heard of.
