The Inspired Intermedia digital book collection
Issue link: https://inspired.uberflip.com/i/813978
LEFT: Early morning fog rises above the Paradise Hills Vineyard and olive trees at Blankiet Estate. Allen's unique model specified that the winemakers would return to Washington each vintage to guide fruit selection, blending, and the wine's release. This necessitated an on-site head winemaker capable of coordinating the day-to- day operations with the partners, which he found in Gilles. By 2004, the first vintage was released—a 2003 riesling—with the first red offered the next year. The collaboration was an instant success resulting in award after award, and Food & Wine magazine named Long Shadows winery of the year in 2007. From the beginning, Allen promised each winemaker their choice of the finest grapes in the state and the best winemaking facility money could buy; a quick tour of the facility demonstrates his commitment to this promise. In 2006, he began work on a one-of-a-kind, state-of-the-art winery in Walla Walla that would accommodate each of the talented winemakers' individual needs, taking into account their array of fermentation methods and barrel regimens. Once operational, work began on a contemporary, glass-faced tasting room. Named the Chihuly Room, the space is a collaboration between Allen and longtime friend Dale Chihuly. This famed glass artist's colorful work—including a brilliant purple and gold chandelier—is beautifully showcased in the room, providing an entrancing atmosphere in which to taste Long Shadows' wines. Of course the basis for each of the wines is fruit that knows no limits. Soon after Long Shadows was founded, Allen's priority rested on finding a long- term, keynote source for top quality grapes—and he knew just the place within Horse Heaven Hills. Formerly the Wallula Vineyard, the stunning piece of land was purchased and renamed The Benches. Planted on the land's dramatic slope that rises nearly 1,000 feet from the banks of the Columbia River to the vineyard's peak, the vines provide nothing short of excellence. Viticultural merits abound, offering exactly the level of quality that brought Allen and his partners to the Columbia Valley in the first place. Despite Allen's modest approach to the public and his preference to work quietly in the background while the artists, as he calls them, take center stage, it is clear that Allen and his visionary program have shaped Washington's wine industry for the better, certainly casting a long shadow that will be recognized for generations to come.