South Beach Bulletin Feature on Dana Roberts

It's great to share this incredible story about Dana Roberts, our son and winemaker. You’ll probably never see a story about Carrie, our daughter and tasting room manager, since hers is not the glory job, but rest assured the people we do business with appreciate her dedication to details. We are proud of both of our kids for taking on this huge endeavor with us. It is definitely a family and team effort where each person brings special talents to the winery’s success.

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Local young vintner already making his mark in competitive industry

Dana Roberts making award-wining wines

By Barb Aue

With more than 80 industry-related awards for the wines he has produced, Westport Winery’s vintner, Dana Roberts, has every reason to claim bragging rights. But this young craftsman, who, at the ripe old age of 26, has just three years experience in wine making  and viticulture, is incredibly self-effacing. Saying that while the recognition from those ‘in the know’ is rewarding, the excitement for him comes first with the harvest season and then with the bottling process, because of the anticipation of what’s going to come from each vintage that follows.

“The longest and hardest hours come during the harvest season and during the bottling process, but the anticipation for what’s going to come from that vintage makes it all worthwhile,” Dana said.

“Winemaking is infinitely interesting because the little things you do along that process have a great influence on the final product,” he added.  

In the beginning

Roberts got his start in winemaking when his folks, Blain and Kim Roberts, decided to develop acreage they purchased on SR105 halfway between Westport and Aberdeen in early 2007 into a winery and vineyard.

The timing was good for Dana. He had just graduated from Eastern Washington University with a Liberal Arts degree and didn’t have any specific plans at the time for what might come next.

“While I had tasted wine before— after all, I was in college for four years,” he said with a laugh, “I didn’t have any real appreciation for wine until I spent some time in the Chianti region of Italy in 2006 while visiting a friend who was studying there. We traveled to Florence and Rome and grew to appreciate wine as an integral part of daily life’s pleasures.”

Apprenticeship

To see if wine making might be to his liking, Dana spent five months working for longtime family friend, winemaker Don Wood, and Don’s in-laws Louie & Judy Wagoner at the family’s Icicle Ridge Winery in Peshastin, located in the foothills of the Cascade Mountains.

Starting in the late summer of 2007, Dana apprenticed with Wood, learning about cellar practices and skills, management, filtration and racking. He stayed through the winery’s harvest season and the ‘crush’, when white wine grapes are stemmed and skinned and red wine grapes are “punched down” because they are processed with their skins on in preparation for blending and aging.

Formal  education

Following his stint at Icicle Ridge, Dana says he knew that he wanted to be a winemaker. He immediately entered the Washington State University Extension program in Professional Enology (winemaking) in early 2008. The two-year online technical course encompasses everything related to winemaking from production to marketing. Roberts studied the principles and practices of winemaking, wine chemistry, wine microbiology and sensory evaluation.

Six weeks of that program also interfaced with the University’s Viticulture course that concentrates on the growing of wine grapes. Coursework in viticulture included instruction on grapevine anatomy and physiology, wine science, disease and insect management, and soils and nutrient management. Dana earned his WSU certification in Enology in January of this year.

Over the past three years, all four family members, including Dana’s sister Carrie who manages the Tasting Room at Westport Winery, have attended numerous workshops and taken courses on viticulture offered by various grape growers associations, wine industry commissions, and product purveyors.

First bottling

Dana started working at Westport Winery in January of 2008, clearing out and cleaning up the winery’s cellar building, which up to that time housed the farm’s implements and machinery. He and his dad oversaw the installation of the huge stainless steel vats in which their wine is processed, the installation of shelving and other production-related equipment. In late February, the Roberts family did their first bottling with the assistance of a traveling bottler who brought his mobile processing plant.

“That first year we produced our first 4,000 cases and the response to our products was, and still is overwhelming. Since then we’ve continued to add new labels to our wine inventory,” Dana said.

Given that most wineries produce five to ten wines per year, the Roberts’ current 32 labels are definitely an anomaly in the industry. Westport Winery now offers six fruit wine labels, another six fruit blends, with the other 20 comprising the grape wines line.

“It’s a logistical nightmare but it’s good because it allows us to satisfy the diverse tastes of a wide variety of people. That principal has served us well,” Dana said.

Tasting Room tutelage

When he’s not in the cellar producing each season’s vintage, Dana works in the winery’s Tasting Room and says he finds being on the retail side invaluable to his work in wine production. “Participating in that side of the operation allows me to keep an eye on what people are liking and why. I use that information in the blending process to assure that the wines we are producing will continue to please our customer’s palates,” he said Obviously, his plan is working and working very well.

As for his personal favorites, Dana says he’s partial to red wines in general and currently Bella in particular. “But I’m also really enjoying the Syrah.”

With a strong and growing customer base and repeated industry recognition for his work, it’s obvious that Roberts has, in fact, found his calling, and has the talent and drive that will ensure a growing and distinguished career as a talented vintner.

Westport Winery Roberts Dana .jpg

Westport Winery’s vintner, Dana Roberts, uses time spent working in the Tasting Room to collect feedback from customers that helps him to perfect new vintages.  Barb Photo