All good things must come to an end…
Every summer we stay open an hour later on Fridays and Saturdays to take advantage of the longer days and nice weather. Now that the days are getting shorter and the weather is slowly cooling off we will shift back to regular hours.
We will return to our regular hours starting Wed, Sept 30th.
REGULAR HOURS
Wednesday – Sunday: 12 – 5pm
Between the high demands for grape contracts and low crop yields, Williamson Vineyards has not been able to produce large lots of white wines for two seasons. Pair that with an increased interest in our white wines by the public, the result is a limited supply.
In reaction to this limited white wine inventory, Williamson’s will be reducing the number of white wines included in our Traditional Tastings in the hopes of stretching the inventory of white wines temporarily. In addition, we have put a freeze on accepting new White Wine Club members to ensure that we can accommodate the existing club members.
Our hope is that the 2026 grape harvest will be able to resupply our white wine inventory. Unfortunately, recent storm damage from July has limited the size of the upcoming white grape crop. We can confirm that we will be able to harvest some white grapes, we are sad to report that the damage was extensive enough that we will not get the quantities we had originally planned on.
Williamson Orchards & Vineyards is Hiring
Williamson Orchards and Vineyards has a part-time wine room sales position open. We are looking for a self-motivated, high energy person with sales experience and good customer service skills. This job requires someone with attention to detail and is a team player. Some knowledge of wine experience is a plus.
This is a part time position; i.e. Wednesday – Sunday: 11:00 – 6:00 pm. Estimating 12 – 18 hours per week.
Job Responsibilities:
– Act as a representative of the business.
– Creating a welcome and hospitable atmosphere.
– Describe wines and pour samples.
– Wine & merchandise sales.
– Maintaining and cleaning of the tasting room/warehouse.
– Availability for off-site events; i.e. farmer’s markets, festivals, pop-ups.
Job Qualifications:
– High School Diploma or GED.
– Higher level education is a plus.
– Must have had some sales or customer service experience.
– Some knowledge of cash registers and credit card processing.
– A basic knowledge of wine is a plus.
– Must be able to lift a case of wine (40 lbs).
Applicants can reach out to us at wine@willorch.com with a resume and a brief introduction outlining your experience and interest in the position.
Hello, Wine-friends!
January is our season to slow down, recoup after harvest, and savor a little extra time with family and rest. During the month of January, our tasting room will be open Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays from 12–5pm.
We’re happy to accommodate private appointments Monday through Thursday with advanced notice. To schedule, please call (208) 459-3322 or email wine@willorch.com.
We look forward to welcoming you back to our regular operating days and hours in February — refreshed, recharged, and ready to pour. 🍷
Hey, Farm Friends!
Why did the vineyard owner bring a ladder to prune his vines?
He wanted to reach new heights in wine production!
We hope you enjoyed our version of a dad joke. Spring pruning always puts us in a good mood. The vines are waking up, buds are starting to break and the essential task of pruning is our main focus. We, literally, get to shape our future by removing over-growth and maintaining the structure of the coming crop.
Next up will be shoot thinning. By carefully selecting which shoots to keep and which to remove, we help balance the vine’s energy, promoting optimal airflow, sunlight exposure, and fruit development.
Another important spring task will be cluster counting. Once the buds develop into leaves and clusters start to form, we will track how many clusters are produced for each type of grape. This data tells us not only how big the crop could be but also how we should approach caring for the vines. For example, if a vine has too many clusters we can thin the clusters out so the plant isn’t overburdened. This ensures that each grape cluster receives the nutrients and support it needs to ripen fully.
Sincerely,
Mike, Patrick, and Bev Williamson
Our wine club members and regulars might recognize this dapper fellow. Steve Steidel has been a fixture in our tasting room and the friendly face behind our local deliveries for 5 years.
February 23rd marked his last day with Williamson Orchards and Vineyards and we are all going to miss him. While no one will be able to tell “dad jokes” quite like Steve, we wish him all the best on this next chapter of life.
Steve has big plans to travel more and play a lot more golf in his retirement. One of his bucket list items was to work at a golf course in retirement. So if you see this funny fellow out on the greens be sure to give him a “cheers” from us.
With roughly 310 tons of grapes, this was our largest grape harvest ever to date!! We experienced a compressed harvest, meaning that there was a lot of grapes to harvest and everything became ripe and ready to pick, basically at the same time. This compressed harvest was caused by a cool, wet spring that delayed bud break by 10 – 14 days. The vineyards were delayed again when we had 20 days of temperatures over 100°, causing the vines to go into “survival mode” versus expending energy to ripen.
This year also marks the latest start date to harvest on our records. Luckily, the weather held through the end of October. We didn’t feel a killing frost until end of October but this was late enough and it stayed cold enough that it helped to dehydrate the grapes and concentrate the sugars in the grape berries.
Since everything was ready to pick all at once, we ended up machine picking all our white grapes, something we have never done before. We are excited to see how this will translate into the glass. Especially the Grüner Veltliner, which will hopefully be ready to bottle by June or July of 2023. We will also be patiently waiting to see how a few red grapes will do. The 2022 vintage will be a first for our Petite Verdot and Tempranillo, but we will have to patiently wait until spring or summer of 2024 for these wines.
Cheers and Happy Sipping!
Harvest is over and the weather has been cooperative so that our vines have safely gone to sleep, to rest and get ready for the next growing season. Our vineyard guys have been busy getting all the harvest paraphernalia put away for another year.
While the leaves where still green on our vines this fall, they where sending valuable carbohydrates into the woody trunk and roots as fuel to get the vines through the quiet winter months. This reserve is essential to keep the vines fed until they wake from their winter sleep and send leaves out to allow photosynthesis to generate the spring growth to begin another year.
Sleep well, little vines and we’ll see you mid-winter for a bit of trimming.
Vineyard Update
In the vineyards, we have our crews working to prep the vineyards for winter. This means planting our cover crop, taking down any bird nets left from harvest, and checking (and if necessary) repairing the trellis wire to be ready for the pre-pruning machine in January. Plus any other last minute cleanup that we need to finish before the snow flies.
Our crews have worked hard this year, putting in long hours to get all the work done before the freezing temps move in to put the vines to sleep for another year.
Cheers!
Mike & Patrick Williamson
The Vineyard Guys
Patrick and Mike update us as to what they’ve been doing in the vineyards this spring.
Watch it here: