SOUP CONTEST WINNERS!

Soups Galore!

We have hosted a soup contest at our Fall Barrel Tasting Weekend event for years. Each year event attendees take on the great responsibility of tasting and voting on their favorite soups. If you didn’t get a chance to submit or sip this year, we hope you remember to join us next year at our Fall Barrel Tasting Weekend! This year we made soup contest history! Not only did we have a record number of folks submitting soups for judging, but we had our first ever tie! Read below to learn a little more about our newest soup savants.

FRIDAY

Julia Figgins
Buffalo Chicken Chili
Julia Figgins created a crowd pleasing Buffalo Chicken Chili with all the fixins’. The fan favorite was to pair her spicy chili with our 2020 Malbec, because the fruity flavors in our wine played nice with the spice in the chili.Unfortunately, we aren’t able to share a recipe for this soup because Julia “shoots from the hip” and makes it up as she goes. 
Sarah Heasley
Polska Kielbasa Soup
Sarah Heasley created a spicy Polska Kielbasa Soup that really got our taste buds buzzing! If you make this delicious dish, we recommend pairing it with the 2020 Henry’s Red, because the smoky flavors in the wine brought out the smoky flavors in the soup.For a printable copy: Polska Kielbasa Sausage Soup

SATURDAY

Cherie Holsclaw
Seafood Chowder
Cherie created a Seafood Chowder that simply blew away the competition!This creamy dish of comfort paired nicely with the 2022 Albariño, the crisp citrus of the wine is a good juxtaposition to the creamy richness of the chowder.  Mmm mmm good!Cherie is also an intuitive chef and does not cook from a recipe. But she did share a few notes about how she creates her soup. Seafood Chowder

We want to take a moment to say a great big thank you to all the contestants who participated in our soup contest. THANK YOU! 

Other soup submissions recipes available to download here:
Tortellini Soup – Lisa LaBarbera
Roasted Butternut Squash Soup – Billie Farley

 

Emerging American Wine Regions and climate challenges – VinePair

A freelance writer named Shana Clark spoke with Beverly, Patrick, and Mike about what grows well in the Snake River Valley AVA. She then wrote an article for VinePair, an online wine magazine. Her article touched on how terroir can affect the grapes grown in a particular region. She spoke with several wine makers in the Snake River Valley AVA and winemakers in Arizona about the challenges of climate and grape varieties.  You can read the full article here: For Emerging American Wine Regions, Can Trends Trump Terroir?

 

 

Women in Wine article with Beverly

Beverly had the opportunity to visit with Paige Comrie this summer. Paige is a wine lover with a passion to connect other wine lovers with great wines from across the world. She choses wines that range from delicious & affordable Tuesday night picks to high-end limited edition releases that are truly something to celebrate. She wants to share not just the wines with her followers but the stories of the folks that make those wines.

Find the entire article here: Women in Wine: Beverly Williamson


one bottle red wine and one bottle white wine next to wine barrel

Idaho Wine Competition 2022

We are thrilled to have two of our favorite wines as gold medal winners at this year’s Idaho Wine Competition. If you haven’t had the opportunity to taste our Sangiovese and Albariño, what are you waiting for?

one bottle white wine and one bottle red wine against a tree backdrop

2021 Albariño won Double Gold and our 2019 Sangiovese won a Gold. Check out more detail at our webstore here: Williamson Vineyards wine shop

If you’re interested in more  information about this year’s Idaho Wine Competition, head over to their website here: Idaho Wine Competition

Available for purchase in our tasting room or via our webstore. Psst! Wine club members – remember to sign into your account to receive your special discount.

Alaska Airlines lets Idaho Wine Fly Free

Great deal for taking wine on Alaska Airlines


The Idaho Wine Commission has brokered a terrific partnership with Alaska Airlines. You may have heard that Alaska Airlines has agreed to allow their Mileage Plan™ members, to check a case of Idaho wines at no additional cost.

They have now added another bonus which Williamson Vineyards is participating in:

When consumers show their Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan membership and in-bound boarding pass (paper or digital) to winery tasting room staff, they receive one complimentary tasting at that location.
The Idaho Wine Commission has more details, click here.

Grapevines Sleeping Sweetly

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.

2020 Albariño Receives Double Platinum

We have received a wonderful acknowledgement of our delicious 2020 Albariño with a Double Platinum from Great Northwest Wine. It’s available for purchase right now, check out the webstore here for more details. Of course, we love to see you in the tasting room too! If you’re interested in what Great Northwest Wine has to say about our award winning Albariño, check out their details here.

 

Christmas 2021 Case Sale

Christmas Case Sale

Giving a bottle of wine from your local winery is a perfect gift for so many people and occasions around the holidays. So get in on our annual Christmas Case Sale!

Make your holidays merry when you build a case of your favorite wines at 20% off!
Wine Club members save 30% off their cases!

This promotion is valid 11/26/2021 – 12/12/2021.

As an added bonus for your gift giving, we offer local delivery for purchases of 6 bottles or more.
Our delivery range includes Boise, Garden City, Star, Eagle, Meridian, Middleton, Caldwell, Nampa, Kuna, Homedale and Marsing. If you are outside of these towns, get ahold of us (208.459.7333 or email) and we’ll see what we can do. Please keep in mind that someone over 21 years of age must receive the wine. Idaho State Police will not allow us to leave unattended alcohol on your doorstep.

We can ship too! Check with us to verify which states are available to us.

“Wine Club only” wine limitations still apply. Excludes – Library wines.
No other discounts apply.

Virtual Happy Hour – November 11

Build the Perfect Charcuterie Board

Dress it up or dress it down, we can show you how to build a delicious (and wine friendly) charcuterie board for your every need.

We’ve created a PDF of our outline for this happy hour. VHH Nov 2021-Charcuterie.pdf

We have some announcements about releasing wine and Fall Barrel Weekend and the “Charcuterie” section starts at about 9.40mn.

Virtual Happy Hour – October 7

We had a special request for our Virtual Happy Hour from a wine fan. They had questions about the storing of wine, and thought we could help. Please watch the video for  our suggestions.

 

We start with talking about upcoming winery events and new releases, Wine Storage and Transportation starts at about the 8.20 min. mark.