We’re proud to announce that our wines have been receiving recognition from several respected wine rating entities.

• Wine Enthusiast rated our
  • 2012 Harvest Moon Red – 88 points
  • 2012 Sangiovese – 87 points
  • 2012 Cabernet Sauvignon – 85 points
• The San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition awarded the following:
  • 2012 Cabernet Sauvignon – Gold
  • 2012 Sangiovese – Bronze
  • 2012 Harvest Moon Red – Bronze
  • http://box2413.temp.domains/~willorch///box2413.temp.domains/~willorch///winejudging.com/medal-winners/

It’s beautiful out in the vineyard– we are seeing some awesome fall colors! Harvest is wrapping up and we are waiting on just a few grape varieties that require longer hang time, like Mouvedre, Sangiovese and Petite Sirah.  We’ll soon finish with the late-harvest grapes and ice wines.

With winter just around the corner we are starting to slow down our vines in order to get them ready for bed. This means spreading out our watering, i.e. short bursts of water and longer intervals between.

We have already started to pull bird netting off the vines. This is also the time of year to cultivate our cover crop between the rows. We plow under the cover crop in the fall to add nutrients back to the soil. Then we turn around and plant next year’s cover crop, typically a drought-tolerant rye grass. In the Spring, cover crops help by soaking up excess water in the soil, preventing erosion and crowding out unwanted weeds. 

Overall, the 2016 harvest has been fantastic. Bud break came early and the vines followed through with this early schedule all the way through harvest. We saw high yields, in part due to optimal weather when the fruit was setting. This resulted in some cluster thinning to maintain the quality of the remaining crop. The late summer and early fall weather was perfect weather for ripening grapes allowing the grapes to gain more sugars and bright fruit acids. With temperatures hanging around the mid-60 degrees and with little-to-no rain or frost events, we had a smooth and timely harvest. Both Mike and Patrick enjoyed the favorable pace and agreed that the 2016 harvest shows some real potential for being a great vintage.

We were overwhelmed by the amount of support that local wine lovers and our amazing wine clubs members showed for our new tasting room. Thank you to everyone who came out to help us celebrate our grand opening. It was a huge success!

CALDWELL, Idaho – These days, their business name reads Williamson Orchards and Vineyards. In a decade, it might be more appropriate for the family to change it to Williamson Vineyards and Orchards.

Just 15 years ago, that would have been unimaginable for this family that began farming on the Sunnyslope region of Idaho’s Snake River Valley in 1909.

“We’re at the ground level of the Idaho wine industry exploding,” said Beverly Williamson, who operates the multi-generation business with her brother Mike and cousin Patrick. “As a family, we sat down and wondered, ‘Why don’t we start shifting from 90 percent tree fruit and 10 percent wine grapes to 60 percent wine grapes and 40 percent tree fruit?’ That was kind of hard for our dads to grasp.”

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There is something new and exciting happening every day now at the new tasting room! The floor has been installed and the cabinets are well underway. Take a look at the new siding…W for Williamson! It really feels like everything is starting to come together. Stay tuned for our soft opening by the end of September, and our Grand Opening event tentatively scheduled for October 22, 2016!

Most of the varietals are done with veration, which is when the berries change from green to red or translucent green. We are starting to collect berry samples to measure the sugars in the grapes. This measurement will help determine when harvesting can begin, possibly the first or second week in September; of course, the weather will also be a factor. We’re also starting some crop thinning to ensure the grapes will have more concentrated characteristics and removing the secondary crop that has begun to grow and will not ripen in time for harvest.

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