Sparkman Cellars

With 2004 as their first vintage and sales beginning in 2006, Sparkman Cellars has skyrocketed to popular heights quickly—with both the average drinker and professional wine writers/scorers. Remarkably, it was started more as a lifestyle choice than an outgrowth of passion for wine. But when you open a bottle of Sparkman, you taste the care and thoughtfulness that went into the wine and the passion is all yours.

Photo: Winemaker/owner Chris Sparkman

"Balance is key to our wines," explains owner/winemaker Chris Sparkman when asked what sets their wines apart. "My palate was shaped and informed largely by French wines at an early stage of my wine tasting history, with wine like the 1945 Mouton Rothschild; that and others were some of the best wines ever made. Washington fruit is very powerful stuff. We dial it down enough to find a balance. Our wines have great acidity and we’re discovering that they are aging slowly. Our first Chardonnay, the 2005, is still great and will be great for another 7-10 years. Acidity allows that. And it’s the same with our reds. They’re delicious out of the gate, but you can put them down for years as well."

Sparkman purchases wines from ten vineyards currently, with Red Mountain grapes their core. They work with vineyards like Klipsun, Ciel du Cheval, Hedges, Boushey, Stillwater Creek, Red Willow, Olson, Evergreen, Temperance Hill (in 2009). Chris met with Tom Hedges on Red Mountain in 2004 close to harvest time and as Chris recalls, "Tom said ‘you’re in’ and we shook hands and that was it." He worked with Mark McNeely of Mark Ryan Winery in 2004-2005 to get started. He made Syrah, Merlot, Chardonnay and some blends. He added other vineyards and made Cabernet Sauvignon, another Syrah and more blends. In 2009, co-owner and wife Kelly Sparkman decided to make her own wine, a Sauvignon Blanc dubbed "Pearl," which was awarded Willows Lodge's Golden Grape Award (a judging by Woodinville's winemakers) as Best Sauvignon in Woodinville. "We work with Erica Orr as our consulting enologist," says Chris. "She is a critical part of our success. We continue to add wines: an Oregon Pinot, a Malbec, Rosé and we’re looking at Grenache and Mourvèdre." Erica has a master’s degree in enology from UC Davis and a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry from UC Berkeley and has worked with wineries in California, Australia and Washington.

Photo below: Enologist Erica Orr

Wines are made at their space in Woodinville’s warehouse district, where they also have a tasting room. They recently opened a second tasting room, this one in the Hollywood Schoolhouse Neighborhood. Even though it’s all Woodinville, they find that people prefer one area over the other and both tasting rooms stay busy. Chris and Kelly make the wine, with assistance from her father Dick Nauman during harvest. Erica oversees the chemical and technical components. Chris has the final word and decides general direction, sources fruit and makes barrel decisions. He feels he has two palates: his restaurant palate which has considered wines from all over in varying degrees of maturity and his winemaker palate which has considered young wines and given him an idea of how they will taste down the road. Sparkman currently makes 3500 cases a year.

Watch for part two of the Sparkman Cellars story next month and find out what they were doing when it all began and where it's going in the future.

Connie Adams/March 2011

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