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In today’s wine industry, it seems that far too many wineries are focused on making big reds that blow you mind and blow up your palate along with your wallet. It’s refreshing to come across a new winemaker dedicated to producing light refreshing whites with nuance and food friendly reds at an affordable price. Kevin Cedergreen of Cedergreen Cellars has never been one to follow popular trends or confine himself to the "go big" mentality that is so often found in the wine industry. No, Kevin is more of a free spirit whose musings and comical rants are just as refreshing as the quality wines he produces.

It was several months ago at a boutique wine tasting event that we first met Kevin. Stepping past some fellow wine tasters, curiously sporting red squares stuck haphazardly to their clothes, we approached the Cedergreen Cellars table and it wasn’t more than a couple minutes into tasting that Kevin started in on the screw top phenomenon. While the passionate speech and proclamation of advantages surrounding screw top closures is not new to us, it was the quick-witted humor and excitable energy radiating from his notably "new world" campaign that caught our interest. His tongue-in-cheek demeanor was actually quite refreshing in an industry where new winemakers look to blend via conformity rather than stand up against many traditional rules and trends of wine.

As we looked to craft our next featured winery masterpiece, it seemed fitting to do so alongside a fellow advocate of the wine experience. Something we here at WineCOW.com believe to be one of the most influential aspects of wine. So, on a beautiful sunny day we headed to Kevin's Kirkland home, which he refers to as “Cedergreen Cellars West” (“East” being where he produces his wine in the eastern part of the state) to get the scoop. The result was a lot of wine (maybe too much), a lot of laughs, and a day's worth of education about man with a serious passion for wine who is not afraid of a hard work and commitment to the cause.

We begin our feature seated around a dining room table stacked with wine and listening as Kevin goes into his background. This starts with a quick recap of recent wineries where he fine-tuned his skills at winemaking, including Seresin, Willow Crest, and Milbrandt. But long before he was getting his hands dirty in tubs of purple grapes, Kevin lived in Eastern Washington spending time in the fruit orchards of Wenatchee. In 1979, after graduating from WSU, he found himself in Seattle working as a landscape architect. It wasn’t until almost two decades later that Kevin would make the jump from a life working with dirt and cultivating nature to a life working with dirt and cultivating nature. But, in this case, the fruits of his labor were grapes and the resulting product – wine!

WC: What got you into winemaking?
KC: “Masochism.”

Some might look at Kevin Cedergreen's introduction into wine and the several hard years of backbreaking labor that followed as the result of a mid-life crisis. Who, in their right mind, would choose to work around the clock in a space with no windows doing routine repetitive tasks 12 hours a day, 7 days a week, and 8 months a year? Who would consider that a good time? For Kevin this was as good as it gets, and only a small part of the master plan that he was destined to follow. Once the decision was made to become a part of the wine world, there was no turning back.
This life-altering decision came in the mid 90’s when Kevin and his wife were discussing the their future and the potential desire to live in both Western and Eastern Washington. It was actually Kevin’s wife who suggested the possibility of running a vineyard. While his childhood memories of time spent on an Eastern Washington orchard added validity to the idea, it was a friend that pointed out the alternative of starting a winery. Kevin couldn't help but notice that running a vineyard takes a lot of maintenance, capital, and a large risk in situations of a freeze. When it was over and done it was as simple as “Ok, I’ll start a winery” that started the ball rolling. His friend rounded out the conversation with “Who’s going to make the wine?” At that point, the decision was clear and Kevin made the transition from landscape to wine.
The next several years included extension classes from U.C. Davis, where his agricultural background from time spent in the orchards really paid off. His first job came by way of Coventry Vale, a custom crush facility and large-production wine producer in Eastern Washington. Hired to run the lab, Kevin gained quite a bit of experience “doing things 50 times a day instead of 5,” which helped him learn the process through good old fashion repetition. From there Kevin spent his off-season in New Zealand so that he could work two vintages a year: one in the northern hemisphere and one in the southern. For anyone who has ever worked even part of one vintage, you know that it is a mind numbing, backbreaking exercise. The work was well worth the effort day in and day out, but the wine was the real prize.

WC: What did you take out of this experience?
KC: “This job doesn’t get easier with more experience. It just shows you there are more ways for things to go sideways.”

While such a grueling and intensive work schedule may seem like agony to most people, Kevin relished in the fact that he was able to learn so much during this initial time spent working his new trade. “As it turns out, I had a good nose and I could smell problems and precursors with-in the wine two or three days before everyone else.” Through his experience in such a large operation, he was able to gain valuable experience in the science and daily tasks of winemaking. “It was great and I was seeing 16,000 ton production and 15 ton production.”
For Kevin, working with so much fruit also helped in more ways than just familiarity with growth and production. Besides the hands-on experience, he was also getting connected to a lot of people in the industry who had access to fruit. “I cried, begged, and weaseled to get fruit.” So, while he worked on large production lots during the day, he was also experimenting on his own while “fermenting fruit in food grade garbage cans and carboys.” It wasn’t too long before Kevin began work on his first commercial vintage in 2002. But according to him, he didn’t really hit the market until early 2005.

WC: Since you have your own winery now, how do you choose what to make?
KC: “I’ve sat around big wineries where everyone designs wine by committee trying to hit the beast in the belly so to speak. I don’t need to do that. I just want to knock off a horn or a tail and make wines I’m interested in that are a little more unique and interesting.”

Through his experience in New Zealand, as well as stints in various wineries and custom crush facilities, Kevin was able to gain an intensive understanding and appreciation for the wine-making process. But when it comes to making his wines he definitely adds a bit of his own special touch in order to create wine with lasting quality. “I’m not into raisiny wines with high pH. They’re fine until you put food in your mouth.” Instead Kevin leans toward crisper wines with good acidity, which is why he mainly produces white varietals such as Sauvignon Blanc, Riesling, an Old Vine Chenin Blanc, as well as a Merlot based Rosé. For you red drinkers, he also carries a red blend called Thuja (which is the genus species for cedar), and has a Cabernet on the way.

While much of what he makes resembles the New Zealand style, he does his magic using ripe Washington fruit, which he feels produces higher quality white wines. With all ripe fruit, my wines "don’t have any of that blinding harshness” that is characteristic of some New Zealand wines with uneven levels of ripeness during harvest.
Right now, Kevin is focusing on Vineyard diversity saying “single vineyard wines leave me cold… There is always a vineyard barrel that I like the most, but blended wines always provide way more character than any one by itself.” As is a common risk in wine-making, Kevin was forced to find some new vineyards following the freeze of 2004 and ended up finding some fruit he really loved. “If you trip over a diamond, why not stop and pick it up rather than letting it pass to preserve consistency?”

WC: How did your experiences shape the winemaker you are today?
KC: “I learned if you make wines that you like and are passionate about it other people will be on board.”

“No one has to have wine. They drink it to make themselves feel good, it’s entertainment.” If a winemaker or winery can in turn provide a good experience to someone, then they will most often continue to drink that wine. That is the true nature of the wine experience. Beyond that however, each bottle itself can be an experience all its own. To Kevin, wine is like the cycles of the moon. “It goes up and down, there is always that initial phase where you love the flavors coming through and then maybe they go away for a bit, but then the wine comes back and does something else interesting.” But even Kevin is one to admit that he doesn’t have it all figured out. “Those absolutes aren’t as absolute as you thought they were. There are too many things in winemaking that you can't plan for, so why not try to avoid all the ones you can.”

WC: So, let's get back to our initial screw cap conversation. Where do you stand on that?
KC: “I’m not really an alternative closure fan. I am specifically a screw cap fan.”

For his larger production Sauvignon Blanc, Kevin uses screw caps with Saranex liners that are made to allow air to pass similar to a real cork. In talking about air and oxidation in wines and the decision to use screw caps, he says, “Why not let all that potential stay in the bottle rather than burning it up early? Plus, my consistency is incredible.” After all that talk about screw caps, Kevin doesn't hesitate to admit in not-so-secret confidence, “As I get older, I realize that those one size fits all answers don’t exist. I don’t really “KNOW” anything, but I do believe a lot!”

You can buy Cedergreen Cellars wine from various retailers, restaurants and their website www.cedergreencellars.com, but make sure to keep an eye out for Kevin at local tasting, winemaker dinners and events because this is one Washington wine personality that you definitely want to shake hands with.

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CEDERGREEN CELLARS - KIRKLAND, WA