FEATURED WASHINGTON WINERY
WILLIS HALL- MARYSVILLE,
WA
It only took one short
afternoon with John Bell, winemaker and
owner of Willis Hall, to begin to truly
understand his passion (borderline obsession)
for wine. An ex-Boeing engineer of 31 years,
John has found a passion in wine and gambled
his whole future on the success of his small
winery. A winery that resides in a large
converted garage behind his house, formerly
used for restoring cars. A place where one
passion has given way to another and where
he spends countless hours fine-tuning what
he considers his “art”.
 But
don’t misunderstand; this is no second
rate starving artist setup. John is a true
believer in “go big or go home!”
Putting literally his whole life savings
into this winery John has really built for
himself a state of the art facility, which
includes two large temperature controlled
barrel rooms, a bottling facility, crushing
pad, and space for inventory. Everything
has been completely modernized using only
first-rate materials and equipment including
insulated garage doors, heating and cooling
systems, tanks, bins and all of the other
necessary gear for production and bottling.
If there’s something he doesn’t
already have, or that doesn’t exist,
he will just build it himself. And when
something breaks or doesn’t work correctly
he’ll reconstruct it to fit his needs.
It was his “do-it-yourself”
mentality that originally caused him to
get into wine in the first place:
WC: How did you first get
into wine?
JB: “It started when
took some suppliers out to dinner…and
looking at the wine menu I thought it was
Greek!”
Several years ago while working for Boeing
John took some of his suppliers out to dinner
at Daniel’s Broiler. Nothing about
this was new to him, as lead engineer John
was often taking customers and business
associates out to dinner. But it was when
his guests passed the wine list to their
host that John found himself in major trouble.
“I was handed the wine list. Everyone
was looking to me to make a selection and
the entire thing looked Greek to me. I didn’t
know white from red.”
It was this humbling experience that first
ignited John Bell’s career in wine.
“As an engineer I couldn’t stand
not knowing [about wine]!” It bothered
him that there was something out there that
he didn’t only not understand, but
that was completely foreign to him. So,
with the philosophy “anything worth
doing is worth overdoing”, John jumped
right in. He has now been a student of wine
for nearly 28 years.
WC: What led to the decision
to start your own winery?
JB: “An excess of
wine.”
John first began his mission to learn about
wine through books. Then he enrolled in
Richard Kinssies’ Seattle Wine School.
From there he “bugged” numerous
winemakers for information and eventually
joined the Boeing Wine Club in 1999 (a club
for Boeing employees where they can learn
how to make wine). For the next few years
John experimented with making every kind
of wine he could get his hands on, several
of which earned him gold medals in club
competitions. But after a few years of this
he was left with an excessive amount of
left over wine, which besides drinking or
giving it away he didn’t know what
to do with. The next logical step was selling
the wine that he was making.
In 2003 John Bell produced his first commercial
vintage. But trying to juggle a full-time
job at Boeing and starting up a new winery
took its toll. “I was still working
at Boeing when I made my first commercial
wine, the 03’ vintage, and it damn
near killed me.” So, with the 2004
vintage quickly approaching John made the
decision to leave Boeing to focus on making
wine fulltime.
WC: Was it hard leaving
Boeing after all of that time?
JB: “No, because
I wasn’t having a lot of fun.”
“From a life standpoint it was the
right decision.” After so many years
working as an engineer and manager at Boeing
John’s daily responsibilities had
become less hands on more managerial. Making
wine however, provided John the opportunity
to once again get his hands dirty. Because
unlike pushing papers around a desk all
day, the art of making wine provides the
freedom of creative expression. As John
so eloquently puts it, “This is my
art. My medium is grapes and my canvas is
a wine glass.”
 WC:
What defines your wine and/or winemaking
style?
JB: “My wines are
built to enjoy now, not to cellar”.
With a preference toward fruit forward wines
that are approachable right out of the bottle,
John doesn’t make wines intended for
the cellar. “My wines are made to
drink within the first three to four years
of their release.” “Drink them
now,” he says, “I’ll make
more!”
WC: How involved are you
with the whole process, from growing the
grapes thru distribution?
JB: “I want to be
there every stage of the way.”
Some people think that just making the wine
is enough, but not John Bell. This “Jack-of-all-trades”
enjoys being involved every step of the
way and then some. In growing the grapes;
he tracks weather patterns and frequently
visits the vineyards, providing advice/suggestions
when suitable. In branding and marketing;
John spent two years deliberating over what
to name his winery and then worked hands
on with a designer to create the labels.
“It’s all about presentation.
Consistency in branding is crucial. Even
in being a customer; he buys and drinks
as much wine as possible to truly understand
what is out there. “How do you know
you’re making good wine if you don’t
know what good wine is? You have to benchmark
yourself. You have to know great wine in
order to make it, so I drink every kind
of wine from everywhere.”
Even John knows his limits however, especially
when it comes to the business side of owning
a winery, which he finds complicated and
time consuming. “Selling wine is the
hardest part of being a winemaker.”
But it’s not because he doesn’t
enjoy dealing with people. Actually, just
being around him five minutes will tell
you that. You’ll notice that John
always has time to answer questions, swap
stories, share knowledge, and talk wine.
You’ll often find him out sharing
his knowledge on wine whether it’s
at a winemaker’s dinner or a charity
event.
With Willis Hall’s first commercial
release under his belt and another around
the corner John Bell has a philosophy about
wine, winemaking, and the wine industry
that really sets him apart from many winemakers
today. His perspective and attitude on wine
is both refreshing and inspiring! Willis
Hall is definitely one of the best up and
coming wineries and we expect to see a lot
more of John Bell and Willis Hall in the
years to come.
 Willis
Hall
Phone: (360) 653.1247
johnrbell@comcast.net
Mailing Address:
4715 126th St. NE
Marysville, WA 98271 USA
www.willishall.com
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