Windfall Winery and AP wine are
the result of a "happy
convergence" of several seemingly unrelated parts of
my life. One summer, while in graduate school, I assisted
in a special course designed to interest gifted, but
underachieving students in science. The highlight of
that summer was an experiment to demonstrate fermentation.
We added yeast to fruit and turned into wine! They
were impressed! So was I. Many years later, to the
dismay of my wife, I returned to the production of
fruit wines as a hobby.
After obtaining my doctorate
in biochemistry, I taught and did research at several
universities. In 1980, I founded a biotechnology
company and was its president and CEO for about fifteen
years. The company was eventually sold and I began
to look for new challenges. My wife and I built a
home on San Juan Island Washington and I planted
an orchard. Soon my trees were producing more fruit
than we, our family, friends, and neighbors could
consume. Rather than waste the "windfall", I
began to turn the excess - cherries, peaches, apples,
Bartlett pears, strawberries, blackberries, rhubarb - into
wine. The one everyone liked most was made from Asian
pears and many friends urged me to make it commercially.
Having already been through the experience of starting
and running an enterprise I was reluctant to do so.
Meanwhile in 2001, I was one
of the founders of the San Juan Community Home Trust,
a non-profit organization dedicated to providing
permanently affordable homes for working members
of our community. Like most other small non-profits,
we rely almost entirely on local donors and state
grants to operate. Unfortunately, the subsidies required
to build affordable homes are large and we needed
a new way to fund our activities. So I decided to
combine my two "hobbies" in a new venture
which would introduce people to a new premium wine
drinking experience and, at the same time, raise money
for and consciousness of the need for affordable housing.
Hence Windfall Winery and AP were born!
We purchase our Asian Pears from
grower cooperatives in Oregon and Washington. As
soon as practical after harvest, the fruit is crushed
and the juice extracted in a cider mill. The cooled
juice is transported to our winery in Prosser, Washington
where it is placed in stainless steel fermentors.
After adjusting the acidity and sugar content, the
juice is inoculated and fermentation is allowed to
proceed under rigorously controlled conditions until
all of the available sugar has been converted to
alcohol. The wine is removed from its lees and allowed
to age for several months during which time it is
exposed to oak to mellow and add complexity. During
this time, the wine is filtered several times and,
when it is "ready", bottled under
sterile conditions.
The resulting wine is golden and crystal clear, with
an alcohol content of between 11 and 12%. It retains
some of the exotic flavors of its Asian pear origins,
but has citrus notes and noticeable oak overtones.
It is best served chilled with Asian dishes, fish,
light pastas or just about any other main dish. It
is also wonderful with cheese, appetizers, or just
by itself. We think you will particularly enjoy it
on warm summer evenings spent with friends (what could
be more special?). Your enjoyment will be all the greater
knowing that you are helping another family achieve
home ownership and become contributing members of the
community.
----- Larry Soll, Winemaker
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