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About Capital press. (Salem, OR) 19??-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 11, 2015)
6 CapitalPress.com September 11, 2015 Ste. Chapelle Winery is the largest in Idaho By HEATHER SMITH THOMAS Ste. Chapelle Winery For the Capital Press Founded: 1975 by the Symms family SUNNY SLOPE, Idaho — Sitting atop a high hill, the beautiful Ste. Chapelle Winery overlooks fertile orchards and farms of Sunny Slope in south- western Idaho. The Symms family started a wine business in Emmet, Idaho, then moved it to Sunny Slope to build the current win- ery in 1978. It was designed by Boise architect Nat Adams and named after the 13th century La Sainte Chapelle in Paris that inspired its structure. Originally intended to be a small family operation, the winery quickly grew to meet customer demand as Idaho’s winegrowing region was gain- ing a reputation for fine wine. In 2012 Ste. Chapelle be- came part of Precept Wine’s Northwest family of wineries. Today it is the leading winery in Idaho in production and sales volume, with approxi- mately 130,000 cases per year. Location: Sunny Slope, near Caldwell, Idaho Winemaker: Maurine Johnson Courtesy of Ste. Chapelle Winery After spending 11 years as the quality control supervisor and enologist and another stint as assistant winemaker, Maurine Johnson was promoted to head winemaker at Ste. Chapelle in 2011. The 2013 Special Harvest Riesling made by winemaker Maurine Johnson recently won best of category in the 2015 Sunset International Wine Competition. Johnson started working in the lab in 1987. “I moved up to become assistant winemaker 11 years later, and have now been the head winemaker for 4 years,” she says. But she hadn’t planned on a career in wine. “It just hap- pened. I love animals, and when I went to college I got a degree in animal science. I wanted to become a veteri- narian, but I didn’t get into vet school. After graduating from college I needed a job. There was an ad in the paper for a lab technician at Ste. Chapelle so I applied, and it went from there,” she says. Working in the wine lab was a great fit and she enjoyed it. “I love this job. All those years in college, I’d taken chemis- try, biology and microbiology, and it was really easy to transi- tion into winemaking. Almost everything else I know about wine, I’ve learned on the job, though I now have a certificate for winemaking for distance learners, from UC-Davis, after took their online course. Now I’m official!” As wineries go, Ste. Cha- pelle is not as big as a lot of California wineries, but is by far the largest in Idaho. “We do a wide variety of wines. Riesling is the most commonly planted, but our soft series that includes the soft red, soft white and soft huckleberry are prob- ably our most popular wines,” she says. “We also make all the usu- al wines — like Chardonnay, Cabernet, Merlot and Syrah. We do the soft wines and two styles of Riesling,” she says. The winery’s tasting room is a popular place, with its high cathedral-style windows, vaulted ceilings with wooden beams and stained glass grape- vine window. “We also have an upstairs banquet room and a 2-acre park at our facility. We rent these out for parties and weddings. One of the unique things we do is hold concerts during the summer in the park. These are held on Sun- day afternoons and attract a lot of people.” Motorized Shutters JUHR CONSTRUCTION CORP. 503-658-2306 FAX 503-658-0599 Exhaust Fans 20”.............$ 275.00 24”.............$ 350.00 36”.............$1,038.25 48”.............$1,458.25 24”................$161.00 30”................$174.75 36”................$561.00 42”................$660.00 48”................$717.00 50% Shade Cloth $0.12 sq. ft. BB#88367 ALSO OFFERING Agricultural • Recreational • Industrial V15-7/#8 BUILDING IN OREGON SINCE 1946 Visit Us on the Web at www.juhrconstruction.com Poly Poly Carbonate Shade Cloth Ground Cover Wire Lock Roll-ups Injectors Heaters Exhaust Fans Bench Tops Code Structures Gutter Connects 503-678-2700 800-347-2701 (Outside OR) ovg.com • ivans@ovg.com Fax 503-678-2789 GROUND COVER 3 x 300 76.00 12 x 50 46.00 4 x 300 92.00 12 x 100 82.00 6 x 300 109.00 12 x 300 218.00 10 x 300 183.00 15 x 300 271.50 20357 Hwy. 99E • Aurora, OR 97002 Prices good thru 9/30/14 V15-7/#7