A Masterclass on WA Wine. - Washington State Wine Commission

Four Seasons Training • June 5, 2024

Thank you for joining WA Wine and Chris Tanghe, MS, for a quick deep-dive refresher on WA Wine. We sent you each a few packages – a box of wines to taste during the training, including wines from Treveri Cellars, Seven Hills, L’Ecole Nº 41, and DeLille Cellars and another box that includes a few gift items, including Pollard Coffee and Blood of Gods zines. You can find more information on your educator, Chris Tanghe, the wines, the gift items, and ways to experience more WA Wine below!

WA Wine • OUR STORY.

More about today’s moderator, Chris Tanghe, MS.

Chris Tanghe, Director of Education, GuildSomm, Seattle

In 2017, Chris started with GuildSomm as their Chief Instructor, where he traveled all over North America teaching masterclasses on the world of wine, and in 2020, he stepped into the role of Interim Executive Director. He attended the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, NY and has worked in restaurants in Denver, Phoenix, Santa Barbara and Seattle. In 2013, Chris passed the Master Sommelier exam on his second attempt. He’s worked as a portfolio manager for an importer and distributor where he managed relationships with over 300 producers, he consults on beverage programs for new restaurants, and speaks at numerous wine events throughout the year.

Connect:

Check out Sommlight, a conversation series about wine trade.

Sommlight • Chris Tanghe, MS

Find tech sheets from today’s wines, winery contact information, and more below!

Treveri Cellars is a family-owned sparkling wine house that produces some of the finest handcrafted sparkling wines in the United States. …

Tech Sheet & More!

Established in 1988, Seven Hills Winery is proud to be among the founding estates of Walla Walla Valley and downtown Walla Walla’s only historic working winemaking facility. …

Tech Sheet & More!

L’Ecole Nº 41 is a third-generation family-owned, artisan winery located in the historic Frenchtown School depicted on our label. Founded in 1983, we were the third winery established in the Walla Walla Valley. …

Tech Sheet & More!

Tech Sheet & More!

About your gift box:

With love (and info), WA Wine.

In your box, there is a WA Wine Miir water bottle, WA wine pocket map, Sustainable WA info, socks, and so much more! Read on for more information about the Blood of Gods zine and Pollard Coffee.

Part publisher, producer, and event promoter, Stacy Buchanan is a one-man hype machine, with a preacher’s passion to bridge not hearts to God, but wine to heavy metal music. His biannual cult heavy metal and wine publication, Blood of Gods, launched in Spring 2020, is his testimony—his Annual Merrymaking, a festival of art, music, and wine in downtown Walla Walla, Washington, the revival tent. Other buzz includes an induction to Wine Enthusiast’s “Future 40” and Imbibe magazine’s “Imbibe 75” lists, the latter dubbing Buchanan a person who “will inspire the way we all drink in the year to come,” among notable nods from Decibel, Somm Journal, SIP, and more. With recent panel appearances at New Zealand’s ‘Super Wild‘ and Seattle’s ‘Taste Washington’, along with a book arriving in early 2025, it’s clear that the mission continues, and the show goes on.

Blood of Gods

My first memories of coffee as I grew up in the midwest, was of my mom dunking cinnamon rolls in a cup of white milk turned brown from coffee. The coffee came in very large cans and when the cans were empty they were turned into a myriad of storage containers from nails to night-crawl-ers. Our percolator would sit on the counter bubbling away and was a permanent fixture in the kitchen. Coffee was the centerpiece of our family’s social life, whether it was the coffee klatch of farmers gathered around the local cafe debating grain prices and weather, to evening card games, when the neighbors would come over and drink coffee all night catching up on the local gossip. This experience carried with me into college. Coffee was the beverage of choice when cramming for finals, or taking the chill off those brisk winter days in Missouri. But it was when I moved to Washington DC, living in a small ethnic neighborhood, that my true appreciation for coffee and coffee growing regions blossomed. I would shop at a small roaster run by a quiet Yemeni gentleman who patiently taught me about the different beans and the roasting process. I experimented with different brewing techniques and later when travels took me to Central America, Europe and Asia I sought out the local favorite coffee bringing samples home with me to savor.

Pollard Coffee

Visit us in Washington!

WA Wine has many opportunities to learn more about our industry, but what better way to learn than in-person? We have two in-bound trip opportunities – Taste Washington and Road Trip.

Taste Washington is a unique event where 200+ Washington wineries gather in Seattle to pour wine. Every year, the Washington State Wine Commission selects 15 trade from across the country to attend the event as part of an inbound trip. Interested in attending? Reach out to Mac Pedersen at mpedersen@washingtonwine.org.

Taste Washington – The Grand Tasting – 2024 from SE Productions on Vimeo.

Road Trip is one of the most acclaimed and experiential wine trips in the world. Each year, a select group of the country’s most influential trade come to Washington State to immerse themselves in wine country during the most exciting time of the year: HARVEST. To attend Road Trip, guests must be nominated and selected by an invitation committee. Want to nominate someone? Learn more by clicking this link and watch the video below.

WA WINE ROAD TRIP from Washington Wine on Vimeo.