With popular Savor Idaho — the state’s signature wine and culinary event — just around the corner, a group of Pacific Northwest wine experts will meet in the Snake River Valley to judge the 17th annual Idaho Wine Competition.
New to the panel this year will be Seattle author/wine merchant Paul Zitarelli of Full Pull Wines. The judging will be staged Tuesday, May 19 in Caldwell on the campus of Koenig Vineyards, which will play host to the event for the 10th straight year. The tasting represents the continued collaboration of the Idaho Wine Commission and Great Northwest Wine.
“My view of the Idaho wine scene has mostly been shaped by tasting the wines in competitions like the Great Northwest Invitational, and they’ve consistently exceeded my expectations,” Zitarelli says.
The top wine from last year’s judging was the Devil’s Bedstead 2020 Fraser Vineyard Estate Cabernet Sauvignon. A 2007 Cab from Fraser Vineyard was best of show at the inaugural Idaho Wine Competition in 2010.
Butch Otter was in the middle of his third term as governor of the Gem State when he declared June as Idaho Wine Month starting in 2009. That was the same year Zitarelli, a mathematician from Harvard, graduated from the University of Washington’s storied Foster School of Business and launched Full Pull Wines.
Along the way, Zitarelli wrote 36 Bottles of Wine for Seattle publisher Sasquatch Books and earned his Level 4 Diploma through the esteemed Wine & Spirit Education Trust. The demands of his young family and success of Full Pull have paused Zitarelli’s pursuit of becoming a Master of Wine, but customers are rewarded by his delicious research, keen insight and worldwide connections.
“I see Idaho as one of the science labs of the Pacific Northwest wine scene, where intrepid growers and winemakers are still discovering and learning what varieties work in what places, and what the final story of Gem State winemaking will be,” Zitarelli says. “It seems like there are a number of different microclimates across the state, which means potential to experiment with many different grapes and techniques.”
Walla Walla restaurateur/educator Kaleigh Brook, a Master of Wine candidate, will be a panelist for the Idaho Wine Competition a second time in three years.
“I had the most fantastic time in Idaho,” she said. “What a great experience!”
Brook, who also has earned the WSET Level 4 Diploma, owns and operates both Tavern Ancestrale in downtown Walla Walla and the Walla Walla Valley Wine Academy. Prior to that, the advanced sommelier through the Court of Master Sommeliers served as the inaugural general manager of Spanish-owned Valdemar Estates, manager/wine buyer at Thief Fine Wine & Beer Shop in Walla Walla and a contributing writer for Great Northwest Wine.
Earlier this spring, Brook won a Foley Family Wines & Spirits Women in Wine Scholarship and accepted the award during the fourth annual Court of Master Sommelier-A Women’s Sommelier Symposium in Sonoma.
On the eve of this year’s judging, Brook will share some of her expertise with the Idaho wine industry via her workshop titled — Tasting Room Excellence: Hospitality, Sales Psychology and Brand Storytelling. She can be found on Instagram via the handle of Confessions of a Sommelier.
The Idaho Wine Competition panel also benefits from the continued presence of two Gem State wine merchants — Kathryn House McClaskey, who is poised to also become Idaho’s first Master of Wine — and Idaho native Ilene Dudunake.
House McClaskey served as assistant winemaker for Betz Family Winery in Woodinville prior to her move to Boise. She served as a winemaking consultant while raising her family and creating her House of Wine education program for consumers and trade. In 2023, House of Wine became a brick-and-mortar spot in downtown Boise, adding a bottle shop staffed by a team of international experts, wine bar and a space for instruction.
Prior to opening her shop and tasting gallery, McClaskey’s background and knowledge of international wines also served her well during her time as director of education for state-power Hayden Beverage Co. She also contributes a wine column to Boise Weekly/Idaho Press, which are owned by Adams MultiMedia.
Dudunake came to the wine industry after a career in retail. This weekend, she will celebrate the 25th anniversary of A New Vintage Wine Shop in the Boise suburb of Meridian. That’s a stunning achievement for anyone in the adult beverage industry inside the borders within the conservative state of Idaho.
Jeff Ritchey is an international winemaking consultant living in the Snake River Valley. He grew up in the Bay Area, earned a master’s in enology from University of California-Davis and oversees the winemaking for Alexandrea Winery in the Armenian capital of Yerevan.
Also on the panel will be Sonnay Alvarez, a Boise journalist and marketing consultant with WSET Level 2 certification whose Altanto Vino serves clients in Washington and Idaho; Mike Rader, a financial advisor in Kennewick, Wash., with a WSET Level 3 Award in Wines; and Jim Thomssen, a journalist, retired bank executive in Nampa, Idaho and wine specialist for National Geographic/Lindblad Expeditions.
Judging, festivities help promote Idaho Wine Month
Despite the strong showing of Idaho wines within international judgings and the buzz for unveiling of Gem 73 Winery on the Sunnyslope, factors such as supply, demand, distribution and state regulations don’t make it easy for Zitarelli to bring in Idaho wines for his Full Pull customers, but he sees opportunities.
“Wine isn’t like ketchup. Or peanut butter or tomato sauce or yogurt,” Zitarelli explains. “Each bottle has its own unique story, and there are thousands of different stories bottled each year. Our job at Full Pull is to taste broadly and curate the best wine values in the world, from $9 to $900, with a special emphasis on our home in the Pacific Northwest.”
Those familiar with Zitarelli and his writing know of the constant temptations that arrive in their inbox from Full Pull, based within Sodo WineWorks in Seattle’s South of Downtown district. Zitarelli has operated a warehouse there since 2013.
“Our daily newsletter tells a compelling story each day about a single bottle of wine, and our list members either choose to request bottles or not. (We don’t have volume minimums, so many of our list members just read our emails for educational purposes.)
“Most of our list members pick up their allocations in our Sodo warehouse, which also includes a tasting bar and boutique retail shop,” he adds, “both stocked with fun, fascinating wines and kind, knowledgeable people at all times.”
The hope is that Zitarelli’s upcoming immersion within the Idaho wine industry will lead to a growing interest among Seattle-area consumers.
