First and foremost, I need to say that picking a “Winery Of The Year” is one of the toughest assignments I give myself. There are so many awesome wineries out there that it makes it hard to make a decision. It usually comes down to November, before I hone in on the winery that has my utmost attention. In most cases, it starts with one wine that I’ve tasted from the winery. If it’s a WOW wine, I ask to try others from them. This year, I tasted one of the best Barberas I’ve had from Washington State and it totally caught my interest. I asked to taste a couple more of their wines and was hooked. The winery is small, but they produce some excellent wines and the prices are not outrageous. My “Winery Of The Year” for 2024 IS…
Sage Rat Winery (Yakima Valley, WA)
Winemaker and Owner… Dusty Jenkins
Dusty has a day job while he makes wine on the side for himself at Sage Rat. He is the head winemaker for Gilbert Wine Cellars, a position he has held since 2022. He was the assistant winemaker there starting in 2017 until he was promoted to head winemaker. With the blessing of Gilbert Cellars, he started Sage Rat as a side project in 2020 (the wine world is so cool when it comes to this kind of thing). I’m a big fan of Gilbert Cellars wines as well, so it’s no surprise I latched on to Sage Rat Wines. Dusty’s plan for now is to cap his production at one thousand cases. This will enable him to make wine at both Gilbert Cellars and his winery.
Dusty grew up in the Yakima area and, as a young man, wanted to get out of that environment. so he took off into a career in film archiving, something he studied in college. After a while, he realized he didn’t want to spend a lifetime in the darkroom, and he could hear Eastern Washington calling him back. First, he did a stint in the Willamette Valley, working at Antica Terra with Maggie. After that, he headed back to Eastern Washington to work with Casey McClellan at Seven Hills Winery before landing a job at Gilbert Cellars. He like so many winemakers, wants to make a mark in the wine world with his brand. He truly enjoys working for the Gilbert family and has no intention of leaving as head winemaker there any time soon. Sage Rat Winery allows Dusty to express his talent as a winemaker in a different way.
Dusty chose the name Sage Rat because as he put it, he likes the irreverent nature of the name. Although there is an actual critter called a Sage Rat, he chose the name to reference his years as a cellar rat, a term they use for those who do the hard labor during harvest at the winery. Trust me when I tell you it’s hard work! The people take no offense when called cellar rats, in fact, they take a certain pride in it. The wine world is all about passion, otherwise, very few people would even think about starting a winery, especially while working a full-time job somewhere else. There’s a saying that if you want to make a million dollars in a winery, start with two million. Those like Dusty are driven by passion. It’s not to say there is no money to be made, it’s just a difficult road with many obstacles that need to be overcome.
At this point, Sage Rat has six wines in their portfolio, but Dusty would like to add to that at some point. He likes to work with Italian varietals, which do quite well when grown in Washington State. He also works with Spanish varietals as well. One wine of his I am excited to try is his Rose’ of Graciano (a Spanish varietal), which for now is sold out. I should be able to get my hands on some in February. As I mentioned earlier, his Barbera is outstanding and he also produces a Pet Nat Barbera, which I also was quite impressed with. I asked Dusty about his approach to pricing his wine. At this point, his most expensive wine is just under thirty bucks. He said he didn’t want to come in too high, he wants people to be able to try his wines without breaking the bank, something I appreciate. That’s not to say he will not come out with something in the future that may demand a few more dollars, but for now, he is sticking with the current business plan.
When I asked Dusty what his favorite type of wine is, he said he rarely goes to the same wine twice. He loves the diversity in the wine world and tries to expose his palate to the many different wines that are produced in the old and new world. I think that speaks volumes about his craft and the quality I see in Sage Rat wines. I look forward to promoting this winery throughout 2024, mainly through my YouTube Channel Stan The Wine Man TV. I plan on taking a trip over to eastern Washington to do an interview with Dusty which I will put out on my channel. As I mentioned, he has a couple of wines I have not tried due to being sold out. When I do get them in my possession, I will review them both on this and Stan The Wine Man TV. My prediction is, that Sage Rat will get the attention of consumers and continue to grow and be successful. Quality-to-price ratio (QPR) has a lot to do with my decision on a “Winery Of The Year,” and Sage Rat Wines have both the quality and fair pricing for what you get.
Cheers!
Stan The Wine Man
