Sporting tenacity ensures growth for Washington winery
Such is the competitive spirit of record-breaking former pro sportsman Drew Bledsoe, his Washington winery has seen sales increase during the downturn in the drinks market.
That was the message emanating from a discussion with Bledsoe in London last month – which you can listen to in full here – when the ex American football quarterback was over for the NFL London Games – a sport he follows closely having played in the National Football League (NFL) for 14 seasons before retiring in 2007.
On leaving the sport in a professional capacity, Bledsoe returned to his home region of Walla Walla in Washington State, and set up a winery called Doubleback within a mile of where he grew up.
Now making high-end Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon and Syrah from the property – and fine Pinot Noir from a further estate in Oregon too – he has spent longer as a vintner than a professional sportsman, and witnessed significant changes in the market over the past 18 years.
Looking back, he told db, “You know, we were very blessed for the first 14 or 15 years that we were in the business, because wine consumption continued to trend up,” although he added that he and his winery team never stopped “trying to be the best in class at everything.”
Recent history has of course meant facing a more difficult dynamic, with global wine consumption falling worldwide following a brief post-Covid surge upwards.
He recorded, “It’s been a difficult last few years for many reasons, but, you know, it’s true in football; it’s true in life, and it’s definitely true in the wine business: you really find out about your team, you find out about yourself, and you find out about your business when times are hard – you find out what you’ve really got.”
Continuing he said, “And our team, across the board, from our amazing vineyard crew, production staff, sales, the logistics, you name it, they’re highly competitive people, and they have been performing like no other through this time when it’s not been easy, and because of that, we’ve been able to continue to grow.”
He added, “We’ve been able to sell all of our wine – we’ve slowed our growth down a little bit with this downturn, but we’re still actually growing when other businesses are shrinking, and, you know, it’s still a struggle, it’s still a fight, but our team has just performed best in class across the board.”
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Putting Walla Walla on the world wine map
Adding to the challenge for Bledsoe has been the lack of relative fame for his primary wine growing source region of Walla Walla.
He admitted, “I 100% believe that our region deserves more notoriety on a world stage, and what we always say is if we can get the wine in the glass, then people understand very quickly that we’re a world class wine region, but people still have these long held perceptions that wine comes from Bordeaux, it comes from Burgundy, it comes from Piedmont, it comes from Tuscany, it comes from Napa.”
While he acknowledged that Oregon’s Willamette Valley – where he grows Pinot Noir – “has done a pretty good job of branding itself,” he added that, “But Walla Walla still has plenty of room to grow in terms of the recognition,” which he believes should centre on the quality of the area’s Cabernet Sauvignon.
It’s building awareness for Walla Walla and his winery that has encouraged Bledsoe to come to the UK, where his wines are represented by The Sporting Wine Club.
Commenting on reason for the tie-up, he told db, “We would like to continue to share the message with the rest of the world that there are amazing things happening in our valley.”
Furthermore, in terms of his own business, he commented, “And let’s be honest, the baby boomers are aging out, and while we sell our wine pretty quickly, we need to educate a new generation and a new population base if we’re going to continue to be a solid business going forward.
Concluding he said, “We’re never going to turn this into a million-case brand, but in order to solidify our business, and in order to continue this incremental growth that we’ve had, we have to we have to expand our reach.”
