DeLille Cellars Chaleur Blanc: 1995-2016

BY STEPHEN TANZER | JANUARY 07, 2020

Full disclosure: Although I have tasted the Chaleur Blanc shortly after its release every year since its maiden vintage (1995), I was not a huge fan of the earliest vintages because I frequently found the wine to be rather unyielding, not to mention dominated by its new oak in the early going. But I started warming up to it—or perhaps it was the other way around—in the early 2000s, and over the past dozen years or so it has been, according to my ratings, the single finest white wine produced in Washington State. It is no exaggeration to compare this Sauvignon Blanc/Sémillon blend to the finest white Bordeaux bottlings made in oak. Better still, in recent years production has increased substantially, without any apparent compromise in quality, so this is now a world-class Washington wine that Vinous readers should actually be able to find. And its price—still south of forty dollars—remains very reasonable considering its consistently stellar quality.

Moreover, as a stunning vertical tasting at DeLille’s new winery in Woodinville this past August made clear, those early vintages, even if they’re not in the class of what’s being made today, are still alive more than 20 years later, a remarkable performance for a dry white wine from a desert climate. As fruit sources have been tweaked, and winemaking, élevage and bottling have been refined through the years, DeLille’s flagship white wine has gained in clarity, complexity and class.

Sagemoor Vineyard overlooking the Columbia River

The Beginnings of DeLille Cellars

DeLille Cellars was co-founded in 1992 by former wine broker Jay Soloff; winemaker Chris Upchurch, who had previously interned with the late David Lake at Columbia Winery; Greg Lill, an insurance agent; and Greg’s father, Charles Lill. The four partners received valuable early assistance from Lake, who served as a consultant to the new venture during its early years and introduced the principals to top grape growers around the state. In the beginning, all four co-founders made the wines together, but Upchurch was the real winemaking master here from the start: in additional to making the first dozen or so vintages, he has trained and advised subsequent winemakers and still serves in a consulting role today.

DeLille Cellars was created to make Bordeaux-style wines. (It was Washington’s 50th winery license issued; the total in the state topped 1,000 in 2019.) The winery was a pioneer of Bordeaux blends; previously most Cabernet Sauvignons and Merlots made in Washington were varietally labeled—and in nearly all cases 100% varietal. From the outset, DeLille was able to purchase fruit from some of Washington’s top vineyards, particularly Klipsun (Red Mountain), Sagemoor (in the Columbia Valley AVA, situated about 15 miles north of Tri-Cities) and Ciel du Cheval (Red Mountain). DeLille’s first wines were from vintage 1992: a total of about 1,200 cases of their Chaleur Estate Red and a second wine called D2. In 1994, DeLille acquired the rights to Harrison Hill vineyard (in the Snipes Mountain AVA), which had some of the oldest vines in Washington, and since that year DeLille has made a separate Harrison Hill Cabernet Sauvignon in every vintage.

With a third red wine in the works, the partners decided that they needed to add a white wine to their portfolio and, as Soloff told me in a recent conversation, Upchurch insisted that “No winemaker in good conscience would bring another Chardonnay into the world.” As DeLille was a Bordeaux house, the obvious solution was to make a white blend from Sauvignon Blanc and Sémillon, the latter a popular variety in the state at the time but almost always bottled as 100% varietal and in some instances off-dry. So Soloff and Upchurch went off to Bordeaux in the spring of 1995 to see how these blends were made in the Old World. Among their many chateau visits were stops at Haut-Brion, Domaine de Chevalier, Olivier and Smith-Haut-Lafitte, all of whose winemakers were willing to share their methods for making white wine. Although Upchurch found the Haut-Brion Blanc a bit “butterscotchy” owing to the new open-grained Séguin-Moreau barrels that were used for this wine at the time, he described it as one of his chief inspirations, along with Chateau Olivier. The new DeLille wine was labeled Chaleur Estate White Wine until vintage 2015, when the name was shortened to Chaleur Blanc.

The name Chaleur Estate, by the way, was a shortened version of the word chaleureux, which means warm, hearty, or cozy (as in an accueil chaleureux), which was how co-founder Charles Lill thought of his ten-acre weekend property in Woodinville, with its farmhouse, barns, orchards and trout pond. In the two years following the establishment of DeLille, he turned the old farmhouse into a “chateau” that included DeLille’s winery and offices, as well as a popular party space for wedding receptions and other celebrations.

Charles Lill passed away in 2008 and his son Greg retired two years ago. Upchurch, who has devoted most of his time in recent years to his own venture, Upchurch Vineyard (he sells most of the fruit from his Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot vineyard at the southern tip of the Red Mountain AVA to DeLille), is still officially DeLille’s founding winemaker. Soloff is the only original partner still involved in the business day to day, but he is supported by a strong winemaking and marketing team.

Through the years, DeLille Cellars has served as one of the state’s most important incubators of winemaking talent, as an impressive list of its past winemakers have gone on to make very good wines under their own or other labels, including the late Lance Baer and Chris Peterson (Avennia Wine, Passing Time, and, most recently, WeatherEye). Ross Mickel (Ross Andrew Winery) also worked in the DeLille cellar in 1998, and other first-rate Washington winemakers have spent time at DeLille as well: Louis Skinner (now winemaker at Betz Family Winery), Mike Macmorran (Mark Ryan), and Kit Singh (Lauren Ashton). Jason Gorski, who succeeded Chris Peterson in 2010, has officially been winemaker since 2013 and was promoted to director of winemaking at the beginning of 2019. Through the years, Upchurch has served as winemaking guru, ensuring continuity.