Trust
Cellars
Winemaker
Steve Brooks
Trusts his Foodie Instincts
by Alison Ruch
Steve Brooks, in his former
life as a journalist for CNN,
got to know a thing or two about
wine because he traveled and
he drank it—all over the world.
“I ate out a lot!” he said.
“The highlight of any exhausting,
miserably long work day was
the quest for the best local
food. Many a meal—with lots
of local wine, if available—was
shared with colleagues as we
swapped stories of our past
adventures.
“I’ve always associated those
good times with food and drink.
In short, I became a foodie.”

Brooks
realized, nearly twenty years
into his life as a journalist,
that he wasn't very happy.
He was always on the road. Brooks
and his family brainstormed
for alternative lifestyles—happy
places. Some of the most appealing
ventures involved food and wine.
After reading an inspiring
New York Times article on winemaking
in Eastern Washington, the Brooks
family decided happiness was
worth the risk of leaving life
as they knew it in Atlanta behind
to give the winemaking business
a try. The family up and moved
to remote wine hub of Walla
Walla, Washington.
Five years
later, when Brooks and his wife
Lori (who had also worked for
CNN) put their heads together
to come up with a name for their
new winery, the word came quickly.
“When we sat down and thought
about what we had done—” Brooks
said, “—quitting our well-paying
jobs, selling our house, taking
the kids out of school and moving
cross-country to a town where
we didn’t know anyone… and then
on top of that starting a winery…
Trust seemed like the perfect
description.”

From Drinking
It to Making It
Brooks
arrived in Walla Walla with
a lot to learn. He knew grape
varietals and was skilled with
food and wine pairings, but
he had to learn the intricacies
of winemaking and get some hands-on
experience. He set to work right
away, taking classes at the
Center for Enology and Viticulture
in Walla Walla. Over the past
five years, he’s built up a
strong wine work resume with
time spent in the cellars of
Walla Walla Vintners, Northstar,
Long Shadows, Basel Cellars,
VaPiano and Chateau Rollat.
Unlike
the days at CNN, often parting
ways to travel solo for assignments,
Steve and Lori are happy they
have designed a life in which
they see a lot of each other—running
their family business. To sweeten
the deal, they’ve involved their
two daughters, Madeline and
Caroline. “They all
pitch in and help,” Brooks said.
The first Trust Cellars vintage
was 2005, for which Brooks produced
a Syrah. Out of 2006, came a
Riesling, Cabernet Franc Rose
and a Semillon Ice Wine.
Trust
recently relocated to a new
facility, located at (no kidding)
1050 Merlot Drive, in the middle
of Saint Clare Vineyard. Brooks
is currently making around 900
cases a years and, he said,
“We have plans to inch up production
every year—but nothing drastic.”

The
Trust Cellars Wines
Brooks
uses fruit from a long list
of Washington vineyards, and
he said he finds that, “Each
one brings something to the
table when it’s time to put
a blend together. I tend to
favor hotter sites for Cabernet
and cooler sites for Syrah,
but I always keep an open mind
and try to taste as many different
spots as I can.”
In general, Brooks likes to
keep his style streamlined. “The wine is an expression of
the vineyard,” Brooks said.
“I try not to cover that up,
so nothing heavy handed. I just
let nature play out.”
Trust Cellars
Syrah 05
“All the
lots that went into the 2005
Syrah were punched down by hand
during fermentation,” Brooks
said. “They all went to dryness
on the skins and then were pressed
to tank and allowed to settle
overnight before barreling down.
Malolactic fermentation took
place in barrel. Most of the
wine was aged in older barrels
with only 12.5% of the blend
being aged in new French oak.
There is also a little bit of
Cabernet Sauvignon (12.5%) in
the blend, which adds a velvety
mouth-feel to the finished wine.
Dried black cherry, espresso
and vanilla on the nose.”

Trust Cellars
Cabernet Franc Rose 06
This Rose
is made up of 100% Bacchus
vineyard fruit that was, Brooks
said, “crushed and left to
macerate for 17 hours. After
the maceration the grapes
were pressed and the juice
was moved to used oak barrels
and allowed to ferment in
the cellar under cool temperatures.
The finished wine was cold
stabilized but not fined before
bottling. Aromas of watermelon,
cotton candy and dried cherries.”
Trust Cellars
Riesling 06
Trust’s
Riesling is a blend of fruit
from five different vineyards
(Weinbau, Lonesome Spring, Dionysus,
Koinonia, and Phil Church).
Brooks said, “A lot of older
vines that bring some minerality
to the table along with apricot,
peach, melon and citrus.”
Trust Cellars
Semillon Ice Wine 06
Brooks’s
story of the ice wine is that,
“On November 26th at 7:30 in
the morning when the grapes
were picked, the temperature
was 14 degrees F. at Rosebud
Ranch on the Wahluke Slope.
We made it back to Walla Walla
with the temperatures still
well under freezing. The juice
(at 41 degrees Brix) was fermented
in both stainless and oak. We
stopped fermentation at 21 degrees
Brix. The wine has wonderful
aromas of honey and pineapple
with flavors that remind me
of honey soaked figs.”

Happy
Landings
After
the freefall that was starting
over in Walla Walla to learn
to make wine led to its happy
landing at Trust Cellars, Steve
and Lori Brooks are content
to stay put and keep doing what
they’re doing. “[We have] no
plans to take over the world
and turn Trust into a global
conglomerate,” Brooks said.
“We want to always be a small
family business and continue
making wines that people enjoy.”

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