MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

Ralph & Carol Myers

Carol and Ralph have been wine club members for almost a decade. Back in the day, they had made the trip to visit the Williamson fruit stand to purchase local apricots when they spied the tasting room right next to the packing shed. According to Carol: “Of course we had to go in for a tasting. This is where our love for Williamson wines began. We both favor red wines, but on this occasion, we tasted their Viognier.  We’ve been huge fans ever since and haven’t tasted a Viognier we like better. After the tasting we decided to become wine club members.”

It’s always a treat for us to see the Myer’s come through out door! We know we’ll get to “geek out” with them over food and wine pairings. Ralph and Carol are always up to some new culinary exploration. These culinary hobbyists have experimented with everything from fermentation, beer making, sourdough bread making, to building a pizza oven in their back yard.

We’re always hungry after a hearing about their latest creations! “We often create tasty pasta dishes or crank up the wood fired oven for pizza that all go so well with the Williamson Sangiovese. It’s one of our favorites and when we buy a case, so there’s always some Sangiovese on the list.”  They’ve gone full urban farmer and enjoy, “tending to our large garden, edible landscape plantings and raising sheep and laying hens.” They raise a plethora of goodies, “fresh basil, eggplant, tomatoes, onions, peppers and our grass-fed lamb.” 

“We always enjoy driving out to Williamson Wines to pick up our wine, have a tasting and visit with the wonderful employees and Williamson family members. We look forward to many more memorable occasions where we sit down to share good food and wonderful Williamson Wines! “

We couldn’t have said it any better! Ralph & Carol always remind us to experiment and enjoy the process of making food. Not to mention the importance of celebrating that good food with good wine! Thank you for being such loyal and lovely part of our wine club family!

Cheers!

Wine Club Member Spotlight

Williamson Vineyards is thankful for the loyal support of our wine club! This next year we are going to share a little about a few of our most supportive members. We can’t do what we do without our amazing wine club ambassadors. Cheers!

Two of our most amazing wine club ambassadors ever, are Karen Bowles and Susan Daly! This sweet set of sisters have been members of our wine club for 9-10 years! Karen and Susan host a wine gathering every year, often featuring an Idaho winery. These classy ladies don’t just throw any wine soirée! They turn it into a fun and educational gathering with different themes, where they share some of their favorite wines with their friends.

Susan told us some fun facts: ” I put the wines in groups on my dining room table to include the reds, red blends, dry whites, sweets, verticals. In the middle of the table I made a copy of the importance of the windmill that was on the back of one of your wine labels, I purchased a mini steel windmill, and a copy of the Williamson logo”, “We had 3 vertical tastings. The 2018 and 2019 Riesling. The 2018 and 2019 windmill red. I think, the 3rd vertical was the 2018 and the 2019 Malbec”

These amazing wine club members have obviously been planning this for a while, and we were honored to find out that their latest epic wine party featured all Williamson Vineyards wines!! Thank you Karen and Susan for making Williamson’s wines a part of your annual tradition.

*We would have loved a picture of them together, but one of our ladies was always taking pictures!

Wine Time Fridays Podcast

This northwest based podcast is hosted by Shelley Webb and Phil Anderson, who have been drinking wine together for over 15 years. They discuss their week over a glass of wine, giving their feedback, food pairing options and opinions.

These crazy kids magically found a bottle of wine that we have been sold out of for years! Their casual banter about our long lost rosé is light and fun. Tune in between minute 4:25 and 11:55 to get their take on a classic Williamson wine.

Wines tasted this episode:
2016 Williamson Vineyard Blossom Rosé of Sangiovese

Idaho Wine Month Episode #1 – Wine Time Fridays Podcast


one bottle red wine and one bottle white wine next to wine barrel

Idaho Wine Competition 2022

We are thrilled to have two of our favorite wines as gold medal winners at this year’s Idaho Wine Competition. If you haven’t had the opportunity to taste our Sangiovese and Albariño, what are you waiting for?

one bottle white wine and one bottle red wine against a tree backdrop

2021 Albariño won Double Gold and our 2019 Sangiovese won a Gold. Check out more detail at our webstore here: Williamson Vineyards wine shop

If you’re interested in more  information about this year’s Idaho Wine Competition, head over to their website here: Idaho Wine Competition

Available for purchase in our tasting room or via our webstore. Psst! Wine club members – remember to sign into your account to receive your special discount.

Savor Northwest Wine Competition

The 2022 Savor Northwest Wine Awards competition, conducted this year in early March in Cannon Beach, Oregon had approximately 700 entries. We are so pleased to report that both the 2019 Cabernet and 2019 Sangiovese received Silver medals. Both these delicious wines are available in the tasting room or via our webstore here.

Links to the full story are here: Savor NorthWest Wine Competition 2022

Wine Club Member Spotlight

Williamson Vineyards is thankful for the loyal support of our wine club! This next year we are going to share a little about a few of our most supportive members. We can’t do what we do without our amazing wine club ambassadors. Cheers!

Dan and Candi Puga
This cute couple has been in the Sunnyslope area and have known each other since kindergarten! They have raised a beautiful family and are very active in the local community. They have been members at Williamson’s for roughly 10 years!

 How did you find Williamson Orchards & Vineyards? The current Williamson siblings were a few years younger than us in school and we also attended church with the family. One day around our 20th anniversary, we took a drive around Sunnyslope area, and were pleasantly surprised that wineries were popping up all around the area. Going to the wineries has became a weekend date tradition.

Why did you become a member? I’m not exactly sure our joining date, but it was one of our early memberships. The picture (above on left) in front of the old fruitstand shed and tasting room was May of 2015, a beautiful Mother’s Day. We later used that picture for our 25th wedding party invite!

Tell us about some of your experiences at Williamson’s. We appreciate the welcoming service even during the difficult season of covid. To this day, Williamson’s is one of our favorite stops along the Sunnyslope wine trail and we love the new conveniently located tasting room.

What are some of your favorite wines? Williamson’s provides a wide variety of wines that we both enjoy and love. Dan tends to taste the reds and I stick with the rosés or whites. Some of our favorite wines include Sangiovese, Red Blends, Petite Sirah, Dry Riesling, Blossom, and Lilly White.

Yummy Quick Pizza Bites

Why not put that amazing air fryer you have to good use by making a crispy and delightful treat? We think pizza is a food group all on its own and deserves to be eaten as a snack, appetizer, or dinner. Use this recipe as a template and substitute your favorite pizza toppings. Pineapple & ham would be delicious paired with Albariño, Riesling, or Harvest Moon Red. Maybe you have a bottle of Cabernet or Homestead Red, then make your topping pepperoni. Have fun and explore some new wine and pizza pairings. Cheers!

Air Fryer Pizza Bites

  • 2 sheets frozen puff pastry- thawed overnight in refrigerator
  • 1/4 cup pizza sauce (more to taste, but not enough to be soggy)
  • 3.5 oz. shredded ham
  • 8 oz. can pineapple chunks in juice, well drained
  • 2/3 cup shredded pizza cheese
  • Quantities are guidelines, you might want more or less of each ingredient.

Preheat your airfryer to 350°F. Spray the basket of your air fryer with non stick cooking spray. Use a 3in. round cutter to cut 9 discs from each pastry sheet. Or  if you don’t want to waste any pastry, cut into small squares with a sharp knife. Place on prepared basket/tray. Spread evenly with pizza sauce. Top with ham, pineapple and cheese.

Bake for 10 – 15 mins or until cheese melts and base is crisp.

Pro Tip: make sure all your topping ingredients are already cooked before putting them on the puff pastry to prevent a soggy crust.
Enjoy!

Alaska Airlines lets Idaho Wine Fly Free

Great deal for taking wine on Alaska Airlines


The Idaho Wine Commission has brokered a terrific partnership with Alaska Airlines. You may have heard that Alaska Airlines has agreed to allow their Mileage Plan™ members, to check a case of Idaho wines at no additional cost.

They have now added another bonus which Williamson Vineyards is participating in:

When consumers show their Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan membership and in-bound boarding pass (paper or digital) to winery tasting room staff, they receive one complimentary tasting at that location.
The Idaho Wine Commission has more details, click here.

Grapevines Sleeping Sweetly

Harvest is over and the weather has been cooperative so that our vines have safely gone to sleep, to rest and get ready for the next growing season. Our vineyard guys have been busy getting all the harvest paraphernalia put away for another year.

While the leaves where still green on our vines this fall, they where sending valuable carbohydrates into the woody trunk and roots as fuel to get the vines through the quiet winter months. This reserve is essential to keep the vines fed until they wake from their winter sleep and send leaves out to allow photosynthesis to generate the spring growth to begin another year.

Sleep well, little vines and we’ll see you mid-winter for a bit of trimming.

2020 Albariño Receives Double Platinum

We have received a wonderful acknowledgement of our delicious 2020 Albariño with a Double Platinum from Great Northwest Wine. It’s available for purchase right now, check out the webstore here for more details. Of course, we love to see you in the tasting room too! If you’re interested in what Great Northwest Wine has to say about our award winning Albariño, check out their details here.