For Coco Umiker, a Lewiston-based winemaker and owner of Clearwater Canyon Cellars, wine isn’t just made — it’s grown from the ground up.
From the more than 100-year-old soil to the meticulously sculpted vines and the weather of each season to the carefully crafted wine barrels, the process of growing wine is a long one.
“It takes time,” Umiker said. “But it’s easy to be patient when there is so much to do.”
Along with Karl Umiker, also an owner of the winery and vineyard, Coco said their business took root in 2004. With a small garage, a strong background in the sciences, a passion for the business and a signature red wine, the two began Clearwater Canyon Cellars with a group of four other couples.
It wasn’t long before the winemakers needed more room and expanded into a location on the port of Lewiston in 2007. Three years later, Coco and Karl were the only founding business members left. By 2016, they moved their business to an Idaho Century Farm owned by Coco’s family.
In the long history of the 40 acres of land the winery now resides on, Coco and Karl were the first to plant grapes.
“The results were amazing, so we just kept growing our lifestyle and the quality of our wine,” Coco said.
But before embarking on their true business passion, both Karl and Coco spent their lives as academics. Coco earned her undergraduate degrees in microbiology, molecular biology and biochemistry at the University of Idaho. She then went on to earn her doctorate in food sciences at Washington State University. Karl earned his master’s in soil sciences at UI.
“From worrying about plant diseases to crop continuity year after year, I know how to keep an eye on the whole system,” Karl said. “My background really lends to that.”
The beginning of their journey to winemaking, however, began long before their time at UI or with the current iteration of their business.
Grapes were first planted in the Lewis-Clark valley — where Clearwater Canyon Cellars resides — more than a century ago because of the area’s fertile soil and temperate climate. When prohibition hit Idaho, the Lewiston area’s wine industry was essentially obliterated, Coco said.
Since then, winemakers such as Coco and Karl have been trying to bring the booming industry back. While wine drinkers might not expect to find a blossoming wine culture in northern Idaho of all regions, Coco said the last decade has brought growth.
“Making (their wine) accessible to buyers through the internet has really helped us reach out to people who wouldn’t know we exist otherwise,” Coco said.
Selling to a wide variety of people, cultivating the vineyard and producing the wine from start to finish is all part of the four-person staff’s daily workload. Karl heads the viticultural sector of the business while Coco handles the winemaking.
“It takes a team to make wine,” Coco said.
As the head viticulturist, Karl spends much of his day tending to the seven acres of vines and grapes on their land. No matter the weather, winemaking is a year-round process, he said.
To fully care for the vineyard grounds, Karl said he describes his work as endurance labor instead of hard labor.
“It’s a different type of tired at the end of the day,” Karl said.
In April, the flower buds on the vines break. By June, the fruit has bloomed. In August, the fruit will have changed color. And the first few months of fall are spent picking and beginning to make the wine.
“Everybody in our lives knows that harvest is off limits,” Coco said. “During that time we get to unapologetically dive into wine for two months.”
Throughout every step of the process, Coco incorporates her scientific knowledge in their on-site lab. During harvest, September and October, Coco checks for sugar, acid and nitrogen levels — all components that will affect the outcome and taste of a bottle of wine.
“Winemaking is a controlled chaos. Once you think you have it all under control, you’re done for,” Coco said.
Inside the winery, rows of barrels line the walls, each filled with various types of the 12 wines they produce each year. The winery’s warehouse was designed specifically for Coco’s small stature. Each barrel and fermenting station is accessible — something she hadn’t found before creating her own business.
“There are some things in winemaking that require strength and size. It’s OK to say you’re not big enough or strong enough. Your powers might be in other places,” Coco said. “That doesn’t mean I’m any less of a winemaker.”
Aside from the physical difficulties that could come with running a demanding business, both Coco and Karl said they have run into gendered bias during their time as business partners.
“Sometimes people come in and immediately look at Karl when they ask to meet the winemaker,” Coco said. “It’s just a matter of helping female winemakers feel confident in what their own powers are.”
Growing the business, as well as their passion, Karl said, is what drives the two among the busy harvest seasons and new wine varieties. At the start of their first batch of wine in 2004, the two simply wanted to share their passion for growing and making wine with one another.
“When we began, the history of this place was a plus,” Karl said. “But we wanted to be working toward something together — that was wine for us.”
Just as Coco took over the land from her family to begin the vineyard, Coco said she hopes to leave the business to their children.
“These vines will definitely outlive us,” Coco said. “We’ll leave the vines and equipment with the kids and tell them to go make their own damn wine.”
Hailey Stewart can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @HaileyAStew