Claar Cellars

AWB Honors Claar Cellars with the Green Manufacturing Award

About

Claar Cellars is a family owned and operated estate winery. We have award-winning Premium wines including: Riesling, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Syrah, Sangiovese, and newly planted Pinot Gris, Viognier, Malbec and Petite Sirah. Our vineyards and winery are Sustainable with LIVE, IOBC and Salmon Safe certification.

Location Description

Located in south and southwest facing hillsides above the Columbia River, Washington.

Features

  • Committed to producing quality wines.

Additional Information

  • Meeting / Conference Facilities:
  • Caves:
  • Wedding Facilities:
  • Picnic Facilities:
  • Dog Friendly:
  • Winery Tours:
  • Wine Tasting:
  • Art or Architecture:
  • Organic / Biodynamic:
  • Awards:
  • Wine Club:
  • Lodging / Bed & Breakfast:

Average Bottle Price

$ 15

Winemaker

Joe Hudon has a diverse 12 year wine related background working in medium to large scale wineries in Australia, California, New Zealand and Washington from viticulturist to winemaker. Joe started his career on the viticulture side monitoring vineyards throughout Washington State while earning his bachelor’s degree in horticulture from Washington State University. Joe worked in West Australia for Houghton’s Winery and New Zealand for Kim Crawford Winery before attending the University of Adelaide where he completed a master’s degree in oenology. Joe then worked for Ernest and Julio Gallo in Modesto California as assistant winemaker before coming back home to Washington State. Joe picked out the best methods from each of his winemaking experiences with the intent of always improving quality and efficiency. Joe understands that winemaking starts in the vineyard and works extensively with our crew to create world class wine. Joe is going on his third year as our winemaker.

History

My parents, Audrienne and Russell Claar developed the first farm in 1950 and planted the first grapes in 1980. Bob and I were both Active Duty Naval Officers when in 1983, he retired and I transferred into the Naval Reserve. Since then we have developed over 120 acres of premium vineyards.

After 13 years of selling grapes to wineries throughout Washington, as well as from New York to Mississippi to New Mexico, and of being told of their unique taste and quality from numerous Winemakers, we decided to take the steps necessary to become an Estate Winery. With the 1997 crush we became an Estate Winery processing and bottling all of our grapes in our own 10,000 square foot facility. In 1999 we added a 4,000 square foot Temperature and Humidity controlled Barrel Building and in 2012 a 10,000 square foot case-good storage facility all of which are heated and cooled through ground water and excess heat produced by the glycol tank cooling system.

Practices & Techniques

LIVE certifies that Claar Cellars L.L.C. WHITE BLUFFS VINEYARD and Claar Cellars Winery have successfully passed the requirements of LIVE, Inc. and are hereby granted the right to use the LIVE, IOBC, and Salmon-Safe logos effective January 2012.

LIVE is an acronym meaning Low Input Viticulture and Enology. This refers to the practice of limiting the amount of raw materials (inputs such as pesticides, fertilizer, water, chemicals, fuel, etc.) used in vineyard and winery production, LIVE uses international standards of sustainable viticultural and enological practices in both wine-grape and wine production. These practices are based on an independent 3rd-party-verified checklist system consisting of required and prohibited elements, as well as numerous ecological options. Members must complete two years of farming under LIVE standards before achieving certification. All members must undergo rigorous 3rd-party inspections to verify these practices. There are 272 Vineyards certified {249 in Oregon, 23 in Washington}.

The IOBC is the International Organization for the Biological and Integrated Control of Noxious Animals and Plants. This organization sets the protocols from which LIVE draws its standards. Every year LIVE applies for endorsement from the IOBC. This international endorsement proves compliance to GLOBALGAP standards (www.globalgap.org), a recognized and highly regarded standard for agricultural production. The IOBC promotes the use of sustainable, environmentally safe, economically feasible, and socially acceptable control methods of pests and diseases of agricultural and forestry crops. Certified LIVE members are also internationally certified by the IOBC.

Salmon-Safe is an organization dedicated to protection of fish habitat through watershed management.

Claar Cellars strives to develop proactive and preventative, sustainable agricultural practices. These include the use of integrated pest management and beneficial cover crops. All of Claar Cellars brand wines are Estate grown and bottled and use White Bluffs Vineyards LIVE, IOBC and Salmon-Safe certified grapes.

Estate Vineyards / AVA

Our vineyards are on south and southwest facing hillsides above the Columbia River. In this distinct microclimate, located within the White Bluffs growing region, we are endowed with an almost ideal combination of climate and soil. This region receives more heat than growing areas to the west of us and avoids the more frequent frosts and killer freezes to the east. Also our south facing hillsides allow cold air to drain in the spring and collect more heat during the growing season. Our sandy, rocky soil is especially conducive to growing quality grapes and researchers have frequently stated that this region is one of the best in the state of Washington.

Awards

2010 Syrah Wins Platinum in Best of the Best Wine Press Northwest!

Jan 1, 2015
Our 2010 Sryah won Platinum in Wine Press Northwest 2014 Platinum Judging! Claar Cellars • $22 2010 White Bluffs Syrah, Columbia Valley Winemaker Joe Hudon is making superb and affordable wines for this longtime Washington winery with estate vine...
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Great Northwest Invite Gives Syrah Gold

Oct 17, 2014
The 2014 Great Northwest Wine gave our 2010 Syrah a gold medal in their second annual event! we are extremely pleased and honored to receive such high praise! For more information and the review they gave us: Great Nortwest Wine...
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Claar Cellars on KEPR Action News!

Sep 5, 2013
See John pour and talking about wine in this KEPR Action News Clip! Washington wineries could go international Chukar cherries in the check-out aisles of Japan, Walla Walla wines in Cancun, it could soon be a reality. Washington is steppin...

2013 AWB Environmental Excellence Awards in Resource Conservation and Pollution prevention!

Jun 6, 2013
Claar Cellars won an AWB Environmental Excellence Award for Resource conservation and pollution prevention! The AWB featured a video about us on Vimeo about our practices and what it means to us! .

CLAAR CELLARS WINNER IN GREEN WASHINGTON AWARDS

Nov 2, 2012
Claar Cellars has been named one of the 50 greenest companies in Washington State and winner in the agricultural/natural resources category in the Seattle Business Magazine 2012 Green Washington awards. This is in recognition of Claar Cellars co...

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Hours

Not open to the public.

Address

1081 Glenwood Rd
Pasco, Washington 99301
United States

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