Vashon Island is an unlikely place to host a world-class winery. It rests in the south-central Puget Sound passing its days as an unincorporated part of King County. Bucolic in nature with vistas all around - views of Mt. Rainier, downtown Seattle and Tacoma, the Cascade and Olympic ranges and deep dusky-blue waters of the sound - depending upon where on Vashon you happen to be standing; it is a beautiful place.

Vashon Island still hosts farmland, raising everything from cattle and sheep to fruit, vegetable and flowers for market. One thing however that does not grow on Vashon Island is vitus vinifera - the predominant family of grapes that give all of us our classic high-quality wines. Normally one would write off Vashon as a suitable place to build a winery of any repute, but then Andrew Will Winery, with Mr. Chris Camarda at the helm, is not what most consider an everyday, normal winemaker or winery owner.

Being in the wine industry as a retailer and sommelier had exposed me to many of the wines this small winery produces and except for several bottles that I have kept for aging (because aging to a heightened level of elegance is something that Andrew Will wines do very well,) they have all been what can only be described as fantastic, putting to shame many wines from better-known producers. However, fame and popularity have eluded Andrew Will Winery. Even with high scores and accolades from respected wine raters Robert Parker and Stephen Tanzer, who have hailed Mr. Camarda as one of the best winemakers in America, few outside of the wine industry have heard of Andrew Will. This turns out to be a blessing for those of us in western Washington as we can still obtain these wines - for now.

Catching the Washington State ferry from the Southworth terminal for the short 10 minute crossing to Vashon, I was filled with excitement and anticipation at the prospect of spending time with Mr. Camarda. After the arduous crossing I finally found the unmarked mailbox, leading up a long, unmarked gravel drive, leading to a clearing in the woods where the unmarked house is home for Chris Camarda and Andrew Will Winery. The open property hosts a cubist-style architect-designed home in colors reminiscent of Mr. Camarda’s Italian heritage, a second outbuilding in the same style which serves as a sales office and case storage facility and a longhouse-styled barn which is the winery proper. Here is the place that Chris and Annie Camarda moved to in order to surround themselves with a sense of place that still had a true agricultural feel, and yet was close enough to their primary sales markets to be effective. After all, making wine in 900 square feet of industrial space in Seattle is not exactly fulfilling of the romantic notion of a winery, which is where Andrew Will Winery was born.

Mr. Camarda, I had heard, is a self-acknowledged alcoholic which put me at odds with my image of winemakers and winemaking, where crafting wines presumes an inordinate amount of time tasting one’s own wines and sampling many other vintners’ efforts to determine stylistic goals. Coupled with the sales side of the business, winemakers are under constant pressure to be out in the public eye, hosting gatherings to showcase their wines at auctions, tasting events and dinners where a large dose of Bacchus influence normally flows freely. It all strolls hand in hand with the craft of making wine. So how does a man acknowledged for crafting some of the finest wines in America, who has an alcohol problem, set about making the very thing that could ruin him? I was also curious about how the passing of his wife Annie had affected his life – a life filled with living art and style of which Annie was a big part. These were just some of the questions guiding my curiosity as the waters of the sound sparkled and danced beneath the prow of the ferry.

On a lesser note I was also curious as to how many people called or wrote asking for Andrew or Mr. Will. The winery is named after Chris and Annie Camarda’s son Will and their nephew Andrew, but with no indication on the bottle labels to explain that fact it is only reasonable to expect that the person behind the helm would be named such. Not a crucial point in the exploration of winery background but Chris smiled at the question with a twinkled eye of amusement and said around 30% or more did just that.

Before moving into the answers to these questions it is prudent to take a look at several factors that describe the wines of Andrew Will. Sublime, as an adjective, is a descriptive term as applied to wine, albeit rarely, for the best produced in the world; reserved to describe classified Bordeaux and rare Grand-cru Burgundy. According to Webster’s it means to “inspire awe due to transcendent excellence or elevated quality” and that is what Chris Camarda’s wines from Andrew Will Winery are all about - in spades. It is rare these days to come across a wine maker who values purity and elegance above heavily oaked, intensely extracted high-alcohol wines and yet, here in western Washington we are blessed with a winery that pursues clean, elegant and focused wines to rival some of the greatest made anywhere. Not that Chris’s wines are for wimps. While all Andrew Will wines show clean, elegant focus with great purity of grape varietal character, they also possess complexity, muscle and depth – a remarkable feat that is the envy of many of his peers.

As you may have guessed Chris Camarda is not your everyday winemaker. He began his love of wine in the restaurant industry while still in his 20’s up north towards Bellingham – close to the Canadian border, when there was no such thing as a fine dining industry in the greater Seattle area. Fortunate enough to have worked for people who valued world-class wine as a part of the overall dining experience, this was at a time when there were only a handful of international and California wines being brought into Washington State.

As he moved on to better opportunities he landed a plum job at Il Bistro in Pike Place Market, where he served as waiter, wine steward and then general manager. Here Chris was exposed to some of the truly great wines of Italy and France, rounding out his exposure from his previous experiences with the early big boys of the Napa scene. This proved to be a double-edged sword however. While Chris was developing his laser-precision palate, he was also developing his alcohol problem.

I prefaced a couple of questions to Chris with “I don’t want to ask anything too personal…” to which he responded with shrugged shoulder and smile – he knew what was coming; I kept it subtle and delved right into alcoholism and the passing of his beloved wife and partner Annie in March of 2005. Chris responded with the gracious candor of a brave man who has been through tough emotional times; with the brute honesty of someone who has faced down his demons. Chris spoke of his alcoholism in absolute terms. Telling of lost days and nights and an addiction that meant more to him than his health or life, he stopped drinking himself towards death in 1985 when he became painfully aware that he was sprinting down a ruinous path reaching out towards a disastrous finish line. He didn’t need to speak of Annie. He said it all in the best way he could – he made a new wine in her honor – the Annie Camarda Syrah, replete with a beautiful flowered label – quite different from all the other labels bearing the Andrew Will logo.

When I pressed him for details about how he crafts such fine wines, which naturally require a good deal of tasting, he responded through example while in the barrel room, taking only tiny samples for himself (while amply filling my glass, allowing me to experience all the disparate elements in their youth,) smelling, swirling, re-smelling, tasting, re-tasting and spitting everything into the bucket at hand. I marveled at the intense will-power that it takes for a winemaker to spit everything and only focus on the technical aspect of his product instead of enjoying the ethereal Dionysian attributes.

 

Of course one just does not just wake up one morning and become a great wine maker. As in all endeavors one needs mentors and Chris, being a savvy guy knew where to turn. Rick Small of Woodward Canyon, Gary Figgins of Leonetti, Rusty Figgins of Glen Fiona and the Goeltzins of Quilceda Creek saw potential in the young Camarda, helping him to master the essential steps in crafting fine wine however it wasn’t until David Ramey of Ramey Cellars in California came to spend time at the fledgling winery that the Andrew Will wines came into their own. A UC Davis grad, Ramey had different ideas about how to craft wines. Namely – throw out the book on conventional wisdom; do things differently to showcase the best attributes of the fruit. It was with Ramey’s counsel and guidance that Chris stopped the then-common practice of acidifying his wines (the practice of adding acidity to lend balance to the sugars and boost aging potential,) and working closely in the vineyards to assure maximum ripening of the fruit, especially during the last crucial stages through harvest. Ramey also advocated developing a different strategy in the use of oak, preferring a balance between new oak and older, neutral barrels which finished the wines to be blended with better balance. All of a sudden Andrew Will wines made people stand up and take notice.

 

Today, with a total production of only 4600 cases of wines annually, there is no room for error for the man behind the helm. Each wine that bears the name Andrew Will must be perfect and Mr. Carmada carries this off with élan year after year. With the focus primarily on red Bordeaux-style blends from some of the most prestigious vineyards in Washington, most Andrew Will bottles bear the name of the vineyard from whence the fruit came. Vineyard names on Andrew Will bottles have become legendary, not only in Washington but which are now sought out as representing some of the best grapes in the United States: Ciel du Cheval, Klipsun, Sheridan, Champoux, and now his own vineyard, Two Blondes. Crafting wines primarily from Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot, and Malbec, Chris also works with Sangiovese and Syrah.

 

Andrew Will also produces an excellent second label named Cuvee Lucia, born out of the necessity of having, and effectively using wine left over after blending his primary wines. Under the Cuvee Lucia label, Chris produces varietal wines bearing the name of the grape in the bottle. Merlot, Pinot Grigio, Chardonnay and a Sangiovese are made under the Cuvee Lucia label. They are excellent and nicely priced.

 

“I enjoy the process; making wine and all it entails” Chris said in his typical cut-off direct style, as we wrapped up an enjoyable afternoon of talking, touring and tasting. “Heaviness drags wine down. Wines need to have transparency” he continued, educating me to his world view of winemaking. Like his wines, there could be no purer thought as to how a man might overcome his demons to produce some of the finest wines in America. Clean, pure and simple. When asked about the new international style of wine, heavy and extracted, loaded with oak and alcohol, Chris merely shrugged, calling such wines inconsequential and uninteresting.

 

The last question I had for Chris was one that I ask all vintners: If you could only drink one bottle of wine, what would it be? True to his nature and perfectly in line with his own wines due to its purity and seamless, elegant balance, he responded without hesitation “1989 Haut Brion!”