By day, Travis Allen is a nurse anesthetist, living with his wife Mario, and their children in Seattle, Washington. By harvest, he is one of the most innovative winemakers in Washington and Oregon.
Allen wasn’t into wine when he first met Mario at San Diego State University. He was a teetotalling surfer who preferred orange slices to orange wines. When he and Mario moved to San Francisco, he visited Napa Valley to try wine for the first time. A switch flipped when he heard a tasting room employee describe a wine as smelling like blueberries and black tea. “I could totally get that. Since that moment in 2001, I’ve read something about wine every single day,” says Allen.
Image Courtesy of Cara Almberg
The Allens moved to Seattle in 2007 when Travis was hired by the Seattle Children’s Hospital. He had no interest in making wine, but his “directed learning” program of attending wine tastings and asking lots of questions was in full swing. In 2012 Allen listened intently as a Spanish winemaker described unfamiliar techniques at a Hospice du Rhône seminar in California. Allen decided that someone in Washington State should be doing interesting things and he would be that guy. Allen says, “Our first mission was to make things different.”
Kobayashi debuted in 2014 with 25 cases of Cabernet Franc. The Allens now make 1,000 cases annually at Force Majeure in Milton-Freewater, Oregon, with their core wines selling for $65 and $85. Kobayashi devotees snap the
This Article was originally published on Wine Enthusiast
