Featured Wine Professional Member : Freddy Arredondo of Cave B Cellars

Freddy Arredondo

At our recent ZINO Society January Roundtable Investment Meeting, our featured winery was ZINO Society Wine Professional Member, Cave B Estate Winery.  Winemaker, Freddy Arredondo, was on hand to pour a selection of his current releases.  I asked him a few questions about Cave B that I would like to share with you here:

• How long has your winery been in business?. . . Our first vintage was 2001 and our tasting room in Quincy opened in early 2004
• How many total wine cases did you produce last year?. . . A little over 5,000 cases
• What style(s) of wine do you produce?. . . We produce a wide array of varietals and wine styles from big Bordeaux reds to more esoteric varieties like Tempranillo and Barbera and even off-dry and dessert style wines.
•  What made you decide to get into the wine business?. . . I got into the wine business by way of food. I was a chef in my prior career and working with food initiated my interest in wine. The more I worked with wine pairings the more my interest began to shift to wine production.
•  What ratings have any of your wines received?. . . I currently don’t enter wines into a lot of competitions. The one wine competition that I always enter is the Seattle Wine Awards. In the most recent Seattle Wine Awards competition we did really well, earning One Double Gold, two Gold, three Silver and two Bronze medals.
•  And from which experts? . . . The experts were the judging panel for the Seattle wine awards.
•  Please list your current year wine labels. . . . We actually produce a large number of varietals. Blanc de Blanc Sparkling wine, Chardonnay, Semillon Viognier, Cabernet Franc, Syrah, Tempranillo, Sangiovese, Barbera, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Malbec, Riesling, Semillon Ice Wine and a few others.
•  Where can consumers purchase your wine? . . . We actually have a tasting room in the Seattle area at Urban Enoteca in Georgetown. So that is the best place to go for the widest selection of our wines. We also self distribute in the Seattle area and our wines can be found in many of the QFC stores, since they staff wine stewards.  We’re also in many of the specialty wine shops and many of the finer restaurants in Seattle.
• What is the biggest challenge you face?. . . I would say that my biggest challenge is trying to maintain a personal presence on the west side of the state while keeping up all of my responsibilities in the wine cellar here in Quincy.
•  What is your favorite wine to drink other than your own?. . . This is a tough question because my favorite changes with what it is that I’m eating. I am really big into food and wine pairing. There are truly so many fantastic producers of wine in the state so it is impossible for me to name one or even just a few.