Rob Griffin's wines have been at the forefront of Washington's wine industry for the past three decades: moderately priced, varietally correct thoroughbreds. Elegant wines for everyday drinking led by a show-horse rosé of Sangiovese, the bottles have always been easy to identify with their colorful tulip labels. (At the Seattle Opera, they pour a custom-bottling called Red of the Walkyries, and a white called Das Vinegold.)
And now, as the Richland-based winery positions itself for additional expansion, a slight adjustment to the label. The memorable tulips came from Deborah Barnard, an accomplished artist, and won't go away completely; the winery, after all, is located on Tulip Lane. But the family decided it was time to move in a more "aggressive" direction: a representation of the legendary creature known as a griffin (or griffon, or gryphon) with the body of a lion and the wings, face and talons of an eagle. Fearsome beast. Details in a lengthy PDF and on the winery's website.
Here's that new Griffin, along with a shot of the BG tasting room in Richland.
Depending how you count, the top wineries in Washington stack up like this. Ste. Michelle Wine Estates at the top, bigger than all the rest combined, followed by, well, a shifting tier of also-rans. Actual ranking depends on what you're counting (acreage? tonnage? production? sales?), Here are the players: Hogue Cellars, which is no longer owned by the Hogue family; K Vintners, the multi-pronged brand founded by Charles Smith; Hedges Family Cellars; what's left of Columbia pending a relaunch by its relatively new owners, the Gallo brothers; an interloper from California, Pacific Rim; Barnard Griffin; organic producer Badger Mountain, the Leuthold family's Maryhill; and the Precept Brands portfolio, led by Canoe Ridge. This ranking via Puget Sound Business Journal, by the way, as published back in August. The hot labels this winter: K Vintners (about to open a production facility and tasting room in Georgetown), and Precept Brands.
When I interviewed Rob Griffin a year and a half ago, he was hinting at some sort of dramatic expansion. Yesterday's announcement of the new label didn't mention anything new, but we'll update this post if that turns out to be the case. In the meantime, keep on growling.
UPDATE: Here's an email received from Griffin: "The 'something big' was indeed the complete label redesign. For us, or me at any rate, this process was worse than childbirth. Difficult to eject an old friend and take chances on something new but so far the results are almost entirely positive. We had been suffering in Eastern markets where the tulip label was viewed as crass and simplistic. It's ironic to remember that in 1983 the tulips were more cutting edge than not....maybe someday that kind of image will come back but for now we have a label that's comfortably upscale and 'tasteful'".
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