By Kelly Sanderbeck, Donor Engagement Manager
A new partnership was just launched between Camaraderie Cellars, Washington’s National Park Fund and Olympic National Park featuring Chateau Marmaux, a new Rhone-style wine created to fund the research on the Olympic marmot. One of the most social and gregarious mammals on the peninsula and found nowhere else in the world, the marmot has been studied by the park and its volunteer community scientists for many years. A generous $10 will be donated by Camaraderie Cellars for every bottle sold.
Laurie Ward: I’m CEO of Washington’s National Park Fund and I’d like to introduce Don Corson, winemaker and owner with his wife Vicki, of Camaraderie Cellars in Port Angeles. We’re really grateful for you stepping up and showing your care and passion for Olympic National Park. Tell us a little more. Why Olympic?
Don Corson: First of all, it’s in my backyard. We’re in Port Angeles and we see Klahanie Ridge every day (when it’s visible!) and even today our son was up there climbing around. The park is like a family member; it’s so important to us that we want to take care of it and love it. We’re so blessed to have such a unique ecosystem literally right in our own backyard.
Laurie Ward: What was your inspiration to become a winemaker and how did you get where you are today?
Don Corson: I received a PhD in geography and hoped to have a career teaching at a university, but no one was hiring at the time. So, I managed real estate holdings (other than crops of trees) for 20 years at a timber company. I got the wine bug in the 80’s and we were Washington State ‘garagists’ for about 11 years. When I moved to Port Angeles in 1990 to work for Merrill & Ring, I was still dreaming of a winery. We started making a few hundred cases a year, sourcing our grapes from Eastern Washington. It’s a great place to make wine, with a temperate climate and good humidity. Last year I travelled 5,835 miles getting grapes from 10 different vineyards! We sell the bulk of our wine at the winery and through our Wine Club, with limited distribution around the country. I’ve learned what creates loyal customers — fine quality wine at fair prices. Our motto is: ‘The best things in life are meant to be shared.’
Laurie Ward: Why a wine focused on marmots?
Don Corson: This is my buddy (referring to his stuffed marmot) and we’re having a competition to come up with its name! Marmots are unusual little critters, just as the park is as a whole. We came up with the idea for this wine as we have a lot of friends in the area that have been on the marmot survey teams at Olympic for years. I was impressed that it was a volunteer activity and I know it has costs to keep it administered correctly. You need the information to be scientifically accurate and usable and that takes some money. We’ve done other similar partnerships in the community, such as for the Olympic Medical Center Foundation and the Port Angeles Symphony. At the medical center, we auction off the rights to be part of the blending team for the next season’s wine, as well as sell the original art from the label. Our wine for the Symphony is called Rhapsody in Red and we’ve helped to raise over $70,000 for both of these organizations over the past seven years. Because of these successes, we decided to come up with a special wine for the marmots at Olympic – Chateau Marmaux — with Oak Harbor artist Sandy Byers creating the label.
Laurie Ward: Love that name! Everyone we’ve told about this project gets such a kick out of it. And the marmot program the wine supports is for volunteer community scientists. Participants are trained by scientists to track and monitor the research and data. We’ve been funding this for many years and are very proud of it. It’s a great program and covers one of our core areas for funding — Science & Research. Will you tell us about the wine?
Don Corson: We released the first of the Chateau Marmaux this weekend and it’s been very successful. We only made 100 cases, but we sold 10 of those already and we’re donating $10 per bottle back to the Fund. Patti Happe, the Wildlife Biologist for the park, was here this weekend and she said, ‘If you sell all that, it’s going to fund us for a couple of years. How incredible is that!’
I think it’s a lot better than going to an auction and getting a toaster oven that you really didn’t want. This is a lot more fun and it happens to be a great wine. It’s in the Rhone style, with some grenache, syrah and an unusual grape called cinsault. It’s a perfect summer drinker. Our back label reads: ‘The marmots say it’s especially good paired with sedges and heather blossoms. Enjoyed with burrow mates year round.’ If that’s not camaraderie in the animal kingdom, I don’t know what is!
Laurie Ward: How long will you be selling the wine as a benefit for Olympic National Park?
Don Corson: We’ll sell it until it’s all gone and we expect it will be gone over this summer. If there’s a little bit left in the fall, that’s just fine. We’re going to sell it all out. And it’s got the Fund’s name on it as well! It’s very tasty. We have a lot of marmot survey folks come by and buy it by the case for their friends across the country — to highlight what they’re doing in their volunteer work. You’ve got to get over here and have some!
Laurie Ward: Where are you located and how can folks find out more about you?
Don Corson: Camaraderie Cellars is in our 29th vintage. When we started in 1992, there were only about 50 wineries in the state and now there are about 1,000. You can find us at CamaraderieCellars.com and Chateau Marmaux is for sale online so you can buy directly from us. I’m the sole winemaker here and we make wines that are serious, with over 400 major medals. My assistant Amy has evolved from ‘Cellar Rat’ to ‘Cellar Capybara!’
Or you can come visit us here in Port Angeles. The peninsula is an archaeological treasure as one of the most continually-habited places in North America and I think we’re one of the last great places on the Pacific Coast. We don’t make just ‘good enough.’ Our attitude toward making wine is as appropriate as preserving natural resources because we create partnerships and relationships that are beyond the wine as a commodity. It’s part and parcel to who we are as a family and the natural generosity of this place.
Laurie Ward: The winery is so beautiful. You have little nooks and places for people to steal away and relax on a summer’s day.
Don Corson: I love gardening and our setting is quite beautiful. All the wood throughout the winery was milled on the property and some of my jade sculptures are scattered throughout. It’s a habitat in its own right and people ask if the house next door is a B&B – yes, it’s ours! Come and visit with your picnic as we have a lot of space for social distancing. We’re a small winery, but we have a wide range of wines and we love to share our ‘liquid assets!’
Laurie Ward: On behalf of Olympic National Park, Patti Happe and her team, and the hundreds of volunteers at the park, we extend our most since thanks for your generosity and commitment. And I vote ‘Mary Marmot!’
If you’d like to see Don and Laurie in action, you can watch the interview in person!