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Precept hires Andrew Will winemaker as education director

By Andy Perdue on February 18, 2013

Seattle-based Precept Wine opened its Walla Walla production facility for Waterbrook Winery and other brands in 2009. (Photo by Eric Degerman, Great Northwest Wine)

SEATTLE – A decade ago, Precept Wine barely existed. It sold its first case of wine in June 2003.

Today, Precept makes a million-plus cases of wine and owns some of the Northwest’s best-known wineries and vineyards. It is Washington’s second-largest wine producer after Ste. Michelle Wine Estates.

It is, simply put, the fastest-moving wine company in the Pacific Northwest.

Now, it is adding the position of education director and hiring David Oldham, longtime assistant winemaker at Andrew Will Winery on nearby Vashon Island. His first day is today.

Oldham worked at Andrew Will for more than a dozen years, where he assisted owner/winemaker Chris Camarda at one of Washington’s most acclaimed small wineries. Oldham was involved in helping to plant and develop Two Blondes Vineyard, and he worked with grapes from Red Mountain, the Horse Heaven Hills, the Walla Walla and Yakima valleys, Lake Chelan and Columbia Gorge.

He also was involved in the promotion, sales and marketing of the wines and traveled to 25 states and eight countries in those efforts.

His new position at Precept will have him working for Alex Evans, one of Precept’s original employees (who also worked at Corus Estates prior to its sale to Constellation in 2001). He will work closely with Precept’s sales-and-marketing team to promote and evangelize Precept and its myriad labels. He will handle tours and tastings for VIPs, media and trade organizations.

“Precept Wine is offering me the opportunity to take what I have learned in a boutique environment to apply it on a much larger scale,” Oldham said. “I am excited to work with some of the best and brightest folks in our industry.”

The many faces of Precept

Precept owns such longtime Washington wineries as Waterbrook, Canoe Ridge, Sagelands, Washington Hills, Apex, Bridgman and Willow Crest. It has created such brands as Sockeye, Pine & Post, Pendulum, Six Prong and Chocolate Shop. It also owns the House Wine brand, created by Charles Smith of K Vintners, as well as Ste. Chapelle and Sawtooth — Idaho’s largest wineries. In Oregon, it owns Blue Pirate, Primarius and Red Door. It also operates brands using German and Australian grapes.

Precept also owns and contracts nearly 3,800 acres of wine grapes in Washington, Oregon and Idaho.

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About Andy Perdue

Andy Perdue is the editor and publisher of Great Northwest Wine. He is a third-generation journalist who has worked at newspapers since the mid-1980s and has been writing about wine since 1998. He co-founded Wine Press Northwest magazine with Eric Degerman and served as its editor-in-chief for 15 years. He is a frequent judge at international wine competitions. He is the author of "The Northwest Wine Guide: A Buyer's Handbook" (Sasquatch, 2003) and has contributed to four other books. He writes about wine for The Seattle Times. You can find him on Twitter and Google+.