Cindy & Mike Jacobsen of Above the Curve Vineyard
Photos Courtesy of Above the Curve
Mike and Cindy Jacobsen were school psychologists active in assessment in 6 different school districts on the Seattle side of Washington state. On Friday afternoons, they would go to wine tastings at their local QFC grocery store. Just as they were retiring, the Somm running the tastings decided to open a wine shop and bar in Enumclaw and was looking for investors. Mike and Cindy ended up investing and working in the wine shop. They sometimes went wine tasting in the Prosser area, and fell in love with the community. It wasn’t long before they purchased their dream property with a vineyard and right close to the Yakima River. It took two years for their house to be built, so they regularly came with their RV so they could monitor the house progress and work on the vineyard. Their property located between Prosser and Benton City contained some of the oldest Semillon vines in WA state, but they had been sadly neglected over the years.
Cindy and Mike helped out Ron Bunnell in his winery during bottling, and he eventually asked if they wanted to make wine with their Semillon grapes. The couple hadn’t anticipated having a wine label, but they jumped at the chance to participate in winemaking. Their Above the Curve label was born with their first old vine Semillon in 2018. That wine has since won awards, including best of class at the San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition. In 2020, Tim Schwanke and Patti Ruppert bought the lots next door to the Jacobsens, and those lots contained Merlot vines planted in 1979. The two couples became fast friends and joined forces to produce Above the Curve Vineyard old vine Semillon and old vine Merlot. This year they produced their first non-estate wine, which is a Cabernet Sauvignon from the Painted Hills Vineyard. Listen here to the exhilarating story of how these two couples brought some of Washington’s oldest vines back to industry standards after long neglect.
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