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Lost Mountain Winery offers hand-crafted wines

© Christina Kelly

Lost Mountain on the Olympic Peninsula near Sequim, Wash. isn't really lost, although it's easy to become absorbed in the beauty of the Olympic Mountain foothills and drive past one of the best wineries in the area.

Lost Mountain Winery produces small quantities of red wine without sulfites. Owners Steve and Sue Conca say their small lot production, careful sanitation and gentle handling techniques makes sulfites unnecessary.

"Our wines are not filtered or fined, which means you are getting as natural a product as possible," said Steve Conca, who inherited the winery in 1997, after his father and the winery founder, Romeo, died of cancer. "Sulfites are necessary in large wineries where the wines are made in large batches, transferred through long hoses that run into tanks holding thousands of gallons. They have a greater chance to be exposed to air during processing."

Although the Concas debate the use of sulfites, they are continuing the tradition started by Romeo in 1981, when he produced the first batch of Lost Mountain red wine. The son of Italian immigrants, Romeo believed in making wine with the least amount of interference. Small amounts of sulfites naturally occur on the grapes and are produced during the fermentation process and that was enough for Romeo.

With a Ph.D in organic chemistry, Romeo was confident he could make good, sturdy and complex red wines that could age well if properly stored. He passed down the idea to his son.

For the past four years, Steve and Sue followed much of the style created by Romeo, while adding new equipment and reducing some of the varieties offered by Lost Mountain to concentrate on a smaller selection. The temptation to add sulfites is there, and the couple ponders the possible change. Those who are sensitive to sulfites are urging a no-change policy.

"Romeo always said you let the grapes make the wine," said Steve. "There are two schools of thought on sulfites and we're looking at both."

While Romeo was alive, the winery produced about 600 cases of mostly red wine per year. The Concas increased production to about 1,100 cases, and expect to grow to about 2,000 cases in coming years. They don't want to get any bigger, preferring to keep the winery at a family-operated level.

"We have a goal to make excellent wines and sell them directly from here (the winery) or online orders," said Sue, who runs the business side of the winery. "We can maintain the quality and hand-production this way."

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