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Two Loons takes flight as featured wine at Oyster Festival

Two Loons Winery’s 2023 Alvarinho and 2018 Cabernet Franc are the featured wines this weekend at the annual Oyster Festival in Shelton.

The festival  – billed as the Washington State Seafood Festival – is Saturday and Sunday, Oct. 4 and 5, at Sanderson Field Airport, 250 West Sanderson Way, just north of Shelton on U. S. Highway 101. It draws 15,000 visitors every year and raises funds for several Rotary clubs in the Shelton area.

This is the third year Gig Harbor’s Two Loons has participated in Oyster Fest. It all began when a member of one of the festival’s Rotary Clubs attended a Two Loons tasting event, liked what they tasted, and invited the winery to join the festival.

Two Loons’ Alvarinho proved to be enormously popular that first year, and the winery – and their Alvarinho – have been regulars at the festival ever since. That led to Two Loons’ designation as this year’s featured winery.

Two Loons story

Gig Harbor resident Peter Knecht and Mike Simpson of Tacoma founded Two Loons in 2003 in Knecht’s garage. Back then, it was a “hobby winery,” which meant that their wines could only be for them and their friends. So Knecht and Simpson held private, invitation-only wine tastings and gradually built up a following — and a mailing list.

Peter Knecht, left, and Mike Simpson are the owners and wine makers at Two Loons Winery. Photo by Charlee Glock-Jackson

The winery was officially licensed in 2016 and celebrated its first public release in February 2020. A month later, COVID hit and everything came to a halt. For two years, there were no tastings and few sales.

Now they hold free tastings at the winery several times a month. It’s unusual for a winery to not charge for tastings, but that’s the way Knecht and Simpson like to do things.

They have a mailing list of around 1,300 and announce their tasting events via email. New people learn about the winery through word-of-mouth, and then get more information from the winery’s website.

Two Loons wines are barrel-aged for two years, then bottle-aged for an additional year — compared to the usual six to 18 months for most commercial wines. And Two Loons wines contain only three ingredients: grapes, yeast and a very small amount of sulfites.

The grapes and the name

“We use classic French wine-making technique,” Simpson said. “We’ve done a lot of yeast trials and tests of fermentation and temperature, and made lots of tweaks to make our wines better and better.”

They get their grapes from Eastern Washington vineyards and crush them as soon as possible after picking. That’s how the winery got its name: One year, the picking took place late in the day and they didn’t start crushing until 2 a.m. A friend said they were “crazier than a couple of loons” to be doing it at two in the morning.

A flyer for Oyster Fest on display at Two Loons Winery. Photo by Charlee Glock-Jackson

The grapes are called “raw and natural” because the use little manipulation in the wine-making process.

“We make what we like, and we hope other people do, too,” Knecht said. “We like to say our wine is handmade and hand-sold because we sell most of it directly through tastings.”

For the first several years, Knecht and Simpson made only red wines. In 2018, they expanded production to include whites.

They’ll be selling their white 2023 Alvarinho and red 2018 Cabernet Franc at the Oyster Festival. The festival program describes the Alvarinho as “feeling like bottled sunshine” and the Cab Franc as “richness without weight, with aromas of black cherry, a touch of spice and a clean, lively finish.”

The wine bottles will bear labels created for the occasion, designed by Shelton-area artist Jeanette Stiles. Stiles’ illustration is called “Oyster Bay Harvest.”

Two Loons Winery’s 2023 Cabernet Franc is one of the featured wines at this weekend’s Oyster Festival in Shelton

Oyster Festival

The Shelton Skookum Rotary founded the Oyster Festival in 1982. It’s the primary fundraiser for the Skookum group and several other Rotary clubs.

In addition to oysters served in every imaginable way, Oyster Fest also includes other food and craft vendors, educational exhibits, kids activities, live music and the popular West Coast Oyster-shucking Championship, with daily prizes for Fastest Shucker and Best Half-Shell Shucker.

Shuckers compete during the Shelton Oyster Festival.

Its wine pavilion features 16 wineries, including Two Loons. Organizers select wineries based on referrals, in-person visits to the wineries and the wineries’ willingness to support the festival’s goals.

In 2024, Oyster Festival proceeds funded Rotary projects like music programs in the Hood Canal School District, a media broadcast program at Shelton High School, the Great Bend Center for Music, scholarships and a variety of community projects and programs, according to Wine Pavilion Chair Jim Morrell. Morrell is a member of the Salish Sea Rotary, one of the festival organizers.

“We’re enormously proud of the festival,” Morrell said in an email. “It’s the largest community event in Mason County, and the largest fundraiser for the 30 or 40 non-profits that serve as food vendors. We welcome people from all over the region, the United States and even visitors who travel from other parts of the world.”

Fan favorite

Morrell added that he is “super excited” that Two Loons Winery was selected for the Oyster Festival label. “They have been a huge fan favorite for the past several years. Michael and Peter are big-hearted individuals who understand and appreciate what Oyster Fest has to offer.”

Oyster Festival hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 4; 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday, Oct.5. Tickets are $15 for adults or $25 for a two-day pass and can be purchased at the gate or here. Kids 17 and younger are free, as is parking.