Meet Chris Stiffler | Founder & Chief, LDT Wines

We had the good fortune of connecting with Chris Stiffler and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Chris, how has your perspective on work-life balance evolved over time?
Coming from 6 years of living the ski bum life in Lake Tahoe to moving to a new town and opening our Tasting Room in White Salmon, WA, my work-life balance has changed a lot over the years. In Tahoe, I worked just enough to have the money to enjoy my time doing all the activities I could outside around the lakem skiing, biking, and rock climbing. Once the Le Doubblé Troubblé Clubhouse, what we call our tasting room, opened in 2018, my free time suddenly declined. Wine being in the tourism industry, I was working every weekend, and my weekdays were filled with catching up on office work and cleaning the tasting room, averaging 6/7 days for the first 3 years of being open. This left little time for me to enjoy the activities I love and used to do all the time. We did implement a rule that we would open late on powder days from day 1 which was always a saving grace, as skiing is a very important part of my life and our business model. As the business has grown, I have been able to hire employees in the Clubhouse, which allows me to complete tasks during my regular work schedule and not have to work 6-7 days a week. It has allowed me to get back to me to return to the things outside of work that I love. Being outside is a huge stress release for me, and not being able to have the stress release when starting a new business can create a lot of anxiety. For the past 2 years, I’ve been able to find a good balance of work and life, that has kept the business successful while allowing me to enjoy my passions in the outdoors. There are definitely times of the year where its still more work than fun, and that’s ok, it’s part of what you sign up for when starting a small business. As long as you’re not overworked year round and can still find the time to do what you enjoy and find fun and relaxing. I think its important to disconnect everyone in and awhile, to reset, so you can be fresh and excited to work to grow your business.

What should our readers know about your business?
Le Doubblé Troubblé Wine Co is a winery located in the Columbia River Gorge, about an hour east of Portland, OR. We began making wine in the Willamette Valley, as Pinot Noir was our main focus, however, being former ski bums in Lake Tahoe, we knew we needed to move to an area much closer to skiing. The area was the Gorge. A burgeoning wine region, that’s within an hour of a great ski area was tough to beat. LDT, for short, has always worked on making great wines with a lowkey attitude. It definitely wasn’t an easy start for us. The wine industry is pretty saturated with a lot of amazing wineries. It can be difficult to stand out amongst the crowd. What worked for us is that we took a chance on being the only tasting room in a small town. We opened our tasting room, The Clubhouse, in the summer of 2018, Located in White Salmon, WA we are across the Columbia River from the more popular Hood River, OR. White Salmon is a small town of around 2000 folks, but we managed to endear ourselves to the local community. Local support has given us the steady business we needed to push our brand to a broader audience. The wine industry has struggled to market to the younger generation of the past years, with big brands still pushing to older generations, we have tried to trend younger with our branding and our message. We believe in 3 passions, “wine, skiing, trouble”. It’s on every bottle we sell. Our labels are more fun and playful than a standard wine bottle, we lean into our skiing passion with the decor in The Clubhouse. We’ve created a loose and fun environment where we don’t take ourselves too seriously. We’ve taken this vibe outside of our local customers as well. Pushing the brand throughout Washington, into Oregon, California, and even Japan. I’ve learned that while you might have a great product, personal connections are what really sell, especially in the wine industry. You sell a story with your wine, where the grapes came from, how they were processed, and who they were processed by. Telling our stories of past adventures and listening to those of our customers has created a customer base that is not only loyal but has become friends as well. Tosh and I laugh about how easy we thought this business would be. We found old projection sheets from the year we started, we thought we’d be rolling in cash in no time. It definitely wasn’t that easy. It’s been a grind, lots of hours, but those hours start to pay off, and you start to see what you’ve, and it’s a really fulfilling feeling

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
The best itinerary for a trip to the Gorge is very seasonal based, but being that it is currently spring, I’ll work with that. With a friend arriving friday night, we would grab dinner at Everybody’s Brewing in White Salmon, WA. A great place to grab a beer and some tasty pub grub. The owners, Doug and Christine, have created an awesome space for both locals and tourist to hangout and relax. Saturday morning would be a mountain bike ride in Post Canyon in Hood River, OR., depending of who is visiting. Post is a large trail system with riding for everyone. Located centrally it is great morning activity. After biking its always great to stop at one of the great water front breweries in Hood River, Ferment of Pfriem Family Brewers. Grab a beer and have a tasty lunch. The afternoon/evening would be spent back at our property grilling with friends and enjoying the view of Mt Hood in the distance. Sunday morning would be a fun hike to one of the many waterfalls in the area. Whether its the largest waterfall in Oregon, Multnomah Falls, a loop to Fall Creek Falls in Carson, WA, or heading to Lower Lewis Falls to watch the kayakers send it over the edge, there’s tons of options. We would then spend the afternoon wine tasting throughout the Gorge. One of my favorite spots is Analemma Wines in Mosier, OR. With a focus on Spanish Varieties grown on their estate, they are some of the best wines in the Gorge. The last stop would be to Cor Cellars to watch the sunset of Mt Hood from their beautiful estate in Lyle, WA. With tents on the hillside, its the perfect spot to end the weekend.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I would be remiss to not give a shout-out to my friend and business partner Tosh Forrence. He was the driving force being starting Le D0ubblé Troubblé and taught me a lot about wine and the wine industry. The beginning of our business was much more focused on the production side, as you need to make the wine first before you have anything to sell, and he’s continued to put many many extra hours in to make sure we are producing a quality product. He is an incredibly talented winemaker. Sales are much easier when you are selling a product that you know you can stand behind and the customer will enjoy. I’ve worked other sales jobs, where the product was lacking, and it makes your job harder and you feel less fulfilled selling a subpar product. Without Tosh, there is no LDT.

Website: www.ldtwines.com

Instagram: ldtwines

Image Credits
Kelly Turso