In 2005, Helen and Daniel Ferrelli founded EFESTĒ, a winery in Woodinville, along with their daughter Angela Taylor, son-in-law Kevin Taylor, and a family friend. Their idea to make 2 barrels of wine based on the Ferrelli annual tradition of winemaking has since evolved into a family label.

In 2007, just as EFESTĒ was releasing its first wines from the 2005 vintage, the lives of its founders would be rocked, and winemaking and charity would take on a more personal and heightened turn.

Kevin and Angela Taylor learned that their young son Joe, grandson to ‘Big Papa’ Daniel Ferrelli and Helen Ferrelli, was diagnosed with A.L.L. Leukemia. He was 5 at the time. The winery, licensed in 2005, was also in its infancy.

The Taylors would find a symbiotic relationship between their caring and passion for their children and wine. To borrow from Dickens, it was simultaneously the best and worst of times for the Taylors and Ferrellis.

Already a “Tough Guy”, Joe’s strength of spirit and personality allowed him to endure the exhaustive treatments while maintaining a brush-off attitude, continually empowering those around him with his insistence, “Come on! I’m fine! Let’s go!” We are so proud of Joe for his courage, toughness, and inspiring attitude.

It was the youngest Taylor, Joe, whose fearlessness in facing Leukemia would be the rock the family leaned on. Joe’s fight against leukemia inspired the Taylors’ and Ferrellis’ civic and charitable work. Their winery has been the vessel to deliver much of their charity.

“The minute we released our wine was the time Joe was Diagnosed. It was an Incredible vortex of emotions.”

— Angela Taylor

After three and a half years of treatment, Joe’s Leukemia has been in remission since 2011 and he is thriving.

We are ever so grateful for the treatment and cure he received as a result of the people before us who donated to organizations like the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.