No two wines are the same, Claude Gahard said, and his are especially different.

“I need to explain my wines well before I pour them, because there’s a predisposition to what they’ll taste like and then they don’t taste like that,” said Gahard, the owner of Trillium Creek Winery, a small vineyard and tasting room that he and his wife Claudia operate on their 15-acre property in Home.

“I make wine because I like wine, and because of the flavor of the grape,” he said.

To that end, Gahard has designed his wines according to his French heritage, a style that initially takes many of his American customers by surprise.

Gahard was born in Paris and immigrated to New York City as he grew up. He eventually enlisted in the U.S. military and worked as a government contractor at the Naval Air Station on Whidbey Island, where he and Claudia met. He worked as a pilot for Continental Airlines, and as he approached retirement, the Gahards began to consider one of their passions — wine appreciation — as a potential next step. The winery officially opened in 2006.

“The climate here is very similar to Paris,” Claude said.

That made him comfortable and encouraged wine cultivation. As the Gahards asked for advice about starting a home winery, a friend informed them they should grow grapes for pinot noir, as the Key Peninsula rests at the same latitude and has a similar climate to France’s famous Loire Valley, where the most prized pinot noir grapes are grown.

Claude wants to taste those grapes in his wine, and he has several other rules for how Trillium Creek’s wines are produced. In France, he said, wines are enjoyed only with food and not independently, so he wanted to produce wine to complement meals.

“So they have to be dry, because sweet wine modifies the flavor of food,” Claude said. “They have to be palate-cleansing, because you go through different courses of food, and you take a sip of wine so the flavors don’t affect each other. And they have to be modest, which is what most people don’t understand.”

Much of the Trillium Creek experience is about explaining the unique process to customers. During tastings, Claude describes his process, and Claudia leads and narrates cellar tours. The grounds of the Gahards’ property are part of the draw. They include the house and tasting room that Claude designed and built with wood from their land.

Claude said the winery’s trademark is its emphasize on low sulfite levels in all wines. He avoids the preservative that most American winemakers use to prevent bacteria, as he said sulfites alter flavors and make drinking too much wine result in headaches and hangovers.

“If you travel to France or Italy, you can drink wine all day without side effects,” Claude said. A sign posted in the tasting room proudly reads: LOW SULFITES – NO HANGOVERS.

“When he first came to this country, he couldn’t figure out what was wrong with our wines,” Claudia said of her husband.

Claude eventually concluded that the American method of storing white wines in oak barrels dilutes the flavor, while red wines made in the United States often have up to seven times the sulfite levels as those made in France.

Because of the Gahards’ commitment to low-sulfite wines, Trillium Creek’s offerings must be cared for more than an average bottle. They are kept in the cellar or in freezers set to 56 degrees in order to prevent fluctuating temperatures that can ruin the preservative-free wine, and the Gahards inform all their customers about the proper method of care.

The result is a customer base that will travel to Home to seek out the unique flavors of the Gahards’ wine, and they will come back for more. The tasting room’s signature book is full of names from around the Puget Sound region, and the winery has had visitors from across the country and Europe.

“We tell our guests, ‘You have to come out once a quarter, renew your stock, and it’s good,’” Claude said.

The trendsetting couple isn’t entirely above the winemaking fray, however. They have started to import tens of thousands of pounds of grapes from Pasco each fall to produce riesling, chardonnay and other popular varieties for which customers were asking.

“We tried to be purists,” Claudia said. “But people kept coming in, wanting merlot and sirah and stuff like that. You have to respect the market.”