Craig Leuthold and Richard Batchelor of Maryhill Winery
Today the beautiful Columbia Gorge is home to dozens of tasting rooms, as well as the Columbia Gorge AVA. But in 1999 when Craig and Vicki Leuthold decided to build a destination winery in the gorge just outside of Goldendale, there were hardly a handful of tasting rooms in the area. And no one at the time was building destination wineries, complete with food, music venues, stunning views, etc. The Leuthold’s Maryhill Winery now has destination tasting rooms in all four corners of Washington, and is one of the largest wineries in the state. The Columbia Gorge facility is the couple’s estate winery and tasting room, and they have satellite tasting rooms in Spokane, Woodinville, and Vancouver, WA. Each venue offers either stunning river views or a historic building, a full bistro style restaurant, live music and other events, a premium tasting room for club members, and over 50 different award-winning wines. Maryhill has won over 3,000 awards for its wines, and has received more Platinum Awards than any other winery.
Richard Batchelor is a native of New Zealand, where he studied horticulture, viticulture and enology. He came to California in 2000 as an intern, and has been in the US ever since. In 2009, he accepted the job of winemaker at Maryhill Winery, and has garnered many awards in that position. He puts a lot of miles on his car each year visiting the nearly two-dozen vineyards from which the winery sources its 30+ different grape varieties. Richard produces over 50 wines in several different categories, including classic, proprietor’s reserve, and vineyard series. In the latter category, Maryhill offers 8 single-varietal Cabernet Sauvignon wines from eight different vineyards. The winery also offers wines with grape varieties we don’t often see in WA, such as Zinfandel, Barbera, Gruner Veltliner, and Muscat Canelli.
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