Women and Wine

Sabrina Lueck, Ashley Trout, and Sheryl Frye

Are there disadvantages for women in the wine industry?  Advantages?  In what ways are women influencing the industry, both as producers and consumers?  These are just a few of the questions we explore in this interview with Sabrina Lueck, Ashley Trout, and Sheryl Frye.  These three wine professionals allow us to examine issues relating to women and wine from different perspectives.  Sabrina is an instructor in Walla Walla Community College’s Viticulture and Enology Program, Ashley currently has two wineries (Vital Wines and March Cellars) and has been in the industry for 18 years, and Sheryl is a second-year student in the Walla Walla Community College Program.  They’re all passionate about the industry, can’t imagine doing anything else, and feel optimistic about the future for women wine professionals. 

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Perennial Vintners

Mike Lempriere of Perennial Vintners

Former software engineer Mike Lempriere received so many compliments on his Seattle basement wine that he decided to become a winegrower.  In 2003 he purchased land and house on Bainbridge Island, planted a vineyard, and Perennial Vintners was born.  He still makes wine in his basement, which houses his winery, lab and tasting room in a forested setting with vineyard in sight.  The vineyard is one of the smallest in the state –maybe the smallest – and the closest one to Seattle.  It’s planted to cool climate varietals that grow well in western Washington, such as Madeleine Angevine, Siegerebbe and Melon de Bourgogne.  Mike grows the only Melon de Bourgogne in the state, as far as he knows.

Many people think it’s too cold and rainy to grow grapes in western Washington, but it’s mostly dry during the key summer months and cool climate varietals such as Pinot Noir, Pinot Gris, Madeleine Angevine (Loire Valley), Siegerrebe (Germany), Melon de Bourgogne (Loire Valley), and Müller-Thurgau (Switzerland and Germany) do well in this climate.   These wines tend to be aromatic, crisp, fruity, and high in acid, making them excellent food wines.  For example, Melon de Bourgogne is used in France to make Muscadet wine--a French favorite to have with seafood of all kinds.  Siegerrebe is similar to Gewurztraminer, with wonderful flavors of litchi nuts and spice, making it an ideal wine to pair with Asian food.  Listen to the interview to learn more about these wines, Mike’s style of Syrah and Lemberger, his Verjus for cooking, why his raspberry dessert wine is called Frambelle, and much more.

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Co Dinn Cellars

Co Dinn of Co Dinn Cellars

June 2017 marks a new beginning for winemaker Co Dinn, as his tasting room opens its doors in downtown Sunnyside, WA.  After 17 years of working first as white winemaker and then head winemaker for Hogue Cellars, Co decided to start his own Co Dinn Cellars label in order to focus on single vineyard wines from the Yakima Valley AVA.  His years at Hogue provided him with invaluable knowledge of vineyards and growers across the state, so he was in an ideal position to select the precise vineyards and growers he wanted to work with in making his wines.  There was no question that he would plant his winemaking flag in the Yakima Valley AVA, because of its amazing diversity of temperatures, soils and slopes, as well as its overall moderate climate.

Not only does the town of Sunnyside have historical significance for the wine industry, but Co’s tasting room is also housed in a fascinating historic building.  Built in 1930, the art deco inspired structure was home to the Sunnyside Water Department and the town’s two wells, remnants of which still can be seen in the tasting room basement.   A large crane is also preserved above the tasting room bar.  The venue is unique, the wines superb, but you will never hear the sound of a cork popping as you sip.  After years of doing research on wine bottle closures, Co has decided to use only Stelvin screwcaps for his wines.   Listen to this interview to find out why he abandoned corks, why he uses one-ton bin fermentation, which wine provided an AHA moment that turned him into a winemaker, and much more.

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Thrall & Dodge Winery

Troy and Kim Goodreau

Troy Goodreau was making wine long before he was old enough to drink.  As early as 8th grade, he was helping his father make wine for family consumption, especially during hunting trips.  In the late 1970s he worked for a winery in Sumner, WA, after taking food and wine science classes at Napa Valley College and Washington State University.  Kim has had a long career in social work, but now manages the Thrall and Dodge Tasting Room in Kittitas, and helps out with punch downs and other aspects of the winemaking process.  The two met over thirty years ago, but went their separate ways until recently, when they met again over wine and ended up getting married. 

Opening its doors in 2005, Thrall and Dodge is the oldest commercial winery in the Kittitas Valley, an area that now has a vintners association and at least 6 wineries and a distillery.  The winery is next to a small vineyard that grows mainly Riesling.  Many other varietals for Thrall and Dodge wines come from the Burgess Vineyard in Pasco.  Troy and Kim produce both single varietal wines and blends, including some that are co-fermented.  The lovely new tasting room is in the historic Carrico building in Kittitas, with two spacious suites above that are available for year-round rental.  It’s an ideal place to come for biking, hiking and sipping.  Enjoy this interview and learn about the Kittitas Valley as a growing area, the advantages of co-fermentation, and much more.

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College Cellars

Tim Donahue & Eli Magun

When 50 pounds of zinfandel grapes arrived at the Donahue family home in Colorado, Tim eagerly helped his father to lift the grapes and make the wine.  He was 4 years old and it was the late 70s.  The Colorado winery went commercial in 1995 and Tim went to Australia to study winemaking.  On a chance visit to Walla Walla Community College in 2010, he discovered that the wine program there needed an enology instructor, and he was hired for the position soon after.  Eli Magun worked as a research assistant after graduating from college and eventually got tired of working with mice.  He liked the combination of art and science involved in winemaking, and so left the research job to enroll in Walla Walla Community College’s Enology and Viticulture Program, where he currently is a student and manages the College Cellars tasting room. 

College Cellars was the first commercial winery in the country that was also part of a two-year educational program in winemaking.  The more accurate word is “winegrowing”, because the applied, trade-based Enology and Viticulture Program at Walla Walla Community College includes “soil to bottle” education. The college owns 4 estate vineyards covering 8 acres and producing 15 different varietals.  With grapes from these vineyards and many others in the Walla Walla Valley, students make 32 different wines each year, many of which win awards.   Today roughly 84% of the program’s graduates end up working in the wine industry, with nearly 60% going into wine production, and others pursuing viticultural or marketing jobs.  Tim and Eli discuss the ideal student for this program, the best beginner varietals, why pinot gris makes a great rosé, and much more.

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Upland Estates Vineyards & Winery

Todd Newhouse

The story of Upland Estates Vineyards and Winery begins with William Bridgman, who started planting wine grapes on Snipes Mountain in 1917.  Grapes from some of those vines are still being used by the Newhouse family to make wine today.  Bridgman opened Upland Winery in 1934 when there was no other commercial winery in Eastern Washington.  He was determined to make European style vinifera wine at a time when most Americans preferred sweet, fortified wines.  Todd considers Bridgman the grandfather of WA wine, because he talked Walter Clore into shifting his research from traditional crops to wine grapes.  After several severe winters that destroyed many vines between 1949 and 1951, Bridgman caved into public demand and shifted from vinifera to sweet, fortified wines, until the winery finally closed in 1972, shortly after Bridgman passed away.

Todd’s grandfather purchased Upland Vineyards in the early 1970s, and his father greatly increased the acreage devoted to wine grapes.  Today the family farms nearly 2,000 acres of fruit, over half the acres planted to wine and table grapes.  They opened Upland Estates Winery in 2007, which makes all vineyard designated wines.  Wine names such as The Mayor, Julian, Teunis, and Inception reflect vineyard and winery history.  Todd was co-creator of the Snipes Mt. AVA and now manages the vineyards that produce at least two dozen different varietals.  In addition to managing the family farm, Todd is also Board Chair of the WA Winegrowers Association and the Wine Grape Growers of America.  Listen to the interview to find out what is unique about the Snipes Mt. AVA, what characterizes a Burgundian Chardonnay, how a Bordeaux style Sauvignon Blanc differs from others, and much more.

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J. Bell Cellars

Wes & Natasha Teslo

Wes and Natasha Teslo grew up in the Ukraine, but didn’t meet until 1999 when they were both working for a senior care facility in Woodinville, WA.  There were very few wineries in Woodinville in the 90s, so they came to Eastern WA to taste wine and to visit family members farming cherries and pears in Zillah.  Wes talked Natasha into letting him make a barrel of wine, although one barrel turned out in fact to be eight.  Drawn to the simple pleasures of life in Zillah, they decided to open a tasting room there in 2013, and eventually opened one in Woodinville as well.  They also planted 10 acres of lavender near the Zillah tasting room, and Natasha now distills enough essential oil to make a variety of lavender products sold in the tasting room. 

With its lavender fields, views of the mountains, live music, foods by local chefs, and beautiful courtyard for sipping the fine wines, J. Bell Cellars is a destination winery.  The wines are mostly single varietal, though blends of different vineyards in order to achieve a balanced taste profile.  They are also held in the barrel and released late in order to produce more nuanced, smoother wines.  Wes always blends the best barrels of a vintage to produce a wine known as Barrel 9.   Listen to the interview to find out why one of J. Bell’s most popular wines is named “Cab Frank”, which foods are best to make when lavender is an ingredient, what simple pleasures of life are offered in Zillah, and the many fun and educational activities you will encounter at the J. Bell Cellars Lavender Festival held each year during the last weekend of June.  

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Red Mountain, a novel

Boo Walker

After tasting some Hedges wine in South Carolina, Boo Walker caught the wine bug and eventually headed to Red Mountain.  He had grown up in Spartanburg, studying music composition in college with an emphasis on the banjo.  His studies led him to play for years with the Biscuit Boys—a group dedicated to “punchgrass”, or bluegrass emphasizing drive and beat.  Hand problems turned him from banjo picking to day trading on Wall Street, before he finally went west to pursue his dream of helping to “grow” wine.  The mutual support and collaboration here in WA wine country really attracted him, and so he settled on Red Mountain where the Hedges family adopted him as one of their own. 

Although he was a bad reader in school, Boo discovered page turners in college, and from then on had a nagging desire to create some of his own.  During his travels as global marketer for Hedges, he’s found plenty of time to write.  Boo has completed four novels, Red Mountain being his most recent one.  It’s a real page turner for sure, capturing many key themes about our Red Mountain AVA, including European feel, old world wine making techniques, wine growing as opposed to wine making, infusion of outsiders and wealth, possible tension between newcomers growing vines and age-old residents, need for tourist amenities, passion for eating and cheffing, and feminine touch needed in winemaking.   Learn about these themes and more from reading the novel and listening to this interview.

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Thurston Wolfe Winery

Dr. Wade Wolfe

Although Wade Wolfe majored in bio-chemistry as an undergraduate, an Introduction to Wines for Americans class he took in the 1960s at the University of California at Davis launched him on a career in the wine industry.  He decided to pursue doctoral work in viticultural studies, and also took classes in winemaking.  In 1978, he came to Washington to accept a job as technical viticulturalist for Chateau Ste Michelle, and by the early 1980s he and Walter Clore were working to create the Columbia Valley AVA.  Wade and his wife Rebecca opened Thurston Wolfe Winery in Yakima in 1987, which was the first winery in Yakima.  They moved the winery to Prosser in 1996, where it exists today in Prosser’s Vintners’ Village.

Wade is passionate about exploring lesser known varietals to see how they will do in WA state.  For example,  he was one of the first to recommend planting Albarino in WA, and he makes an Albarino wine.  His PGV white wine is an unusual and delicious blend of pinot gris and viognier.  He also makes blends and single varietal wines with Lemberger, Zinfandel, and Petite Sirah.  Even his Rosé  is typically made with Lemberger.  The Thurston Wolfe Port is one of the best in the state, and since 2011 has been made with 100% Touriga Nacional.  Listen to this interview to learn about the role of sub-appellations, the potential for additional vineyard acreage in WA, why Lemberger is an ideal varietal for Rosé, how WA and CA Zinfandel differ, and much more.

Goose Ridge Vineyard and Winery

Andrew Wilson of Goose Ridge Vineyard & Winery

In 1998, Arvid Monson planted wine grapes on what had been Monson family cattle and orchard land since the early 1900s.  Those initial Goose Ridge Vineyard plantings are now part of the largest contiguous vineyard in Washington state, with 2000 acres offering 16 different varietals and plenty of varying slopes and microclimates.  The Monsons believe they’re always farming for the next generation, and so cultivate biodiversity in their vineyard, including owls and hawks to control pests and cover crops to replenish soils.  Today’s Goose Ridge tasting room in Richland was the original winery where wines were first produced in 1999.  A new state-of-art winery facility was built right in the vineyard in 2008.   Today over 300,000 cases of wine are made there each year, with 90,000 displaying one of 4 Goose Ridge labels, and the rest produced for other wineries.

Head winemaker Andrew Wilson came to Goose Ridge Estate Winery in 2014, after managing Artifex in Walla Walla and working with winemakers from all over the world.  He loves making blended wines, both with different varietals and with the same varietal from different vineyard blocks.  With four different labels (Goose Ridge, G3, Tall Sage and Stonecap) available to the public in four tasting rooms (Richland, Woodinville, Leavenworth and Walla Walla), Goose Ridge Winery offers wines for all tastes and at varying price points, ranging from $10 to $50 per bottle.  This past year Goose Ridge started making apple and cherry cider, also available at the tasting rooms.  Listen here to learn about the advantages of making wine right in the vineyard, the relationship between tall sage and grapevines, the tribute to landscape and biodiversity in the Goose Ridge wine names, and much more.    

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Cave B Estate Winery

Vince Bryan & Freddy Arredondo of Cave B Winery

With handfuls of dirt from Burgundy vineyards, Seattle neurosurgeon Vince Bryan and his wife Carol went searching in 1980 for similar soils here in Washington.  They found their site along the Columbia River Gorge south of Quincy, and established an estate vineyard initially called Champs de Brionne that later became Cave B Estate Winery.  The earthen bowl on the property offered such amazing acoustics that the Bryans turned it into an amphitheatre venue for thousands of listeners.  Today, fine Cave B wines, world-class music, and stunningly beautiful landscape enhance each other at this destination site in the Ancient Lakes AVA.  Visitors can dine at Tendrils Restaurant and stay in various types of accommodation, including luxurious cliff house guest rooms, inn suites, yurts, or personal RVs. 

Winemaker Alfredo “Freddy” Arredondo started his career as a chef, but a stay in Italy changed the course of his professional and personal life.  He became passionate about wine and winemaking, and also met his future wife Carrie, who is Vince and Carol’s daughter.  After studying winemaking formally, Freddy and Carrie settled at Cave B where Freddy has 17 varietals to choose from in making the Cave B estate wines.  In addition to Bordeaux, Rhone, Italian and Spanish style wines, Freddy also makes sparkling, late harvest and ice wines.  Listen here to learn about a great white wine for red wine drinkers, what constitutes an old vine at Cave B, the “true” way to make ice wine, and much more.

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Swiftwater Cellars

Andrew Wisniewski of Swiftwater Cellars

Swiftwater Cellars winery site was home to the #9 coal mine from 1930 to 1963, which explains the winery’s architectural design.  After passing a screened entrance to the mine, one stands in front of a palatial winery and tasting room reminiscent of a “tipple house”, or structure where coal was loaded for transport.  Because tipple also means to drink alcohol, the design is a perfect embodiment of tasting room and local history.  The Cellars facility owned by Don and Lori Watts houses a lounge and the Hoist House Restaurant where Pacific Northwest cuisine can be paired with fine Swiftwater wines.  The mountain views are stunning, and the surrounding all-season Suncadia Resort provides opportunities for hiking, biking, skiing, fishing, swimming, golfing, spa indulging, concerts, horseback riding, and more. 

Winemaker Andrew Wisniewski grew up drinking wine at family dinners in New York state, but started his wine industry career among the muscadine vines of Florida.  He has since studied winemaking in Oregon, and has experience working in the vineyards and wineries of Australia and New Zealand.  Washington wines have always been among Andrew’s favorites, and the state’s ability to grow so many diverse varietals well led him to accept the assistant winemaker position at Swiftwater in 2013, and the head winemaker position two years later.  Describing himself as an “old soul millennial,” Andrew talks in this interview about how he plans to cultivate a wine culture among millenials, what is special about Swiftwater’s estate vineyard Zephyr Ridge, some advantages about wine on tap in the tasting room, and much more.     

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Central WA Univ Professors

Razvan Andonie, Anne Johansen, and Szilard Vajda

Can a computer be taught to assess wine quality as effectively as a professional human taster?  This is a question that Central Washington University (CWU) professors Anne Johansen, Razvan Andonie, Szilard Vajda, Holly Pinkart, and Amy Mumma set out to answer in their study “Cost Efficient Prediction of Cabernet Sauvignon Wine Quality” to be published soon in the International Symposium Series on Computational Intelligence.  Renown taster and former Director of CWU’s Global Wine Studies program Amy Mumma tasted and scored on a scale from 1 (least faulty) to 6 (most faulty) 180 wine samples that included 3 bottles of 60 different Washington Cabernet Sauvignon wines.  Thirty biochemical features were tested in a lab for the same wines, and age and region were added to the dataset.

As Anne (chemistry), Razvan (computer science), and Szilard (computer science) explain in this interview, the data for the 32 features were related to Amy’s ratings to come up with a computer program that can take data about a given wine and assess its quality on a scale from 1 to 6 with 60 to 70% accuracy.  Listen here to find out which 5 features are most cost effective ($25) to use in order to achieve at least 60% accuracy in assessing quality.  This study of wine quality is unique because of its large dataset, use of Washington wines, and goal of cost minimization.                

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Milbrandt Vineyards

Emily Haines of Milbrandt Vineyards

Not many 33 year olds oversee the making of a million cases of wine.  But that is Emily Haines’ new job, now that she has been promoted to Director of Winemaking at Millbrandt Vineyards.   Roughly 60,000 of the cases will be produced under the MilBrandt label, and the rest for the 30 clients of Milbrandt’s custom crush facility in Mattawa – the Wahluke Wine Company.  Emily has been well prepared for her new role.  After joining Milbandt Vineyards in 2009 as a lab technician, she was later promoted to lab manager, then enologist, assistant winemaker, and, just recently, Director of Winemaking. 

Butch and Jerry Milbrandt started growing grapes in 1997 and today farm several thousand acres of vineyards in the Wahluke Slope and Ancient Lakes AVAs.  Nearly 20 different varietals go into the many different Milbrandt wines, which are some of the finest and most affordable wines in the state.  Milbrandt wines can be found in all 50 states, and will soon be available internationally.  They pair nicely with many foods, as you can see from Butch’s “Pair This” cooking show on the Milbrandt website.  In this interview, Emily talks about Milbrandt’s unique wines, the benefits of blending, her passion for white wine making in particular, why being a millennial is an asset in the wine world, and much more

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Beresan Winery

Tom Waliser of Beresan Winery

If Tom Waliser’s grandparents had not run out of gas in Walla Walla during their flight from the Dust Bowl, he might never have become one of the region’s most well known vineyard managers.  A century before the 1930s Dust Bowl, the Waliser family left Germany to settle in the Beresan region of the Ukraine.  It’s those family roots in the Ukraine that provided a name for the winery Tom and his family opened to the public in 2003, complete with a tasting room in their renovated barn built originally in 1926.  Most of the fruit for the Beresan wines comes from the three estate vineyards that Tom manages.  Many single varietal and blended red wines are produced each year, along with one Rhone style white blend and a rose.

In 1990, Tom helped to develop Pepper Bridge Vineyard at a time when people in Washington didn’t know much about wine grapes.  He learned by doing and was soon growing grapes for some of the best wineries in the state.  Whether he’s growing grapes or helping to make wine, he’s always committed to having fun.  That’s why he and Beresan winemaker Tom Glaze created some fun viticultural theories known as “tomodynamics” and a red blend named “Tomfoolery.”  Check out this interview to learn more about these creations, key things Tom has learned in the vineyards, and what he regards as the most finicky grape varietal.

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Siren Song Winery

Kevin Brown of Siren Song Winery

With a father as a chef, Kevin Brown grew up in California around fine food and wine and has always been fascinated by pairing the two.  But for most of his career, he’s channeled his creativity to the software industry, starting up many companies focused on data analysis.  With inspiration drawn from wine experiences around the world, Kevin made his first wine in 2007.  He and his wife Holly fell in love with Lake Chelan and bought 7 acres of vineyards on the south shore in 2010.  Reaching back to 11th grade mythology lessons, they named their winery Siren Song and opened tasting room doors in 2015.  Wine, food and music come together at Siren Song, with 9 weeks of dinner concerts on a stunning site with a Mediterranean feel inspired by Provence.   

It’s very clear from his wines that Kevin believes wine can change your life.  Behind each wine is a story about a life changing moment in Madrid, Paris, Rio, and on and on. Kevin makes 10 to 12 wines each year, mostly from grapes grown in the vineyards he and Holly own in Lake Chelan, Walla Walla, and Mattawa.  The Mattawa vineyard will eventually be planted mainly to Zinfandel, the varietal Kevin thinks should be Washington’s signature one.  Kevin loves experimenting with blends, always with food pairings in mind as he selects varietals.  Learn about his experiments, stories and much more in this interview.

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Tsillan Cellars

Shane Collins of Tsillan Cellars

Shane Collins returned to his roots in the Lake Chelan area in 2007 to work for Tsillan Cellars where he became head winemaker in 2008.  Since that time the wines have been 100% estate, highlighting the Italian, German, Rhone and Bordeaux varietals grown on Tsillan’s 35 acre vineyard.  In addition to vines, the 135 acre site is home to a beautiful Tuscan style tasting room, Sorrento’s Italian Restaurant, and a glass pavilion for indoor/outdoor eating.  The restaurant has been named one of the most scenic in America, and is the perfect venue for Tsillan’s winemaker dinner series and other events.

With its north facing slopes, Tsillan vineyard is unusual for Washington state, and Shane highlights in this interview the advantages of these particular slopes.  He also emphasizes the diversity of terroir in these 35 acres that makes it possible to grow many different varietals so successfully.   Even a single varietal exhibits significantly different characteristics depending on its location in the vineyard, and thus Shane often makes two or three different wines using the same varietal.   Although he thinks syrah is the varietal that does best in the Lake Chelan area, he is very excited by the quality of the malbec that has recently been produced at Tsillan Cellars.  With plans to increase total production to 8,500 cases each year, Tsillan will be opening a new tasting room in Woodinville soon.   Learn more from this interview.

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Columbia Crest Winery

Doug and Joe Gore of Columbia Crest and Seven Falls Wineries

When Doug Gore moved to Prosser in 1982, he had worked 9 harvests in California vineyards and wineries.  A state-of-the-art winery and warehouse known as Columbia Crest had just been built in Paterson, Washington, and Doug had come to be its founding winemaker.   The demand then was mostly for white wines so he started with a white blend and a blush wine, but soon progressed to varietal whites and reds that were affordable, of high quality, and for national distribution.  Today Columbia Crest is one of the largest wineries in the country and produces outstanding wines of great value in three collections:  Grand Estates, H3, and Reserve. 

Doug’s son Joe grew up around vineyards and labs, always thinking he’d end up working in athletics.  But a business degree led to a distributor position, and since 2008 Joe has worked in sales and marketing for Ste. Michelle Wine Estates (SMWE) – an umbrella organization that provides marketing expertise for many outstanding wineries, including Columbia Crest and Seven Falls.  Today Doug is Executive Vice President for Ste. Michelle Wine Estates and winemaker for Seven Falls Cellars, which produces 50,000 cases annually for dozens of restaurants nationwide.   The SMWE goal is always to provide great wine experiences at world class wineries.   Listen to this interview to learn about key changes in our wine industry since the 80s, challenges in selling wine, and how a winery built in the middle of nowhere in the early 80s became one of the most productive and successful wineries in the world.  

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MVP Vintners

Pete Mathews of MVP Vintners

MVP Vintners is likely the newest tasting room on Lake Chelan, having opened in June just in time for the summer season.  A tasting room and patio overlook the lake from the north shore in the charming town of Manson.   You can bring your own picnic or indulge in tasting room plates to pair with wine or beer.  Several wines from around the world are always available in the tasting room to compare with the MVP wines.  Artisan pastas and sauces can be purchased for those who prefer to sip and eat at home. 

MVP is the creation of three key partners:  Pete Mathews, Ron Ventimiglia, and Jon Picard.  Their flame logo reflects the role that recent Chelan fires played in the birth of MVP.  Like a phoenix rising from the ashes, MVP has emerged with amazing creativity, energy, and commitment.  They offer a lineup of memorable wines, some unique for the area such as a Chenin Blanc-Chardonnay blend and a Kokomo Viognier that's the tropics in a glass.  In this interview, former actor and professional golfer Pete Mathews discusses the challenges of opening a new tasting room, the role fire played in the partnership, the significance of “the next best thing”, the best cheese to pair with Tempranillo, and much more.

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Red Willow Vineyard

Mike Sauer of Red Willow Vineyards

Mike Sauer never expected to be involved at all with Washington’s wine industry, let alone to be one of its pillars.  But an unusual irrigation system on part of the family farm led him in the early 1970s to plant Concord table grapes and a few rows of French sounding wine grapes.   He learned from this experience that wine grapes would do best on slopes, and so in 1973 he planted Cabernet Sauvignon vines that are still thriving on Red Willow Vineyard slopes today.  Walter Clore encouraged Mike to plant other varietals and by the early 80s he was growing grapes for David Lake of Columbia Winery.

David made the first Red Willow Vineyard designated wine in 1981, which was one of the first vineyard designated wines in the state.  Vineyard designation on a label was a new concept at the time, and one of many innovations that Mike and David worked on together during their 30-year collaboration.  Mike was the first to plant in Washington many varietals that now cover vineyard slopes in the state.  Today Mike sells grapes to nearly two dozen of Washington’s finest wineries.  In this interview he talks about the many firsts at Red Willow Vineyard, key changes in the vineyards since the 1970s, challenges for grape growers, Washington’s ideal varietal, and much more.  

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