Vineyards

AVA – Horse Heaven Hills

Vineyard Manager – Jake Cragin

Alder Ridge is an 800+ acre vineyard facing the Columbia River south of Alderdale. There are many different elevations, aspects and soils types on the property that engender varying personalities to the fruit. Compared to all the Cabernet Sauvignon blocks at Alder Ridge, our block is unique due to its elevation and southwest exposure. Wind is also a big factor in this block keeping the canopies and berries small. The clusters here can easily be mistaken for clone 6 due to their small berries and straggly architecture.

Fruit Characteristics

Cabernet Sauvignon – Depth, focus of flavor and elegance sum up Alder Ridge Cab. The fruit is bright red and pure. It has an extra dimension that goes deep and turns to dark fruit in the mid palate. The tannins are rich and integrated.

AVA – Horse Heaven Hills

Vineyard Manager – Kari Ann Van Beek

We are lucky to have the opportunity to purchase Merlot from one of Chateau Ste. Michelle’s premiere estate vineyards. The soils are a sandy loam (seemingly all sand) and consistently produce one of our finest Merlots every vintage. Kari, along with Pedro, custom farms this block for us and every year it is a collaborative effort to get the fruit as concentrated as possible. I tell Kari that this block is the closest we’ll ever come to having an estate vineyard of our own thanks to her input and willingness to entertain my suggestions regarding cluster and canopy management.

Fruit Characteristics

Merlot – The nose has a dried herb complexity with red fruit and earthy components. The palate tends to be round and full rather than sharp and focused. It always has great depth and layers with nice movement from start to finish.

AVA – Horse Heaven Hills

Vineyard Manager – Milo and Oliver May

Located in the Horse Heaven Hills AVA above the Columbia River adjacent to Crow Butte Park, Discovery has a personality all its own. The vineyard is owned by Kay and Milo May and managed by Milo and his son Oliver. Milo is singular in his goal to deliver the best the vineyard can produce. If it takes three passes to remove damaged clusters, Milo makes three passes. Most growers threshold is two passes since one pass on an acre of fruit can cost them $500, which means I’m usually doing the third pass myself when no one is looking. It’s a pleasure to work with someone who takes as much pride in what they deliver to the winery as we do in the wine their fruit produces.

Fruit Characteristics

Cabernet Sauvignon Clone 8 – Elegant, restrained and complex are the most common descriptors I use to describe Discovery Cabernet Sauvignon. The wines are layered, long and composed with fine grain tannins.What they lack in intensity they make up with overall balance and integration.

AVA – Rattlesnake Hills

Vineyard Manager – Riley Miller

Located 1,300+ feet above the Yakima Valley, Elephant Mountain Vineyard is located near the center of the Rattlesnake Ridge Appellation. Its’ elevation and the surrounding hills define this vineyard, moderating the high and low temperature extremes throughout the growing season. Soils are sandy silt loam over a gravelly, calcareous subsurface. This vineyard performs well in cooler vintages.

Fruit Characteristics

Cabernet Sauvignon Clone 8 – Elephant Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon is more similar to Cabernet Sauvignon from Horse Heaven Hills than to the nearby Cabernet Sauvignon from Red Mountain (located just sixty miles east down the Yakima Valley). It is generally subtle and refined with well balanced, complete tannins. In great vintages, it produces a complete wine.

AVA – Red Mountain

Vineyard Manager – Andrew Schultz

One of the icons of Red Mountain, Klipsun Vineyard has a great pedigree and always rises to the top. Red Mountain is hot and windy. The soil pH is high with variable compositions making it a challenge to achieve vine-to-vine uniformity. This combination of stressors and soil produces tiny berries with thick skins that translate into big structured, concentrated wines.

Fruit Characteristics

Cabernet Sauvignon Clone 8 – Klipsun Cabernet Sauvignon is generally the foundation of our Cabernet blend. Its big structure provides the framework for the rest of the blend. The fruit profile is red to black cherry. The nose is deep and earthy. The mouth feel is chewy and savory.

AVA – Red Mountain

Vineyard Manager – Marshall Edwards 

Having one of the more descriptive vineyard names on Red Mountain, Scooteney Flats Vineyard doesn’t need a pretentious sounding French abstraction for a name since it produces some of the best Cabernet Sauvignon in the appellation. Named after the Scooteney soil series and its’ lack of any elevation changes, it is one of the only close-spaced, vertical shoot positioning (VSP) trellised vineyards that we source from. Scooteney management had the foresight to plant a variety of clones, which we take full advantage of, sourcing Clone 4 and Clone 6, which share my favorite cluster morphology — tiny berries & straggly clusters.

Fruit Characteristics

Cabernet Sauvignon Clone 4 and 6 – Concentration and viscosity are the name of the game at Scooteney. The wines have a lush and velvety mouthfeel with candied, sweet red fruit flavors. Clone 6 can have more of an herbal component to the nose and flavors. Clone 4 is generally more focused with pure fruit flavors.

Bring on the Clones….

Clones of any variety generally take on the characteristic of the vineyard site where they are grown and if over watered, can all look the same at the end of the day. However, when managed properly, they can produce wines with distinct flavor and structure profiles. Since they can have very distinct personalities, Cabernets made from different clones are great blending tools in a similar way that Cabernets from different appellations lend their personalities to a blend.

AVA – Walla Walla

Vineyard Manager – Sadie Drury

Daytime high temperatures reflect the rest of the Columbia Valley but average nighttime temperatures are higher. The soils in this vineyard are in the Ellisforde Series, which is a wind-blown glacial loess that is geologically young and rich in minerals.

Fruit Characteristics

Cabernet Sauvignon Clone 6 – Blue to black fruits with soy sauce and lots of minerality. It has a deep and full tannic structure. A young Clone 6 vineyard with enormous potential.

Petite Verdot – Has floral and spicy meat character, steely tannins. This varietal acts like a lens that focuses and straightens up a blend and augments the structure.

AVA – Horse Heaven Hills

Vineyard Manager – Sadie Drury

Daytime high temperatures reflect the rest of the Columbia Valley, but average nighttime temperatures are higher. “The soils in this vineyard are in the Ellisforde Series, which is a wind-blown glacial loess that is geologically young and rich in minerals.”

Fruit Characteristics

Cabernet Sauvignon Clone 6 – Blue to black fruits with soy sauce and lots of minerality. It has a deep and full tannic structure. A young Clone 6 vineyard with enormous potential.

Petite Verdot – Has floral and spicy meat character with steely tannins. This varietal acts like a lens that focuses and straightens up a blend and augments the structure.