Wine Yakima Valley Archives | Crushed Grape Chronicles

Exploring Wines of the Yakima Valley AVA with #WinePW

Mar 3, 2021

It’s been several years since my first trip to the Yakima Valley. I remember being so surprised at the landscape, it didn’t look so different from home, in the desert of Nevada. Of course in the Yakima Valley, there is a river, bringing water and with it, agriculture.

The State of Washington is agriculture forward. They lead the country in growing cherries, apples, pears, hops, potatoes, onions, and grapes.

There are plenty of grapes grown here for Welches grape juice and jelly. More than that, they grow the kind of grapes, that if you are reading this, you care about. Wine grapes.

#WinePW explores the Yakima Valley

This month the writers at #WinePW (Wine Pairing Weekend) are partnering with Wine Yakima Valley to dive into all those wine grapes. You might be surprised at the range of varieties that are grown in this Valley. We will add links to all the articles by this fine group of writers at the bottom of this piece.

You can join us on Saturday, March 13^th on Twitter to discuss the wines of this amazing region. You can join us, following and using the hashtag #WinePW at 8 am PST or 11 am EST.

The Yakima Valley AVA

The Yakima Valley AVA is a nested AVA inside theater Columbia Valley AVA in Washington State. Located in the Southern part of the state it spans over 70 miles from the city of Yakima in the west to the city of Richland to the east. At its widest point, you could fit the Napa Valley AVA from north to south.

Washington State Wine AVA Map Oct 2020 - courtesy Washington State Wine

Nested AVAs of the Yakima Valley

Within the Yakima Valley, you find 4 nested AVAs.

Rattlesnake Hills est. 2006
- In the Northwest part of the valley, this is the largest of the sub AVAs covering 74,380 acres with 1,832 under vine. Elevations here run 850 to over 3000 feet.
Snipes Mountain est. 2009
- Named for a rancher, Ben Snipes who live here in the 1850s, the AVA is 4,005 acres on both sides of the mountain. There are 859 acres under vine with more than 30 varieties.
Red Mountain est. 2001
- Nope, it’s not really a mountain. It is a steep southwest slope in the east end of the valley with elevations between 500 and 1500 feet. It gets its name from the cheatgrass that grows here that is deep red in the spring. It is home to some of the most well-thought-of Cabernets in the State.
Candy Mountain est. 2020
- Yep, this is the newbie! It’s just east of Red Mountain, covers only 815 acres, and has 110 acres under vine. (It’s so new that its not yet on the AVA map! But it would be just east of Red Mountain before you get to the Tri-Cities)

Map Yakima Valley 2019 courtesy of WineYakimaValley.org

Volcanos, Floods, and soils

This region was volcanic. Think about it, Mount Adams, Mount Ranier, Mount Hood…there are stunning peaks everywhere. More than mountains, these were volcanos active 15 million years ago. All that lava is the basalt that lies under the top soils here in the Yakima Valley. This soil includes a wide variety of minerals and it’s well-draining. This gives you small berries, high in acid and full of concentrated flavors and textures.

This is also the land of the Missoula Floods and many vineyards will tell you where they are in relationship to the flood levels. The floods came up to 1200 feet here, so it’s only the higher vineyards that sit in soils above the flood levels, they are happy to show you the difference in the soils. You find deep silt loam over gravel or basalt.

The Missoula floods rolled through this region 13,000-15,000 years ago at the end of the last ice age. An ice dam backed up the water in what is now Idaho. The water above it started to melt and the pressure built and the ice plug would get pushed up and release the water. The water would slow, the dam would reform….this happened over and over about 2000 years.

All those floods washed things downstream and you find boulders in vineyards on top of ridges and hills. Kitzke has one the size of a VW bus in their vineyard

The modern history of wine in the Yakima Valley

While the first grapes in the Yakima Valley were planted in 1869, it was the early 20^th century when things picked up. In 1917 an agricultural research site was started in Prosser in the middle of the Yakima Valley.

Today it is known as the Irrigated Agriculture Research and Extension Center. It was here that the wine grape growing in the state really kicked off, under the guidance of Dr. Walter Clore.

In 1962 Columbia Winery (at that time known as Associated Vintners) planted a 5.5 acres site in Sunnyside. In 1973 Mike Sauer planted his first Cabernet Sauvignon at Red Willow Vineyard, in 1975 Kiona on Red Mountain was planted. Now things were really rolling.

Associated Vineyards Winemaker David Lake, encouraged growers to plant Bordeaux varieties and in 1981 did the first vineyard-designate bottling from Red Willow Vineyard.

Yakima Valley’s Impact on Washington Wine

More than half of the grapes for Washington’s wines come from the Yakima Valley AVA. The region boasts 17,000 acres of vineyards, whose grapes go to both wineries within the region and further afield. Many of the tasting rooms in Seattle source fruit from the Yakima Valley.

This is a place where a vineyard name means something. 40 years ago David Lake did the first vineyard designate wine in the state. Red Willow, Klipsun, Boushey…these names are legendary here. The soils the weather, the people that grow the grapes…the more you know the more you want to know, and the learning is delicious.

On March 12^th and 13^th, the writers of the #WinePW Crew will post pieces on the wines and wineries of the Yakima Valley. When these posts go live I will include links here! In the meantime feel free to check out their sites, listed below.

Participating writers include:

Camilla of Culinary Adventures with Cam shares “Yakima Valley’s Sin Banderas Rhone Roses Compliment Dishes with Asian Flair” and “Mediterranean-Inspired Dishes Paired with Yakima Valley Wines from Dineen Vineyards”
Linda at My Full Wine Glass invites us to “Meet Kerry Shiels: A Yakima Valley winemaker with Vision”
Terri of Our Good Life shares 2 posts “Fortuity…Taking Advantage of Life’s Great Wines!”, and “Two Mountain Rose and Fennel Wild Mushroom Tarts”
Payal at Keep The Peas shares “Yakima Valley Wines FTW!”
Wendy of A Day in the Life on the Farm is cooking up “Smoked Beef Brisket with Canvasback Cabernet”
Rupal the Syrah Queen gives us “Yakima Valley – Red Willow Vineyards Producing Some of Washington’s Finest Syrahs”
Jane of Always Ravenous makes our mouths water with “Filet Mignon paired with Washington Yakima Valley Cabernet Sauvignon”
Martin with ENOFYLZ Wine Blog is giving us “a Taste of Washington State’s Yakima Valley”
David at Cooking Chat has 2 posts for us also “Lamb Ragu Pasta with Red Wine from Dineen Vineyards” and “Sin Banderas Rosé with Corned Beef & More Yakima Valley Wine Pairings”
Nicole of Somm’s Table shares “Big, Beautiful Reds from Yakima Valley and Tasty, Meaty Fare”
Jennifer at Vino Travels tells us about “Italian Grapes of the Yakima Valley with Sleeping Dog Wines”
Gwendolyn the Wine Predator explores “Washington Syrah: Hedges, L’Ecole, VanArnam with Lamb Stew”
Susannah at Avvinare gives us “Malbec from VanArnam Vineyard in Yakima Valley”
Lori at Exploring the Wine Glass shares “Tasting the Soul of Wine in the Heart of Yakima Valley”
I’ll be here at Crushed Grape Chronicles with “Yakima Valley AVA – Blends of Friendship and History with wines from Eight Bells and Pearl and Stone Co.

Don’t forget to join us on Saturday, March 13^th on Twitter at 8 am Pacific or 11 am Eastern time (17.00 European Central Time), to discuss wines of the Yakima Valley! Just follow and use the hashtag #WinePW to join the conversation.

If you would like to join us and write a piece, there is still time. Email me at [email protected]!

Sources and Resources

As always be sure to follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and sign up for our monthly newsletter to keep up to date on all of our posts.

Robin Bell Renken I have always loved people’s stories. I spent a career in Theatre helping to tell stories, as a Stage Manager. Daily enabling artists to freely and safely tell stories through their art. Then I fell in love with wine. There are so many details, so many nuances, not just in the glass, but in the vineyard, the region and the people. As I met winemakers and vineyard owners and even the people in the tasting room excited to pour me a glass and tell me the story of this wine, I knew these were stories I wanted to share. I completed my study and became a Certified Specialist of Wine and continue learning daily as I meet and interview people in this industry.

Robin Renken is a wine writer and Certified Specialist of Wine. She and her husband Michael travel to wine regions interviewing vineyard owners and winemakers and learning the stories behind the glass.

When not traveling they indulge in cooking and pairing wines with food at home in Las Vegas.

Mike Sauer and the stories of Washington’s Legendary Red Willow Vineyard

Aug 31, 2020

We were lucky enough to spend an evening with Jonathan and Mike Sauer at the iconic Red Willow Vineyard in Washington’s Yakima Valley. We met Jonathan, who took us on a tour of the vineyard. You can read that post here. Our final stop was the Chapel where we would capture sunset. This visit was thanks to the help of Barbara Glover, of Wine Yakima Valley. I had reached out to her to ask about a beautiful vineyard to shoot at sunset. She immediately mentioned Red Willow and put me in touch with Jonathan.

Sunset in the summer in Washington is late in the day. We wanted to be respectful of their time. This was last in the day and at the time when I would expect they would like to be home with their family for dinner. Jonathan was concerned with our time asking if we wanted to go straight to the Chapel, or if we would like to see a bit of the vineyard. Happy for the extra time with him, we took him up on that offer. His father Mike surprised us and joined us at the Chapel to take in the sunset.

We pick up there…

Shot of the chapel on Red Willow Vineyards in Yakima Valley AVA in Washington State — The shady side of the Red Willow Vineyard Chapel where we found Mike Sauer waiting for us.

As we reach the Chapel, Mike Sauer, Jonathan’s father, is there in the shade. Our conversation takes a path through the original Semillon to the lesson of planting grapes on a hill. This was not so easy when they first planted. Modern drip irrigation was not invented until 1959. These systems were not really seen in Washington State until the late ’70s. Early on they would have needed to use handlines, which would have caused erosion. Early drip irrigation of course didn’t have pressure compensating emitters.

“, so, you did everything by tubing size. You started off with a bigger tubing and pretty soon by the time you’d get down to the bottom, it was tiny tubing, to use up the friction loss to even out the pressure. There was a whole lot more design that went into the old system.”
Mike Sauer, July 2019

Mike Sauer shares the story of Red Willow Vineyard

We move onto the story of the Vineyard. Mike Sauer grew up 20 miles from here. In college he majored in Ag Econ and was sure he would be a banker or work at an Ag Company. But love can change your plans. He met a girl in college, who became his wife. Her father, Harold Stephenson, had a large successful farm here and offered Mike a job. As the new kid, Harold thought Mike should have something to experiment with. There were cherries, or apples or grapes…but these French sounding wine grapes, well they were just beginning, and they sounded interesting to Mike.

“I got hooked up with I guess you would call him the father of the Washington Wine Industry at the time, Dr. Walter Clore.”
Mike Sauer, July 2019

At that time it was all about finding varieties that would survive the winter. They started with Lemberger, Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay because they were hardy.

Jonathan tells me there were maybe 6 wineries in Washington at this point. The modern Washington wine Industry was just in its infancy.

“Dad was one of the earlier pioneers, way out in the middle of nowhere at the very end of the valley. Who knew if anything would survive out here? He kinda really took a leap of faith. And I’m glad you did!”
Jonathan Sauer, July 2019

Dr. Walter Clore and the Test blocks

Dr. Clore was exploring the state and this was one of about a dozen original remote test sites planted to see where grapes would grow. They would pick the grapes from this different sites at the same brix level, make wines from them and then send them off to an expert taste panel for review. The Red Willow wines consistently came out on top.

Dr. Clore emphasized knowing getting to know the site and its weather.

“In those days we had no idea if this was the best site. It was a fairly large farm. At the time I had a little trail 90 Honda Motorcycle. After hours I would hop on it and ride clear around the farm. It was about a 7-mile loop and check the high/low-temperature thermometers. Those days we didn’t have the $50 thermometer that will record anything nowadays. In those days you had to go every day and record them. That really taught me something. The difference from this place to a half a mile, a different hill, a different slope. We take so much information for granted today.
Those were truly pioneering days and very exciting times too. Just learning, the variety, what would grow what would survive. And it was very much Washington trying to gain a reputation in the World. It was a state coming together very cohesively, us against the world, more or less, to gain respect.”
Mike Sauer, July 2019

It was not long after their vineyard got started that Mike Sauer met David Lake. In 1981 David Lake began making vineyard designates from Red Willow Vineyard. Mike thinks at that point, perhaps only Ridge Vineyards in California was doing vineyard designates. This idea which seems so common now was new at that time in America, attaching an identity, a sense of place to a wine.

The Red Willow Chapel atop its hill of Syrah, from Red Willow Vineyard in Yakima Valley AVA in Washington State

The Chapel at Red Willow Vineyards Yakima Valley AVA

Looking out at the vineyard through the Chapel door at Red Willow Vineyard

The sign for Red Willow Vineyard with it's iconic chapel

Chapel from the north, from Red Willow Vineyard in Yakima Valley AVA in Washington State

The story of the iconic Red Willow Chapel

A few years after they got started, David Lake started Associated Vineyards, which later became Columbia Winery. He and Mike met and became friends, beginning a long relationship. As I mentioned before, it was David who first suggested planting Syrah here. He also joked that if they had syrah on a hill they should have a chapel-like Hermitage. The Sauers are a spiritual family and Mike liked the idea. He had a stonemason from Mexico working for him doing rock work and they put together an idea for a chapel. It took 3 years to finish.

“and then I found, you build a chapel, you have to explain it. It’s been an identity for our vineyard. It’s not a marketing thing, it’s a place for our family, a place to pop in and say a few prayers. It’s a connection.”
Mike Sauer, July 2019

It is now iconic in the Yakima Valley and is the symbol for the winery.

The four legs of the Stool of making great wine

Mike talks about the 4 things that make a great wine: Soil, variety, the work of human hands, and then finally that magical vintage. He references a book he read by George Rainbird “An Illustrated Guide to Wine”.

The word “Terroir,” he says can be so overused. It’s essence it the uniqueness that a site brings to the fruit and therefore the wine. Variety of course is important and Europe did much of the hard work of finding how different varieties best grow, allowing them some guidelines to be able to follow here in Washington, The work of human hands is the 3 leg, while the 4th is that magical vintage. It’s the thing that is out of human control. Something about that season can make one vintage so different from others. As Mike puts it …

“Every once in a while, by divine grace, you have these magical vintages. It’s that part of the wine that none of us control. The season, the vintage, mother nature, the hand of God… It’s what makes wine interesting.
Great vintages, you don’t just snap your finger and duplicate.”
Mike Sauer, July 2019

Jonathan points out the different blocks to us from this high vantage point. The Chapel hill has 4 blocks, then there is the Peninsula to the North and further past it the Marcoux, in between those two you find Olney Springs.

Where the name Red Willow comes from

The name, Red Willow, is the name of a spring above the vineyard, which has now become a dry creek bed. In the fall it is filled with Sumac that turns a bright scarlet color.

Jonathan: “Anyway, I’m glad you chose that name! Or I think Grandma picked it out.
Mike: It works better than Sauer Grapes. “

Generations and stability in wine grape growing

The chap — Red Willow Vinyard with Mike and Jonathan Sauer

This vineyard is family-based. Mike speaks to Red Willow being multi-generational. The farm is almost 100 years old and Mike is the 3rd generation, making Jonathan 4th generation and already some of the kids and grand kids are working on the farm. Often vineyards in Washington seem to change hands every 30 to 40 years. “It takes time to learn the soil, the identity, how we grow the grapes and interacting with the winemaker. And the wineries.”

They know their fruit here, they have seen it evolve and provide consistency to winemakers, as well as variety. They also really seem to be a sweet spot for Cabernet Franc and Mike believes the Right Bank Blends created from the vineyard are a beautiful way to showcase the site. Merlot, which has been forgotten does well here as well as Cabs. This blending of the three varieties used in Bordeaux, is working very well.

Red Willow Vineyard Cab Franc Grapes in Yakima Valley AVA in Washington State

Red Willow Vineyard Grapes in Yakima Valley AVA in Washington State

Red Willow Vineyard Merlot Grapes in Yakima Valley AVA in Washington State

The site is not windy but there is always a gentle breeze, so there is air movement. Bud break is mid-April. The northern latitude gives them almost 2 hours more sunshine on the longest day of the year than San Francisco. At the top of harvest, mid-September, days quickly get shorter and the vines know that winter is coming. They have a compressed growing season, with long sunny days and deep winters where the vines go into full dormancy, desert climate with the ability to irrigate, which gives them significant control over the vines, and high elevation.

“Anyway, it’s a special place to grow grapes.”
Mike Sauer, July 2019

There is such stability and power in a place that has been here a while and learned from the ground up and is still so ready to look to what else can happen.

We wrapped the formal conversation. Michael headed off to set cameras up to catch the sunset. While Jonathan, Mike and I pulled a picnic table into the shade behind the Chapel. Jonathan ran and picked us up a beverage and some fresh rainier cherries and I sat with Mike and Jonathan, chatting, and taking in the sunset. Watching the birds fly over swooping in to pick off flying insects, as the sun slowly sank over the mountains, Mt. Adams in the distance the evening couldn’t have been more perfect.

Geological resources

Other Resources

Other things we’ve written on Red Willow Vineyard

As always be sure to follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and sign up for our monthly newsletter to keep up to date on all of our posts.

When not traveling they indulge in cooking and pairing wines with food at home in Las Vegas.

Red Willow Vineyard in Washington’s Yakima Valley – an iconic vineyard and a trailblazer in Modern Washington Wine

Aug 28, 2020

The drive to Red Willow Vineyard, in Washington’s Yakima Valley, takes you to what feels like the end of the Universe. You head out on West Wapato Road and drive until it feels like Mt. Adams is right in front of you. Really the mountain just gets bigger and bigger. You are almost as far west as there are vineyards in the Yakima Valley. It felt like we had driven forever, and I was getting a bit concerned. It’s not easy to get a signal out here. I was staring hard at each passing sign to be sure we didn’t miss the road to turn on. At last, we found the road and made the turn.

The Drive to Red Willow. The view of the Chapel in the distance from Wapato Road

The entrance to Red Willow Vineyard in Washington's Yakima Valley

Jonathan Sauer is waiting for us. His crew is gathering up at the end of the day. He assures them he will close-up. Jonathan could not be nicer. He has a humble air about him, but he is friendly and brings a brightness to the conversation that puts you immediately at ease. He is the 4^th generation of his family to work on this farm. His father Mike, first planted wine grapes here. We gather up our equipment and climb on the ATV to head up the hill, into the vineyard.

The History of Washington Wine

Before we go any further, perhaps I should share a bit of context. You see, Red Willow Vineyard is legendary when it comes to Washington Vineyards. Let’s go back to the beginning and give you some background.

How did grapes get to Washington?

The Hudson’s Bay Company planted the first grapes at Fort Vancouver back in 1825. Wine grapes followed the early French, Italian and German settlers. Irrigation arrived in the Eastern part of the state in the early 1900s, meaning this dry desert region on the east side of the Cascades could begin to grow. Vineyards began to pop up in the Walla Walla and Yakima Valleys. Then of course came Prohibition.

Dr. Walter Clore – The Father of Washington Wine

It was 1934 when Dr. Walter J. Clore arrived in Washington. He studied horticulture at Washington State College and then was hired to teach at the WSU Irrigated Agriculture Research Extension Center in Prosser, WA. With the ability to irrigate, Washington was learning to grow fruits and vegetables. He met W.B. Bridgman, who had a vineyard planted to Vitis Vinifera. Dr. Walter Clore took cuttings to establish a block to study in Prosser. Eventually, he would start test blocks from these vines around the state, working with growers to test for issues with climate, soil, wind, etc. He shared this collected information with the growers, building a database of research, and determining that indeed, vinifera grapes could grow in this region. One of these test sites was Red Willow Vineyard. Mike Sauer worked with Dr. Clore to plant an experimental block of 20 varieties in 1972-73, as well as mounting a weather station.

David Lake – Master of Wine

Associated Vintners, now known as Columbia Winery, was created in 1962 by a group of friends. These 10 visionaries, 6 of whom were University of Washington Professors, were determined to prove that Washington’s Columbia Valley was a great place to grow and make wine. I would dare say that worked. I am sure that most of you have tasted a wine from Columbia Winery. It is the 2^nd most well known wine brand in the state of Washington and can be found most anywhere. In 1979 they named David Lake, MW to be their winemaker a job he held until 2006. David Lake was Canadian but had worked in the wine trade in Britain before coming to America. He worked at Eyrie in the Willamette Valley before joining Associated Vintners, based in Seattle. It was this same year that he met Mike Sauer. Mike describes him as having “a European sensibility” when it came to wine. He released Washington’s first vineyard-designated wines back in 1981, all were Cabernets, coming from Sagemoor, Otis and… Red Willow Vineyards. He was known to motivate growers and shared his knowledge. It was David Lake that encouraged Mike Sauer to plant Syrah, the variety that Red Willow is perhaps best known for these days. Now you have a bit of background. This humble vineyard is one of the great vineyards in Washington State and some of the legendary names in Washington Wine helped to form it.

Red Willow Vineyard

Red Willow Vineyard’s Chapel Block

Jonathan Sauer drives us up the hill, and we stop below the Chapel Hill’s west slope. The Red Willow Chapel sits on a hill so there are aspects on all sides. The west slope fruit is intense, dark, and tannic. The east slope, with its soil windblown loess, has more perfume in the wine, giving it more elegance. This is a significant difference in fruit, when as Jonathan says, “You can throw a ball from one to the next”. The south slope is more of a mix of the two styles. Here, from just within the Chapel block you have the makings for a beautiful blend, with depth and complexity, just from one variety.

“It’s probably easier to make a wine that I’m gonna get stuff from Wahluke and Horse Heavens and Walla Walla and I’ll get all these different components and create a blend. But to do a vineyard designate, it can be a little more challenging. But yet, when you do it right it can just be a magical wine, just that sense of place you get from it.”
Jonathan Sauer, July 2019

The Chapel block itself is 100% Syrah, which is how it got its Chapel, reminiscent of the famous Chapel in Hermitage in France, where some of the most famous Syrah on the planet grows. The entire Chapel hill is broken into Syrah, Sangiovese, and Viognier. Mike Sauer planted the Viognier to go with the Syrah. In the Northern Rhone, the two grapes are often blended or co-fermented, so it seemed appropriate to have a little of that to mix in. When they were planting the Viognier, they looked to France for inspiration.

“…well it’s grown on the steepest kinda warmest sites over in France so let’s do that here! So, you’re kind of guessing. It really isn’t until 10 years later or even longer that you say, well that was a good guess, or maybe I shouldn’t have done that. We’re a young industry and even though our vineyard is approaching 50 years, I think we’re 47 this year. We’ve still got a lot to learn and each year we’re trying to get a little better and learn a little more. We haven’t been here for centuries like the Old World.”
Jonathan Sauer, July 2019

Precipitation and irrigation

We continue to drive into the vineyard, and I notice that each row has a tag on the end with a winery name. They sell fruit by the acre not the ton, so the winemakers can drop fruit as they want. It might make the fruit more expensive, but the winemaker has the choice. The blocks have tall signs over them telling you what variety the grape is and the year it was planted.

Eastern Washington only gets about 6-7 inches of precipitation a year and the majority of that comes in the winter. 2019 was an anomaly and they had snow in February. This caused the vines to take off early.

We turn around and head back toward the Chapel then stop where the original 73 Cabernet had been planted. There were 3 acres that they finally took out and replaced with Syrah. The wineries loved it, but the vines had leaf roll virus and the yield was down to just 2 tons to the acre. They couldn’t allow the leaf roll to spread, so they had to pull it out.

The beginning of Nebbiolo and Syrah at Red Willow Vineyard

We continue to the ’85 Nebbiolo block. “Dad tells a story where right about harvest time, they’re picking grapes and people are going everywhere and he had this guy show up and he had a bottle of Barolo in, I don’t know, both hands or something, coming up talking a million miles an hour and said “I want you to plant Nebbiolo! I’ve got a restaurant over in the Seattle area called Café Juanita and blah, blah, blah, and Dad’s like ‘okay, that’s nice. I’m kinda busy right now’.” Later speaking with someone at the wine shop in Yakima he found out that the restaurant is well known with month-long waiting lists for reservations. Intrigued with Nebbiolo he spoke to David Lake about planting it. David Lake thought this was interesting, but he said “…you know, really if you want to plant a classic variety, that I think would be really well suited for your site in Washington, you ought to look at Syrah.”

So, David Lake called and found French Clone cuttings from Joseph Phelps in California, and they planted Syrah, which is now so iconic for this vineyard.

This started their pioneering wave, they tried Malbec, Sangiovese, and Viognier and Mataro. The winter of 96 was really cold, when the Syrah survived that, they knew this variety could do well in the state and it started to take off.

We turn to the 3 acres of old Syrah. Bob Betz calls this Le Côte Patriarche, Jonathan tells me. This wine is one of the Betz family wines top releases and it is typically sold in pre-sales. Barrel ratings for this wine are 94-96. Mark Fiore at Efeste and Andrew Rich also make Red Willow vineyard-designate Syrahs.

We head up the final stretch to the Chapel and pass the 93 Mataro block. This small block is planted on low trellis mimicking the method in Madrid to gain the solar heat from the ground for ripening. Jonathan was glad that was all.

“We had a lot of moisture so the vines kind of took off early…and then you don’t want to stress them, right when they are at bloom and set really, so you’ve got to keep watering them. We’re well past that now, so when you are past that you hit the brakes and just dry it out. So, there’s so much influence that a grower has in this state over that water, it’s huge. It’s probably one of the biggest factors of consistency and the benefits that it leads to in quality. It’s tremendous, influencing the berry size, the vine, the exposure it gets, and the canopy. It’s tremendous. It’s one of the great factors Washington has. There’s a lot of them, the cool nights, the latitude…and right at harvest time, it’s always so magical, your days are shortening enough and just that northerly latitude … the cool nights keeping the acidity within the wines that you find a lot in Washington. It’s a great place to be a grower.”

Jonathan Sauer, July 2019

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

Ancient Soils and the Peninsula Block

We leave the Chapel Hill behind us and drive through what they call the Saddle and then into the Peninsula block, to a point where there is a cutout. Here you can see the layers of soil.

Red Willow is a high elevation vineyard. The building at the bottom of the vineyard that we came from sits at 1100 feet. The top of the Marcoux block which is the furthest north block is at around 1300 feet. The Missoula Floods, washed into about one-third of the way up this hill. You can see the ancient soils that remain above where the floodwaters came through. The strata layers are different. You also find pumice here from the volcanos of the Ancient Cascade Mountains.

This is like the lightweight stone that you often see for removing callouses, which is a direct projectile out of the volcanos. You also find compressed ash. Each of these soils tie back to a major geological event. We are looking at millions of years of geologic history in front of us.

The whole region is an uplift, that gives this region all these east/west ridges. Most of the world has north/south Ridges. The Peninsula Hill was a unique fold that came out of the Ahtanum Ridge that sits north of the Vineyard. I ponder for a moment, visualizing this hill as an island in the Missoula floods.

Jonathan tells us they are really farming to showcase the soil, looking for an active biological soil and trying to do things minimally.

150 acres of wine grape plus…

Red Willow Vineyard is planted to about 150 acres of wine grapes. They also farm concords for jelly and juice. Jonathan points out the darker green areas in the lower sections of the property with overhead sprinkler systems, unlike the drip irrigation used for the wine grapes. They also do a bit hay, about 30 acres.

As to the wine grapes, they grow about 17 varieties and Jonathan says the beauty of that is that they all ripen at different times, with harvest lasting about a month and a half.

“Start with the Sav Blanc and Gewurz and go through Merlot, Syrah and then the mid-season, I usually say Cab Franc, Lemberger. Then we go into Cab, Sangiovese. We’ve got one row of Aglianico, it’s usually about at the end. And then the Nebbiolo we have on this hill, kinda right at the end.”
Jonathan Sauer, July 2019

We continue North toward the Marcoux Block pausing at the 91 Sangiovese, which was some of the earliest Sangiovese planting in the state. This is getting close to the northern edge of the vineyard. Past this you can see the sage brush leading toward the ridge.

The first block planted was in the Peninsula block the 73 Cabernet. Jonathan says his father planted some Semillon and Chenin Blanc in 1971. He planted them low on the property with the concords and they froze out. “I guess that was our first lesson. Put them on the hills out of the good fertile soil. After that, it worked pretty good.”

The Experimental blocks and the wineries they work with

Mike Sauer also planted an experimental block, here at Red Willow Vineyard, back in the early 70s with Dr. Walter Clore. Jonathan says it had about a dozen varieties including rkatsiteli, a hardy grape from Ukraine. Out of that experimental block, his dad really liked the cab franc. He planted his first block of that variety in 1985.

With the cab franc, merlot, and cab sav growing here, DeLille was about to release a Red Willow Right Bank Blend. All of these are old blocks. I looked the wine up after getting home. The 2017 vintage was recently released only to the DeLille Wine club, so if you manage to get your hands on a bottle, treasure it

The different winemakers I had spoken with seemed to really revere Red Willow Vineyard. I mention this to Jonathan.

“Well we really like everybody we are dealing with. Especially if somebody is going to do a designate. We really try to do our best. … Dad’s really an endearing personality in the industry. A lot of people have got a lot of love for Mike and what he’s done, and we’re just trying to continue that, and not mess it up. Maybe add a little bit as we go.”
Jonathan Sauer, July 2019

We look through the Marcoux block to the Ahtanum Ridge. Jonathan was hoping that the wild horses would be out for us. Sadly, they must further down the valley. What a visual, picturing these tan rolling hills with wild horses galloping through.

We turn around and head back toward the Chapel then stop where the original 73 Cabernet had been planted. There were 3 acres that they finally took out and replaced with Syrah. The wineries loved it, but the vines had leaf roll virus and the yield was down to just 2 tons to the acre. They couldn’t allow the leaf roll to spread, so they had to pull it out.

The beginning of Nebbiolo and Syrah at Red Willow Vineyard

So, David Lake called and found French Clone cuttings from Joseph Phelps in California, and they planted Syrah, which is now so iconic for this vineyard.

Wine Yakima Valley

Oct 3, 2019

We met Barbara initially when we visited the Yakima Valley while attending the Wine Media Conference held here in October of 2018. She had planned a spectacular pre-conference tour highlighting the wine, cider and beers of the area. When we wanted to return to the Valley to visit and speak with winemakers she was a great resource. She graciously assisted us with finding the perfect spots for sunrise and sunset as well as suggesting winemakers to speak with.

We met Barbara at Stems Wine shop in downtown Yakima. Stems is a GREAT place to find wines from all over the region!

Wine Yakima Valley

We were lucky enough to enjoy a bit of the summer in Washington’s Yakima Valley. Barbara Glover of Wine Yakima Valley took time out of her day to meet us to talk about the Valley. While we were there she also filled us in on their upcoming event Catch the Crush happening October 12-13th 2019.

Catch the Crush

Catch the Crush is an annual event in the Yakima Valley. Barbara took a bit of time to fill us in on the details. Each of the wineries has their own style of event that you can enjoy with a Premier Pass. And the Premier pass will only set you back $35. If you are able to get to the area and take part, this promises to be a fantastic event!

Day 5

What were we thinking!? A sunset shoot, followed by a sunrise shoot in Washington! Days here are longer. In July they are about 15 hrs. Sunset was 8:57 pm and sunrise is about 5:15 am. At least today we did not have a ton of driving to do.

We were up really early to get out to Wilridge Vineyard in the Naches Heights AVA before the sun. Paul Beverage, the owner, couldn’t join us that early, but was happy to give us permission to shoot on this beautiful property. We quietly pulled in. They allow camping on the property and there was an RV out front with people tucked away sleeping, as we were arriving before sunrise to set up.

Naches Heights AVA

The Naches Heights AVA was approved in 2012 and was the first Washington AVA to be completely sustainable. All 7 initial vineyards were biodynamic or LIVE certified. This AVA is in Yakima County, but sits outside (north and west) of the Yakima Valley AVA.

We’ve talked about the Missoula Floods that washed through this area. I remember speaking with David O’Reilly of Owen Roe at their Union Gap Vineyard. We stood toward the top of his vineyard at 1,200 feet and were at the top of the Missoula Flood level. Naches Heights sits between 1,200 and 2,100 feet, so the entire plateau is above the Missoula Floods.

The plateau was formed as a lava flow from the Cascades cooled. The soil here is known as Tieton Loam Loess. The high elevation means less chance of winter damage in the vineyard.

Wilridge Vineyard

Paul Beverage started his winery in Seattle back in 1988. In 2007 he planted Wilridge Vineyard near Yakima. The vineyard was planted to be Certified Organic and Biodynamic.

They consider themselves a “Recreational Vineyard”. There are bike trails and hikes, and they have a map to guide you around the vineyard and to the cliff trail hikes in Cowiche Canyon. You can even rock climb on the Andesite rock cliffs where the vineyard has bolted anchors.

Signs from the hiking trails guide you to the tasting room at Wilridge Vineyard — Signs from the hiking trails guide you to the tasting room

You can also just kick back on the porch of the 100 year old farmhouse that is their tasting room and enjoy the views and the wild (or not so wild) life. The cats are friendly. Rachel, a young black cat, came running up to me meowing and spent part of the morning purring and curling up in my lap!

The 100 year old Farmhouse at Wilridge Vineyards

The Porch at Wilridge Vineyard on the 100 year old Farmhouse

Rachel, the vineyard cat. She ran up to me from across the porch meowing and demanded to sit in my lap and be petted! How could I not ablige.

Sunrise with vines a Wilridge Vineyard in Washington’s Naches Heights AVA
Wilridge Sunrise & lavender Washington Naches Heights AVA
The Wilridge logo painted on the door at the farmhouse
Tree swing and tables for enjoying a glass or a bottle at Wilridge Vineyard
Flowers and farmhouse at Wilridge Vineyard
Grapes in the morning sun at Wilridge Vineyard in the Naches Heights AVA of Washington State
The 100 year old Farmhouse at Wilridge Vineyard

The farmhouse has 3 AirBnb rooms, they take reservations for RV parking and you can camp in the vineyard! Staying here, gives you the luxury of waking up and taking in the gorgeous sunrise in your PJ’s with a cup of Joe in hand.

Back to the Yamika Valley AVA

JB Neufeld

Justin of JB Neufeld made some time in his morning to talk with us about his Cabernets. In addition to his own label, he is the winemaker for Gilbert Cellars and we met him on their beautiful property on Hackett Ranch.

The bees buzzed happily in the lavender behind us as we chatted with a view of the beautiful gardens and amphitheatre here on the property.

Justin is focused on Cabernet Sauvignon. He looks to how this grape expresses itself in different soils and climates within Washington. We had a fascinating discussion with him on how he pulls the best out of each of his vineyard designates from Red Mountain to Red Willow, across the entire Yakima Valley, to create a beautiful complex blend of Cabernet. We also talked about microflora in the soil and about the wines he makes with Gilbert. You can expect us to share more of this interview later!

Wine Yakima Valley

When we visited Washington before for #WBC18, we met Barbara Glover who had put together the pre-conference tour for Wine Yakima Valley. Barbara was instrumental in helping us connect with vineyard owners and winemakers for this trip to the Yakima Valley. We were excited to meet with her and talk about all the exciting developments in the Yakima Valley Wine Region.

She arranged for us to meet her at Stems, a wine shop in downtown Yakima. We met Brad the owner and were able to talk Yakima Wine. In addition to the great interview with Barbara, it was fun to just chat with them about the region, it’s people and culture.

Stems Yakima

Brad mentioned that when he opened Stems, he planned to be just focus on Washington Wines. Local demand to learn more about other regions has him holding events including wines from outside the region. The thirst for knowledge (and wine) is alive and well in Yakima! This is a great place to pick up a bottle or twelve of wine and anything wine related that you can imagine.

Stems Wine Shop in Downtown Yakima, Washington with Barbara Glover of Wine Yakima Valley.

Los Hernandez

When we asked where to grab lunch, everyone said the same thing…Los Hernandez. We did a piece on our delicious lunch here.

Treveri

The lawn at Trevari — The lawn at Treveri

We were running early for our tasting at Owen Roe, so we thought we would stop by Treveri. I mean who can pass up bubbles after filling up on tamales!

As we were filled with tamales, we passed on the cheese and charcuteries offerings, but…if you are in the area, this is a great stop for bubbles and a snack. Tastings are seated and are free. We found a spot outside. The clouds had rolled in and it actually got a little humid (which is not typical for this area!). It was just mere moments before an attentive host came to talk us through the menu. It felt a bit luxurious to sit and enjoy the view and have someone continually bring you new bubbles to try.

The entrance to the Trevari tasting room

These are good affordable bubbles. Your tasting will take you through bubbles that go from Brut Zero to Demi Sec with their sweetness levels and in addition to the traditional Blanc de Blancs of Chardonnay, they have a rosé of Syrah and Chardonnay and the Demi-Sec sparkler we tasted was of Gewurztraminer.

Owen Roe

When we were here last October we attended a dinner at Owen Roe’s Union Gap vineyard. I had an opportunity to walk the winery with owner David O’Reilly as well as do a vineyard tour with him. As we walked the vineyard we tasted the Owen Roe wines on, in the blocks the grapes were harvested from.

David O'Reilly at Owen Roe's Union Gap Vineyard — Owen Roe Winery, in Yakima Valley Washignton

But Owen Roe has many more wines than just the Union Gap vineyard designates. They pull from Red Willow for their Chapel Series, as well as from DuBrul, Olsen, Outlook and Elerding here in the Yakima Valley for many of their other wines (and they do have a really wide selection of wines!) They also source from the Willamette Valley from vineyards across 4 different AVAs. When we knew we were going to be back in the area, we knew that we wanted to sit down and taste through their wines.

Barrels, Owen Roe, Yakima Valley, Tasting Room, Barrel Room, Union Gap — Owen Roe’s Union Gap Tasting room is in the winery. Now filled with barrels some of which make for private tasting areas.

Tasting with Brandon at Owen Roe

The space looked so much different than our last visit! Our October visit was during harvest and the winery was filled with fermentation bins! Now there were stacks of barrels, some of which created a private tasting area and this was where Brandon set us up for our tasting.

Brandon set us up with a wide and large tasting through many of their wines and we promise we will walk you through that tasting in the not so distant future.

It was still early when we finished at Owen Roe, but we were bushed! We picked up some dinner and crashed early. The next day would be early again. Co Dinn was meeting us at Roskamp Vineyard in the Snipe Mountain AVA, early in the day. Next we would drive on to Red Mountain to visit with Sarah Goedhart at Hedges Family Estate. Then we would be making the drive to Walla Walla to meet Tim & Jennifer Amstrong at their vineyard. So stay tuned!

As always be sure to follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to keep up to date on all of our posts.

Stems

Aug 27, 2019

While in the Yakima Valley, we wanted to catch up with Barbara Glover who heads up Wine Yakima Valley. She had put together an amazing tour for many of us in the Wine Media for the conference held in Walla Walla in Oct 2018. The tour gave us an in depth look at this region and was the reason we decided we needed to return to learn more.

We had a couple of morning interviews and Barbara was kind enough to squeeze us in last minute. Now…where to meet? Barbara made a call and set us up to meet at Stems in Yakima.

Stems is a wine & gift shop, so we had a backdrop of shelves of bottles of Yakima Valley wines for our interview with Barbara.

Brad who runs this shop was generous in letting us use the space and we had great conversations on the area. We found a couple of bottles that we were not able to find elsewhere to take along with us.

If you are in Yakima, this is a great place to pick up a bottle and gain some valuable information from Brad on the area! It’s also a pretty great spot to pick up gifts for fellow wine lovers!

Stems does tastings with Washington wines and beyond so check their facebook page for events! https://www.facebook.com/stems.yakima

You can find them at 399 E. Yakima Ave, Ste 180, Yakima, Washington (509) 452-8800.

Full fermentation bins! A walk inside Owen Roe Winery at Harvest.

Mar 29, 2019

While we were in the Yakima Valley for #WBC18, we had the opportunity to go to Owen Roe Winery with the Pre-Conference Tour with Wine Yakima Valley. You can read all about Day 1 of our adventure in the Yakima Valley here at Yakima Valley Wine and Beyond with Wine Yakima Valley’s Flavor Camp.

While enjoying our afternoon, tasting the wines and getting set for Flavor Camp, I peeked around the side of the winery, where work continued. We were deep into harvest and cleanup was happening outside the winery, behind where the tables were set out for dinner and wine was being poured. I always lean toward the backstage (I am a Stage Manager after all), so I snuck around the side and found a couple fellow wine writers peeking as well. As luck would have it, David O’Reilly, owner of Owen Roe, had spied us, and offered to give us a tour inside the busy working winery.

Owen Roe Winery

Full Fermentation Bins!

The Winery was full of bins filled with fruit that was fermenting. Pulling back the tarp, that was spring clamped on as a lid, we looked in at the berries (grapes) that looked remarkably like blueberries (as someone noted).

Whole berries in a fermentation bin at Owen Roe Winery in the Yakima Valley

David informed us that this was a whole berry ferment. They don’t use a crusher to crush the berries, the weight of the berries pressing down on each other does that work for them.

The room was filled with these white bins full of berries fermenting. Someone asked if this was like a carbonic ferment. Well….carbonic fermentation (as David explained) is a whole berry fermentation like this, but….it is done in an enclosed system with CO2. They do this with the Cinsault that goes into their Sinister Hand Blend. He pointed out the room in the corner, their cold room. The carbonic masceration, does with the Cinsault, what is does with Beaujolais Nouveau, it give the wine a fresh fruit note.

So many Stories

You know I love a good story. While David O’Reilly told us the tales of the winery and the vineyard, I dug a little deeper to find the inspiration for the name of the Winery and beyond that, of the Sinister Hand wine that David mentioned to us and that I got to taste later.

Behind the Name Owen Roe:

Owen Roe O’Neill was a seventeenth century Irish Patriot, who dedicated his life to upholding the highest principles of political equality and freedom. His commitment to great things makes him an ideal model for us at Owen Roe, for we share his dedication to principle in our work to produce the wines of Owen Roe. At Owen Roe we do not compromise: only the best is good enough.
Courtesy Owen Roe Winery

I reached out to Taylor at Owen Roe and she told me that David O’Reilly had spent his first 14 years of life on a farm in Ireland. His family then moved to British Columbia and he fished and raised vegetables and grew up living off of the land.

The name on the Label

A letter written in 1649 by O’Neill was found in David O’Reilly’s family castle, but because the letter was written in Spanish, O’Neill penned the signature with his Spanish name. David cut out the letters from the document to create Owen O’Neill’s signature. O’Reilly is related to O’Neill through marriage.
Courtesy of Taylor Boyle Wine Club Manager at Owen Roe

The story of the Sinister Hand

Sinister Hand Label from Owen Roe Winery (courtesy of Owen Roe WInery) — Sinister Hand Label from Owen Roe Winery (courtesey of Owen Roe WInery)

THE STORY BEHIND THE LABEL: Long ago, pre-dating the 11th century, the families that became modern day O’Neills and O’Reillys were feuding over the land that became their ancestral home. To settle the dispute, a competition was organized and several rowing teams agreed that the first to touch the land, after rowing across the lake, would become ruler of the land. O’Neill’s boat was falling behind so a member of the crew grabbed his own sword, cut off his hand and threw it ashore, and touching first, winning the title to rule the land. The island fortress on this land can still be visited on Lough Oughter in County Cavan.
From OwenRoe.com

Dipping into fermentation

Owen Roe Winery, Grapes in Fermentation Bins

David opened up a bin that was about half way through its ferment. You could feel the heat. The bin was sitting at about 32 ° C that would be about 85 ° F. David explained that with Interns in the winery from all over the world, they use celsius temperature and metrics here (easier than teaching another language!).

We looked in another bin and you could see some skin separation. The color was also leaching out of the skins into the juice adding those wonderful phenolics that make red wines so tasty and interesting.

When asked about regulating temperature, David said that they regulate the ambient temperature in the winery. We had arrived at the change of seasons, when the daylight temperatures tend to plummet. Often it is actually too cold for fermentation in the winery. They do have their cold room in case a fermentation gets running too hot. They typically keep their fermentations at around 80 ° here and let them do a nice slow 2 week fermentation.

Jackie Evans, Winemaker

Jackie Evans, Owen Roe Winery, Winemaker

We met Jackie Evans, the winemaker here at Owen Roe, as she was making her rounds adding nutrients to keep the fermentations on track. They had their lab where they check levels and add nutrients to be sure the fermentation does not get stressed. This avoids stuck fermentations. As David puts it “Band-aids are easier than mouth to mouth resuscitation.”

Later in the evening the crew would be in for punch downs. I had planned on trying to get back in to see that, but the wine, the food, the conversation, and that sunset…well, suffice to say, I got distracted.

None the less, we did go on to do our Flavor Camp which included a vineyard tour with David. You will see that coming up next!

Visiting Owen Roe

Owen Roe has 2 tasting rooms, one in Washington at the Union Gap Vineyard that we visited, as well as another in Newberg Oregon (they make wines in the Willamette Valley also)

Owen Roe Winery, in Yakima Valley Washington

Washington Tasting room

Open Daily from 11-4 in the Yakima Valley, they do require reservations for more than 8 guests.

They also offer Barrel Room Tastings on the weekends started each day at noon. You can reserve this for a fee on their reservation page. It includes a tour, private tasting, an expanded flight and a cheese and charcuterie platter.

The Union Gap Vineyard and tasting room can be found at 309 Gangl Rd in Wapato WA 98951. 509-877-0454

Oregon Tasting Room

Again open daily from 11-4 their tasting room off Hwy 219 outside of Newberg requires reservations for more than 6 guests. You can bring snacks, or contact them ahead of time and they can have a snack plate ready.

Here they have a Cellar Table Experience that you can reserve to do a more private tasting geared toward your palate. Contact them ahead of time to set this up.

The Willamette Valley tasting room is located at 2761 E 9th St. Newberg OR 97132. 503-538-7778

More to come!

Watch for our vineyard tour with David O’Reilly, coming out soon!

And visit our Yakima Valley Wine page on our site for more details on this great region.

Wine Yakima Valley

#WinePW explores the Yakima Valley

The Yakima Valley AVA

Nested AVAs of the Yakima Valley

Volcanos, Floods, and soils

The modern history of wine in the Yakima Valley

Yakima Valley’s Impact on Washington Wine

Sources and Resources

Share this:

Like this:

Mike Sauer shares the story of Red Willow Vineyard

Dr. Walter Clore and the Test blocks

The story of the iconic Red Willow Chapel

The four legs of the Stool of making great wine

Where the name Red Willow comes from

Generations and stability in wine grape growing

Geological resources

Other Resources

Other things we’ve written on Red Willow Vineyard

Share this:

Like this:

The History of Washington Wine

How did grapes get to Washington?

Dr. Walter Clore – The Father of Washington Wine

David Lake – Master of Wine

Red Willow Vineyard

Red Willow Vineyard’s Chapel Block

Precipitation and irrigation

The beginning of Nebbiolo and Syrah at Red Willow Vineyard

Ancient Soils and the Peninsula Block

150 acres of wine grape plus…

The Experimental blocks and the wineries they work with

The beginning of Nebbiolo and Syrah at Red Willow Vineyard

Share this:

Like this:

Wine Yakima Valley

Catch the Crush

More on the Yakima Valley Wine Region

Share this:

Like this:

Day 5

Naches Heights AVA

Wilridge Vineyard

Back to the Yamika Valley AVA

JB Neufeld

Wine Yakima Valley

Stems Yakima

Los Hernandez

Treveri

Owen Roe

Tasting with Brandon at Owen Roe

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Owen Roe Winery

Full Fermentation Bins!

So many Stories

Behind the Name Owen Roe:

The name on the Label

The story of the Sinister Hand

Dipping into fermentation

Jackie Evans, Winemaker

Visiting Owen Roe

Washington Tasting room

Oregon Tasting Room

More to come!

Share this:

Like this:

Join our Crushed Grape Chronicles Family

Join our Email List

Archives

Categories

Follow Us on Twitter

Certified Specialist of Wine

Instagram

crushedgrapechron

crushedgrapechron