Viticulture
I make wines for the vintage, with as little manipulation as possible. I want you to have an idea of what that year was like.
– Steve wells
Sourcing from Walla Walla Valley & the Royal Slope AVAs, our vineyards are chosen for a combination reasons. Ability to grow with the vineyard as I grow as a winemaker & also reputation for making world class wines.
Corfu Crossing
Location: Royal Slope AVA
Vines: Planted in 2003. Viognier for the ‘Fretboard’
About: High elevation and silty loam soils, along with a south slope, for excellent grape growing conditions.
Eritage
Location: Walla Walla Valley AVA
Vines: Planted in 2014. Syrah for the ‘Binary’
About: Elevation ranges from 800 to 1,100 feet, with mostly silty loam.
Les Collines
Location: Walla Walla Valley AVA
Vines: Planted in 2020. Viognier, Grenache Blanc, Marsanne, Roussanne, and Picpoul for the ‘1.21 Gigawatts’
About: Les Collines Vineyard occupies approximately 290 acres in the foothills of the Blue Mountains, 5 miles southeast of Walla Walla. The elevation ranges from 1140 feet in the northwest corner of the vineyard to 1370 feet in the southeast corner. Along the foothills of the Blue Mountains and in the adjacent Walla Walla Valley, basalt bedrock is overlain by a thick layer of weakly cemented basalt cobblestone gravels. The old gravels are often capped by a 4ft. thick section of carbonate-cemented sediment (caliche), the remnant of an ancient soil formed under arid to semiarid conditions.
Patina
Location: Walla Walla Valley AVA
Vines: Planted in 1996. Syrah for the ‘The Enchanter’
Solaksen
Location: Royal Slope AVA
Vines: Planted in 2013. Syrah for the ‘Old School’
About: Located atop the Frenchman Hills on the Royal Slope, this unique site boasts a variety of angling south slopes. 100 current acres with future plantings to total 240. Sustainably farmed.
A Norwegian-inspired term for “off axis to the sun,” signifying the row planting direction of this vineyard
Thunderstone
Location: Royal Slope AVA
Vines: Planted in 2015. Grenache for the ‘Up Up Down Down Left Right Left Right B A Select Start’ & ‘Ceci n’est pas un vin rouge’ and Mourvedre for ‘Space Pants’
About: A reference to the shape of this vineyard site, thunderstones are ancient artifacts, oftentimes arrowheads, turned up in the soil from farmers’ plows and regarded in folklore as having been cast to the earth from thunderbolts. In Scandinavia thunderstones were frequently worshiped as family gods who kept off spells and witchcraft.
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