The Vineyards

The Site

Blue Mountain was established in 2000 in the foothills of the Blue Mountains on the cool eastern edge of the Walla Walla Valley. In 2014 the winery planted its own 8-acre estate block here and named it the Binaural Block, after the Pearl Jam album; it has become the backbone of The Archimage.

The loess underfoot was carried in on the wind over thousands of years, one fine dust storm at a time, and it runs deep, letting roots range far for water and nutrients.

Terroir · Moderating Influences

One of the cooler sites in the valley and consistently one of our last picks in Walla Walla. It sees 14 to 16 inches of rain a year, generous by eastern Washington standards, and the deep, well-drained soil holds the vines in steady, unhurried ripening.

The moderating force here is elevation and cool air drainage off the Blues rather than a river: long hang time preserves acidity and aromatics while flavors build slowly. Groundcover is maintained by a flock of Old English Southdown 'Babydoll' sheep, which graze between the rows and feed the soil as they go.

In the Glass

Extended hang time gives intense flavors true to varietal: elegance, lift, and length rather than raw power. Blue Mountain is why the flagship blends read polished and long instead of merely big.

The Site

The Foothills sits on the eastern slopes of the Walla Walla Valley at the base of the Blue Mountains, one of the prettiest sites in the valley. Established in 2001, its 212 planted acres make it the largest contiguous vineyard in the Walla Walla Valley, growing 19 varieties for more than 50 wineries; we have worked with its Syrah since 2007. It is LIVE certified, Salmon-Safe, and was Seattle Magazine's 2015 Washington Vineyard of the Year.

Block 50's modified, minimally pruned sprawl canopy is nearly unique in Walla Walla: the vines are left high and wild, the canopy shading the clusters. In certain vintages that block becomes Off He Goes, bottled in memory of Trey's mentor, Eric Dunham.

Terroir · Moderating Influences

Elevation and the cooler, wetter eastern-slope position slow ripening and hold acidity. Rain lifting off the Blues delivers roughly 19 to 22 inches a year, enough that the site could be dry-farmed; irrigation is minimal. The gently sloped hillside drains cold air in three directions, protecting against spring and fall frost. The deep, loose loess keeps yields naturally low; Block 23 typically sets a tiny crop on its own.

The two farming styles are the story: tidy trellised rows below, near-wild sprawl above. The sprawl canopy shades fruit through the heat of the day, an old-school moderating trick that trades sun exposure for savor.

In the Glass

Savory, structured Syrah with darker, more brooding fruit off the high sprawl blocks. Heavy whole-cluster use layers in stems, spice, and grip.

The Site

Our newest estate block sits up the North Fork of the Walla Walla River in a true microclimate that behaves nothing like the rest of the valley: more rain, extreme heat spikes, yet moderated highs and lows overall, with more frost-free days than the valley proper.

This is about as extreme a planting as Washington has. The pitch approaches 45 degrees, the spacing is a European-density meter by meter, and every vine and post was jackhammered into solid fractured lava rock.

Terroir · Moderating Influences

The North Fork canyon is the moderating engine: river-canyon air movement smooths out temperature extremes and extends the frost-free window even while the site catches more rain and more heat than the valley average.

Bare fractured basalt and brutal vine density force the plants to compete; tiny per-vine yields and deep root struggle concentrate everything.

In the Glass

An intense, floral, savory Syrah unlike anywhere else in the valley, the kind of wine only stress and stone can make.

The Site

Stoney Vine grows in the ancient bed of the Walla Walla River, on the Oregon side of the valley. As the river shifted over thousands of years it left basalt cobbles piled 100 to 300 ft deep. Settlers grew tree fruit here from the 1800s; the first commercial grape plantings arrived in the late 1990s, and it is now some of the most coveted ground in Walla Walla.

The Rocks District is the only AVA in the United States whose boundaries are defined by a single landform and a single soil series; about 96% of it is covered by Freewater series cobbles found almost nowhere else in the valley. Established in 2007, Stoney Vine provides estate fruit for both Sleight of Hand and Dusted Valley.

Terroir · Moderating Influences

The stones do everything. Dark basalt cobbles absorb solar radiation all day and radiate it back at night, warming soil and fruit, pushing ripening, and cutting frost risk in spring and fall.

Drainage is nearly instant, so roots dive 30 ft or more chasing water, pulling savory minerality up with them. The cobbles resist erosion, discourage rot and mildew, and carry high calcium, titanium, and iron.

In the Glass

The unmistakable Rocks signature: savory, gamey wines with olives, iodine, wet stone, minerality, and plums. That wet-stone note is not poetry; it is the cobblestones talking.

The Site

Funk Estate is the home vineyard of Richard and Anita Funk, the founding family of Saviah Cellars: our Funkadelic literally grows in the Funks' backyard. It sits near the top of the alluvial fan, wall-to-wall dark cobbles, and is farmed and vinified about as old-school as it gets on our side: foot-crushed, fermented native with stems, raised in 100% neutral oak, bottled unfined and unfiltered.

Terroir · Moderating Influences

Identical mechanics to the rest of the Rocks: heat-banking stones, instant drainage, deep roots, amplified here by the site's position at the fan's warm apex. The quadrilateral trellis splits the canopy to control light and airflow and push the vines toward lighter clusters and smaller berries: darker, richer fruit by design.

In the Glass

Seared meat and dark cherry, black olive, smoke, and tobacco spice, driven hard toward the Rocks' smoky, gamey signature by the stone.

The Site

Borderlands is a passion project by two long-time friends who spent their careers growing and making fine wine together; they searched the Rocks for two years before choosing this south-central parcel and planted the great majority of it in 2020. It rounds out our single-vineyard Rocks Syrah set: same stones, three voices.

These are young vines by any measure, which makes what they are already doing remarkable: our 2023 Badlands, essentially third-leaf fruit, scored 97 from International Wine Report.

Terroir · Moderating Influences

The shared Rocks engine: sun-charged basalt radiating heat into the fruit zone, extreme drainage, deep-diving roots, big diurnal swings under clear, dry skies.

In the Glass

Savory and smoky, with black fruit, green olive, bay leaf, and a charcuterie edge over deep Rocks District character.

The Site

Red Mountain is Washington's smallest and warmest marquee AVA, a south-facing slope on the eastern edge of the Yakima Valley, and nearly all of it is spoken for. Our 6 acres of mid-1990s vines are the structural backbone of the flagship reds.

Terroir · Moderating Influences

Heat and wind define the site. Persistent southwest winds thicken skins and suppress disease; hot days and cool nights swing hard. The high-pH caliche crust is essentially natural concrete: roots fight through it, and the struggle concentrates the fruit.

The Yakima River curls around the mountain's base, tempering extremes at the margins, but this remains one of the warmest sites we work with.

In the Glass

Small, thick-skinned berries deliver deep color, copious fine tannin, minerality, and fresh red fruit: the firm spine behind the flagships' structure and decade-plus cellar life.

The Site

WeatherEye is one of the most ambitious vineyard projects in the country, carved into ground atop Red Mountain long considered too steep and rocky to farm.

Native sagebrush, rabbitbrush, and wild lupine are deliberately left growing among the vines, embraced as part of the terroir.

Terroir · Moderating Influences

Everything about the site is stress by design: elevation, wind exposure on the open ridge, bare rock and dune sand, extreme slopes, and micro-block farming that matches trellis and density to each pocket of soil and aspect.

Above the flood line, this is pre-flood geology, a fundamentally different Red Mountain: built to reach full flavor at lower sugars, with longer hang time and cool high-elevation nights locking in freshness.

In the Glass

Intense, lifted Grenache with chalky minerality, dried violets, pepper, and a brambly high-desert sagebrush edge you can genuinely taste.

The Site

Lewis sits at 1,270 ft on a south-facing bench high in the Rattlesnake Hills, one of the longest vineyard relationships in the house, dating to the very first vintages. In certain vintages it becomes The Flip Side, a 100% Lewis Syrah bottled in magnum only.

Terroir · Moderating Influences

Elevation is the moderator: cold nights at altitude lock in acidity while the deep, warm, south-facing loam ripens the fruit fully. The late pick is possible because the site holds its freshness.

In the Glass

A gorgeous, red-fruit-slathered Syrah: freshly picked raspberries and cherries with bacon fat and exotic spice, always with the acidity to carry it.

The Site

French Creek was established in 1980, making these some of the older Chardonnay vines in the state, 40-plus years on their roots at the top of a gentle south slope.

The coolest geological feature sits just below the vineyard in a pasture: a Missoula flood erratic, a boulder rafted in on an iceberg during the Ice Age floods and dropped here when the water drained.

Terroir · Moderating Influences

Old vines on poor, fast-draining loess and caliche self-regulate to tiny yields. The caliche hardpan is the same family of calcium-rich soil behind the steely whites of Chablis, and it drives the wine's tension and wet-stone minerality.

In the Glass

Concentrated, energetic Chardonnay: green apple, Meyer lemon, ripe pear, flinty minerality; elegant and age-worthy.

The Site

Upland is essentially a monopole: its own vineyard occupying the Snipes Mountain AVA. This is the birthplace of Washington wine; William B. Bridgman planted European wine grapes here in 1917, and some of the state's oldest vines still bear fruit on the mountain.

Driving in, you pass dramatic road cuts of river cobbles: an ancient Columbia riverbed lifted into the sky.

Terroir · Moderating Influences

One of the warmest spots in Washington, basking on its south face, perfectly suited to Grenache. The slope drains cold air to the valley floor, protecting against spring frost, while river stones and fast drainage keep yields low and berries concentrated.

In the Glass

Ripe red fruit with a chalky grip: the warm, stony voice inside The Sorceress.

The Site

Blackrock sits just west of Red Mountain on the Yakima Valley's eastern edge, about 50 acres planted from 1998 onward on notably steep slopes. The site performs across a wide spectrum of Bordeaux varieties.

Terroir · Moderating Influences

The neighborhood brings Red Mountain-adjacent warmth and wind with Yakima Valley's big diurnal swings; picked with rosé intent, the fruit keeps bright acidity and delicate red-fruit aromatics.

In the Glass

Pale, coral, bone-dry rosé: white flowers, citrus rind, red cherry, fresh strawberry. The clever patio-pour counterpart to The Magician.

The Site

Elene's Block sits in the heart of the Horse Heaven Hills, the AVA where Washington's first vinifera went in the ground in 1972, in a premier neighborhood directly uphill from Champoux. Though relatively young, it delivers some of the most varietally-correct Cabernet and Cab Franc in the cellar every vintage.

Terroir · Moderating Influences

The Horse Heaven Hills are Washington's wind machine: roughly 30% more wind than any other AVA in the state, funneled off the Columbia. The wind thickens skins, brakes vigor, and all but eliminates disease pressure.

Phinny Hill's inland, higher position runs cooler at night than the river-edge sites, allowing later picks for darker fruit and polished tannin; the gravelly loam drains fast and hard, the same principle behind Bordeaux's Left Bank gravel beds.

In the Glass

Varietally true, evenly ripened Cabernet and Cab Franc with precision and structure: the consistency engine inside our most popular wine.

The Site

Evergreen perches on the ridge above the Columbia near the Gorge Amphitheater, planted by the Milbrandt family beginning in the late 1990s. It is widely considered one of the finest white-wine sites in Washington; its Riesling built the reputation of the Ancient Lakes AVA.

Terroir · Moderating Influences

One of the state's coolest appellations: heat accumulation starts later and tapers sooner, and huge diurnal swings lock acidity in hard. The Columbia below and constant wind along the cliffs moderate and dry the site; the AVA sees only about 6 inches of rain a year.

The caliche is the signature: the same family of calcium-rich soil behind the steely whites of Chablis, and the direct source of the wine's racy, mineral cut.

In the Glass

Bone-dry, racy Riesling: peach blossom, green apple, honeysuckle, a flick of petrol, and a wet-stone mineral finish. Built for Thai, Indian, and BBQ.