The extraordinary natural wine growing conditions in the Columbia Valley have inspired us to make our estate vineyards worthy of their appellation. Our 2,500 acres of estate vineyards immediately surround the winery and are the foundation for our Grand Estates wines. This enables winemaker Doug Gore and his team to visit the vineyards on a daily basis, so they can ensure that our goals for Columbia Crest wines are being achieved not just in the cellar, but in the fields.
Our large estate and riverside location give us a variety of microclimates to work with. The variations in microclimate are determined by different soils deposited by the river, the angle and orientation of riverside slopes, and temperature variations influenced by the river’s proximity to the vines. All of these factors, combined with the Columbia Valley's unique geography and climate, comprise our "terroir" that gives our winemakers distinctive grapes. This in turn means we have a broader range of flavors to select.
Another natural blessing is our position east of the Cascade Mountains, which provide a year-round "rain shadow." As a result, our vineyards naturally receive an average of 300 days of sun a year, and average fewer than 10 inches of rain annually. This means we rarely experience damaging weather during the critical spring weeks when grapevines flower and produce the tiny buds that become grapes. Similarly, nature rarely forces us to adjust our harvest schedule. Instead we can bring in each lot of grapes, from each vineyard, at exactly the right moment.
