Washington State is a place that vibrantly shows us at every glance the evidence of the geologic cataclysms that shaped its landscapes. Ice-Age and tectonic geologic events here have forged places so powerful and evocative that they resonate forward from 15,000 years ago to us today! These landscapes create vineyard terroirs that make Washington State unique in the world of wine.

Terroir is a term from the French to describe the complex interplay of climate, soils, and geology, which, when matched with viticultural practices that are in harmony with the potential of the vineyard, creates wine grapes and wines of special character and quality. Put another way, ‘terroir is the ability to stand in a special vineyard and feel the magic of that place and know that it is witnessed in the wine’. There is no other fruit, no other drink, no other food that we care more about its place of origin than wine.

The vineyard terroirs of Washington State were born of primal earth forces: Earth, Fire, Water, and Air. Primal Force Earth: bedrock formed from dozens of ancient lava flows laid open and raw by Ice-Age forces, forming the foundation for vineyard terroirs. Fire: vineyards virtually astride one of earth’s great volcanic mountain chains, the Cascade Range, resulting from the collision of tectonic plates. Water: the largest floods ever recorded on earth unleashed from glacier-impounded lakes, sculpting a landscape like no other on earth. Air: unrelenting gales of the millennia spreading sand and silt on the wind to form the rooting zone of many of our vineyard soils.