Dave Minick’s father Claude, a Vietnam veteran, bought his first nine acres of land in the Yakima Valley in1971. Claude planted his first wine grapes in 1982. His son Dave decided in High School that he wanted to be in the wine business and perhaps be a winemaker. He has been growing wine grapes since he was 15 years old and he made his first wines when he was 28.

Dave and his wife Mandy have three sons, Their oldest, Ben, at age 14 works in the vineyard and is the third generation of Minicks to farm in the Yakima Valley. Today Dave and Claude farm 265 acres in the Yakima Valley AVA, with 200 of it in wine grapes and the balance in apples, and Dave is managing partner and owner of Willow Crest Winery.

The Yakima Valley AVA, the state’s oldest AVA, is undergoing a resurgence of interest and respect due to the success of talented grape growers like Claude and Dave. The vineyard site is exotic for Syrah because it is a high elevation, cool site with super shallow stony soils, which force vines to struggle to grow, building character. These conditions conspire to produce mature, naturally balanced fruit at lower sugar levels with beautiful acidity. This is perhaps the coolest Syrah vineyard in the state that consistently ripens its fruit fully.

Notes on the AlmaTerra block of Syrah at Minick

Planted: 1999
Clones:
Crop level: 3 tons per acre
Irrigation:
Training: Bilateral cordon with vertical shoot positioning
Elevation: 1250 feet
Slope: 5%
Aspect: South
Soils: Burke series formed in thin loess and cataclysmic flood deposits over a cemented hardpan in basalt with a rooting depth of 16 inches or less
Climate: total precipitation in 2006 was 6.2 inches; mean summer temperature 69.2°F
Growing Degree Days in 2006: 2571