Red Willow Vineyards
The drive to Red Willow Vineyard in Washington’s Yakima Valley takes you to what feels like the end of the Earth. You head out on West Wapato Road and drive until it feels like Mt. Adams is right before you. The mountain gets bigger and bigger.
You are at the farthest west of the vineyards in the Yakima Valley. It felt like I had driven forever and was getting a bit concerned. Getting a signal out here is difficult, so be warned. I stared at each passing sign to be sure I didn’t miss the road to turn on. At last, I found the road and made the turn.
Red Willow Vineyard is legendary when it comes to Washington Vineyards. The Hudson’s Bay Company planted the first grapes at Fort Vancouver in 1825. Wine grapes followed the early French, Italian, and German settlers. Irrigation arrived in the Eastern part of the state in the early 1900s, meaning this desert region on the east side of the Cascades could begin to grow. Vineyards began to pop up in the Walla Walla and Yakima Valleys. Then, of course, came Prohibition.
Dr. Walter J. Clore arrived in Washington in 1934. He studied horticulture at Washington State College and then was hired to teach at the WSU Irrigated Agriculture Research Extension Center in Prosser, WA. With the ability to irrigate, Washington learned to grow fruits and vegetables. He met W.B. Bridgman, who had a vineyard planted to Vitis vinifera.
Dr. Walter Clore took cuttings to establish a block to study in Prosser, Washington. Eventually, he would start testing blocks from these vines around the state, working with growers to test for issues with climate, soil, wind, etc. He shared this collected information with the growers, building a database of research and determining that vinifera grapes could indeed grow in this region.
One of these test sites was Red Willow Vineyard. Mike Sauer worked with Dr. Clore to plant an experimental block of 20 varieties in 1972-73 and mounted a weather station.
In 1979, they named David Lake, MW, their winemaker, a job he held until 2006. David Lake was Canadian but had worked in the wine trade in Britain before coming to America. He worked at Eyrie in the Willamette Valley, Oregon, before joining Associated Vintners, based in Seattle. It was this same year that he met Mike Sauer. He released Washington’s first vineyard-designated wines in 1981; all were Cabernets from Sagemoor, Otis, and Red Willow Vineyards.
He was known to motivate growers and share his knowledge. David Lake encouraged Mike Sauer to plant Syrah, the variety that Red Willow is perhaps best known for today. This humble vineyard is one of the great vineyards in Washington State, and some legendary names in Washington Wine helped it form. Now you have a bit of background.
In 1992, after visiting the vineyards of Northern Italy and the Chianti region, Mike returned home impressed with the identity assigned to each small vineyard and the importance given to the slope and direction of the hill. Given varieties were planted on specific slopes. Inspired by this trip to Italy and the death of a longtime friend, Monsignor Mulcahy, plans were made to develop some of the last and most difficult acres and to build a stone chapel honoring the memory of the Monsignor.
The hilltop chapel, built with stones from the farm, took three years to complete. Planting the hillsides around the chapel started in 1993 and was completed in 1997, with most of the vines being Syrah or Viognier. This chapel would become the focal point of tours and photography, yet more than this, it gives an identity to the site.
The Red Willow Chapel sits on a hill with aspects on all sides. The fruit on the west slope is intense, dark, and tannic. With its windblown soil, the wine on the east slope has more perfume, giving it elegance. This is a significant difference in fruit.
The Chapel block is 100% Syrah, which is how it got its Chapel, reminiscent of the famous Chapel in Hermitage in France, where some of the most famous Syrah on the planet grows. The entire Chapel Hill is broken into Syrah, Sangiovese, and Viognier. Mike Sauer planted the Viognier to go with the Syrah. In the Northern area, the two grapes are often blended or co-fermented, so it seemed appropriate to mix in a little of that. When they were planting the Viognier, they looked to France for inspiration.
Each row has a tag on the end with a winery name. They sell fruit by the acre, not the ton, so the winemakers can drop fruit as they want. It might make the fruit more expensive, but the winemaker has the choice. The blocks have tall signs telling you what variety the grape is and the year it was planted.
Mike Sauer
Red Willow is part of a fourth-generation family farm established by Clyde Stephenson in the early 1920s. Mike Sauer married into the Stephenson family and began the vineyard in the early 1970s. Today, Mike, sons Daniel and Jonathan, and son-in-law Rick are all involved with maintaining the continuity of the family farm. I'm sure there will be more generations to follow.
Today, Red Willow supplies fruit to over 25 wineries in Washington and Oregon. These wineries include Barrage Cellars, Eight Bells, Kerloo Cellars, Lady Hill, Mark Ryan, Owen Roe, Structure Cellars, and William Church.