Explore a dozen wineries in Prosser’s Vintner’s Village, where splendid tasting rooms abound in a wine country setting.
Vintner’s Village, a nucleus of wineries in Prosser, is like a connect-the-dots or six degrees of separation: longtime farmers turned grapegrowers turned winemakers is the dominant storyline.
“The wineries here represent the evolution of the wine industry, the relationship of winemaking with agriculture,” says Vintner’s Village resident Dr. Wade Wolfe of Thurston Wolfe Winery. Most producers in The Village have been growing grapes for decades, have been farming other crops longer, and represent generations of families in the area inextricably linked through agriculture.
The 32-acre Village exults a dozen wineries and tasting rooms sans swagger, with an uncommon camaraderie. Though The Village is relatively new—the first tasting room opened in late 2006—it’s anchored by some of the oldest, most established producers in Washington State with a handful of exciting upstarts in the mix.
The brainchild of the Port of Benton, The Village provides both estate and non-estate wineries equal ground, while providing eager wine enthusiasts an easy-access venue with plenty of choices. Each building is individually owned and designed, giving each tasting room a distinct personality, and a landscaped walking path connects them together. So, regardless of where you begin your tasting adventure, you can easily experience this loop on foot or by auto.
Thurston Wolfe
The first to open a winery to the public in The Village was Dr. Wade Wolfe of Thurston Wolfe in 2006. Wolfe, who started the winery back in 1987 with his wife Rebecca Yeaman, didn’t want to emulate Tuscan architecture, the old world. “We wanted something that represented the Washington wine industry, which is new and dynamic, and something technologically savvy that reflects the modernity of our industry. So we developed a style we call industrial modern.”
And of course, there’s the wine.
“If you are a retail room oriented winery, you have visitors come in with a wide range of wine preferences,” says Wolfe. “For a small winery, we make a pretty diverse selection of wines.”
In addition to vineyard and varietal designates, Thurston Wolfe puts together some unlikely but best-selling blends, including Dr. Wolfe’s Family Red, a blend of Primitivo, Cabernet Sauvignon, Petite Syrah, and Lemberger. There’s also the PGV, a Pinot Gris and Viognier blend. The winery is also one of a handful of Washington producers with a Zinfandel, and Port with unusual varietals.
“I think the goal of the wineries here is to be informative, because part of tasting is education, not only about your wines but the growing area, the climate, what makes this valley the premium wine area that it is, and how that contributes to the character of the wines that you make,” says Wolfe.
Initially, most vineyards in the area sold fruit to wineries elsewhere, where it would “just disappear into a giant blend,” adds Wolfe.
Airfield Estates
Airfield Estates amicable owner Mike Miller has been growing grapes in the area since 1968 and started selling fruit to Chateau Ste. Michelle back in 1971. Now, they also use their fruit (an astounding 26 varietals) in their own line-up of wines dominated by blends crafted to express their own fruit. With names like Spitfire, a super Tuscan blend, Mustang, a Rhone style blend, and Hellcat, a Tempranillo based blend, the winery makes clever use of the family vineyard’s history as a WWII airbase. The tasting room replicates a vintage airplane hanger and displays an original military strategy planning map on the top of the coffee table.
People come in and ask to see “the secret room,” says winemaker Marcus Miller. Behind a frosted glass door in the back is the Officer’s Club Room, a dimly lit space with bottles displayed on glass shelves, draped in their own medals of honor. A chandelier of tiered, upside down wine glasses illuminates a 45-foot-tall tower, a replica of the water tower from the original farm. The Officer’s Club Room is reserved for wine club members and private tastings, but is also available for meetings and birthday parties.
Their success has spread to western Washington where they opened a second tasting room in the Hollywood Schoolhouse District of Woodinville last spring.
Willow Crest
Next door to Airfield Estates is Willow Crest Winery. Winemaker Dave Minick is another long-time grape grower. The family planted grapes on their Roza farm in 1982 and he was anxious to try his hand at his own brand.
On a recent visit to The Village, I met Dave Warden and his partner Jennifer Quednau, a wine savvy couple visiting from Los Angeles eager to taste Minick’s wines. They specifically selected Vintner’s Village as their wine destination, and were sold on the concept of The Village after spending days seeking out more remote wineries, only to find them closed for tasting.
The couple commented, “You can see the vines from the road, but if you can’t find the guy who’s going to let you taste the wine, what good does it do? At Vintner’s Village, there’s a little bit of pageantry, a little bit of class and a little bit of elegance, or it can be wild and weird, but it’s flavor. Not flavor beyond the wine but the flavor of the label and what they’re into. There’s a more cohesive vision between the brand and the flavor of the wine.” They also liked that several of the wineries offer food, and enjoyed noshing on a cheese plate while sampling Willow Crest’s wines.
Though Warden and Quednau were familiar with Willow Crest’s reputation for outstanding Pinot Gris and Syrah, they spent the additional five dollars to sample limited production wines including stand-outs Grenache, Mourvédre, and the Malbec (only 30 cases were made of the current release.) When they walked out with a mixed case of those, I knew it was worth it.
Milbrandt Vineyards
Milbrandt Vineyards’ story is another of farmer-turned-grape-grower turned wine producer. The Milbrandt family had been growing crops in the area for half a century, before planting their first vines in 1997. With brothers Butch and Jerry Milbrandt at the helm, “we’ve got 13 completely different estate vineyards and 1600 acres of grapes,” said viticulturalist Dustin Tobin, who came into the tasting room while taking a break from working Milbrandt’s vineyards on the Wahluke slope. “We sell grapes to a lot of people,” says Tobin, indicating the Milbrandt’s strength as growers, “but it’s great that they started making their own wine from their own fruit.”
So, after selling grapes for 10 years, Butch and Jerry brought on veteran winemaker Gordy Hill and the Milbrandt brand was launched. Fan favorites include the Estates Merlot, the Estates Late Harvest Riesling, the Malbec, and the Sentinel, a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Petit Verdot, Malbec, and Petite Syrah. Some wines are only available to taste through the Reserve Tasting for an additional five dollars, which often includes food pairing. In fact, the winery offers a Piazza Menu; a selection of cheese plates, anitpasto salads, and sandwiches available in the tasting room or on the patio, which has an outdoor fireplace and plenty of seating, even a traditional belltower.
Gamache Vintners
A contrast to some of the more blend-driven wineries in The Village is Gamache Vintners, who focuses predominantly on putting 100 percent of the varietal from their estate vineyard in the bottle. The combination of the pure varietal from one’s estate vineyard is uncommon in Washington state. Yet the other part of their story is a familiar one.
“We were vineyardists first,” Cris Gamache makes sure to tell tasters, with the philosophy that great wines start with great fruit. Her husband Bob and his brother Roger Gamache founded the vineyard in 1982, and after years of selling all their fruit to some of the top producers in the state, they wanted the chance to work with their own label. The results have been impressive.
The building, designed by renowned architect Deborah Tate, is a head turner itself. “We wanted something to capture the amazing light here,” says Cris. The contemporary construction, with oversized windows, opens out to a patio with a front row view of Horse Heaven Hills.
WINEMAKERS LOFT
Next on the path comes the Winemakers Loft. Wander inside a European style courtyard past a flowing three-tiered fountain to discover five distinctive wineries, each with their own separate tasting room. The wineries include Apex Cellars, Canyon’s Edge Winery, Coyote Canyon Winery, Maison Bleue, and Martinez & Martinez. Every Saturday during the summer months, the Winemakers Loft presents “Lounging at the Loft,” a concert series featuring live music and food in the courtyard.
Apex Cellars
Editor’s update: Apex Cellars has since moved
The artisan winery residents of the Winemakers Loft share a production facility with the exception of Apex Cellars, which makes their wines elsewhere, and occupies an enviable 3,000 square-foot tasting room through the center of The Loft’s tiled courtyard. Apex offers an astounding number of wines from lines differing in style and price point: Bridgeman, Apex, Apex II, and Washington Hills. Of note under the Apex label are hard to find sparkling wines: a brut, a red, and a Riesling. Fans of former Apex winemaker Brian Carter (now of Brian Carter Cellars in Woodinville) will be delighted to know the tasting room has library wines of his available for purchase.
Coyote Canyon Winery
Also in the Loft is Coyote Canyon Winery. The relaxed atmosphere, guided by warm colors, southwest rugs, and chocolate brown leather bar stools make a wine taster feel as if they’ve come in from a long horseback ride in need of a good red wine. There’s plenty of that to be found in Mike Andrews’ winery, not to mention a quick-to-sell-out Albarino, among other whites. His family history goes several generations back, and Andrews has made a name for himself with Coyote Canyon Vineyard, which provides fruit to a number of award-winning producers. He gives homage to his roots with black and white photos on the wall, including those of Andrews’ grandfather’s wheat farming in the area, and his father, Robert Andrews, being lauded as Cattleman of the Year.
Maison Bleue
Editor’s update: Maison Blueu Winery has since moved
Although Maison Bleue owner & winemaker Jon Martinez holds a Doctorate degree and practiced dentistry in the Kansas City area for several years, his passion for wine and vineyards eventually won over while helping a friend start an urban winery there. Serious about learning all he could, he completed numerous viticulture and enology courses through Missouri State, UC Davis, Virginia Tech University and WSU’s Professional Enology Certificate Program.
Two years ago, he and his wife purchased 21 acres of land in the Yakima Valley and he founded Maison Bleue Family Winery. Martinez focuses on Rhone varieties such as Grenache, Syrah, Roussanne and Viognier, as well as Chardonnay. He uses traditional winemaking techniques including gentle handling of the grapes and a modest use of French oak.
Martinez & Martinez
Norteno music (folk ballads from Northern Mexico) flows from Martinez & Martinez and a painting behind the tasting bar depicts Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead).
Farmworker turned winery owner, Sergio Martinez, planted a vineyard nearly 30 years ago in the renowned Phinney Hill section of the Horse Heaven Hills AVA. People thought he was loco; grapes were a minority crop then. Years later, with the encouragement of his son Andrew and his wife Monica, the Martinez families run the second Hispanic-owned winery in the state, and rely on the energy generated by The Loft.
“We live 35 miles from here,” says Sergio’s wife Kristy, referring to their estate vineyard. “If we put a tasting room out there, who’s going to come? The coyotes and rattlesnakes?” Instead, the 800-case winery at The Loft draws crowds with their Rosé of Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon among other wines.
Wine O’Clock Wine Bar
Susan and Ron Bunnell are the hands-on owners and winemakers of Bunnell Family Cellar, and RiverAerie, named after the family farm. The Bunnell’s wanted to do something different, and that evolved into their wine bar and restaurant, Wine O’Clock, which sits smack dab in the midst of Vintner’s Village.
“We were initially thinking cheese plate, antipasto plate, flatbread. That was going to be it,” says Susan laughing. Of course, it’s more than that now.” She says this while presenting a plate of bruschetta with goat cheese and Parisian Gray melon from a nearby garden bed, topped with a drizzle of lavender honey (the honey is infused with lavender from the garden). Next up was crab cakes with a citrus avocado salad and ponzu-ginger vinaigrette, sublime with a custom flight of Pinot Gris, Viognier and Grenache. Another favorite that evening: Salumi of Seattle pizza with mole salami, sweet onion, fresh mozzarella and bantam eggs, paired with a spicy Mourvèdre.
Susan is a master gardener, and has a winery and culinary background working with such names as Domaine Chandon and Chateau Souverain in the Napa Valley, where she worked with Gary Danko, notable San Francisco chef and restaurateur. She uses herbs and vegetables from the raised beds on the property and home garden to create original dishes with a hands-on feel, and almost everything is cooked in the wood fired oven. Though Wine O’Clock has become a destination eatery for Prosser and beyond, in the end, the Bunnell’s want the restaurant to be a platform for the wines.
With a raised glass, Susan echoes the sentiment of so many Vintners Village neighbors. “These are my grapes when they haven’t been blended into somebody elses. These are my grapes at their very best.”
Written by Kirsten Telander
VISIT PROSSER’S VINTNER’S VILLAGE
100 Merlot Dr, Prosser WA 99350
Airfield Estates
Gamache Vintners
Milbrandt Vineyards
Thurston Wolfe
Willow Crest Winery
Wine O’Clock Wine Bar
The Bunnell Family Cellar
RiverAerie Wines by Bunnell Family Cellar
WINEMAKERS LOFT at Vintner’s Village:
Coyote Canyon Winery
McKinley Springs Winery
Martinez & Martinez
VISITOR INFO: Prosser Chamber of Commerce, ph: 800-408-1517