Our Vineyards
Roche Moutonnée
About 14,000 years ago, two lobes of the continental ice sheet met at our very vineyard. One of them came down the Chelan valley and the other curled around from the Columbia Valley to the south and east. This is why the Chelan AVA has unique granite-based soils while the rest of the Columbia Valley is basalt-based. These ice flows also formed unique geological rock formations in the valley called roches moutonnées which are found throughout our property. These rocks were thought to resemble the wigs that were fashionable amongst French gentry in the 18th century. The wigs were smoothed over with mutton fat (hence moutonnée) to keep the hair in place.
The Roche Moutonnée vineyard faces south and has a 20% slope. Our rows are aligned 20 degrees west of south which is ideal for capturing just the right amount of Eastern Washington sunshine. Our soil is classified as Antillon Sandy Loam. It is a gravelly sandy loam with large amounts of pumice; a volcanic rock left over from a massive eruption of Glacier Peak (40 miles west) about 13000 years ago.
Roche Moutonnée vineyard is planted with Syrah (clones 877, 470 and JP), Cabernet Franc (clone 214), Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon.
Las Solanas
Situated on the north shore on the site of an old apple orchard, we named this vineyard the “sunny spot”. The rows face south, and it receives the full force of Chelan’s over 300 days of annual sunshine. It has well-drained, gravelly Chelan sandy loam formed from loess, volcanic ash and pumice with 25% slopes. This soil, heavily influenced by glaciation and volcanic activity is the most common in the Chelan AVA
We have Merlot (Clones 181) and Tempranillo (Clone 5/242) planted with Albarino on its way. The earlier ripening Tempranillo clone 5/242 is often called Tinta del País in Spain and was developed in the Ribera del Duero in the Castilla y León region of north-central Spain. The continental climate here in the Lake Chelan AVA resembles that of Ribera del Duero in the summer more than any other major wine growing area in the world. In Ribera del Duero, they say, “9 months of winter and 3 months of hell” to describe the region’s extremely hot (and shorter) growing season. Sound like anywhere you know?