Our vineyard is the result of some diligent searching and just plain getting lost.  Kathy and I had been looking for suitable property for a vineyard for some time, and hadn’t found anything that spoke to us.  We had a pretty sound idea of the grapes and styles we wanted to feature, and finding the ideal piece of property to satisfy all those parameters was a tall order. 

In 2001, we were driving around south of Wenatchee, showing my mom and dad, who were visiting at the time, some of the sights in the area.  We had an idea of where we wanted to get to, but because we were gawking and talking, we ended up lost.  We turned down a county road towards the river, and saw a kind of beat up sign about 20 acre parcels.   We drove down the road, and when we drove over a small rise, we both knew we had found it.  We visited the property frequently during the following months, and when we had spent enough time to get a feel for the sun exposures, temperatures and air movements, we decided we should get to work. 

We purchased the property before there was electricity or water, and planted the first 1,000 grapes with shovels, and 55 gallon water barrels in the back of the pickup, and watered them and the next thousand grapes by siphoning from the barrels. 

Friends had told us that not many grapes would make it at our altitude of 1765’.  Because of that, we planted 9 varieties, thinking that we would pick the 2 or 3 best ones.  As luck would have it, they all flourished, and the new wines we made from them were full of promise.  The rest is history, as they say.  We now have about 5.5 acres planted from which we get most of our grapes. 

- Al Mathews