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Prosser, Washington... page 2
Emerging hub for state's wine industry and tourism
by Susan R. O'Hara, Wines Northwest
June 29, 2006
(Back to page 1)
The Port of Benton's North Prosser
Business Park (Vintner's Village) ...an accidental wine village in the making
The bustle of winery construction projects at the North Prosser Business Park
(now named
Vintner's
Village)
is
dizzying...
telling of
the area's current wine boom and the
momentum behind it. The recent completion of
winery facilities for Thurston-Wolfe
Winery and Willow Crest are just the beginning of what seems
destined to become a pleasant wine village for wine
enthusiasts, designed for
casual pedestrian exploration of 13 wineries... seven within the
soon-to-be-completed Winemaker's Loft and at least six others throughout the Business Park.
(One parcel is still available.)
Three
years ago the Port of Benton was worried. They had invested in a
piece of land for a 245,000-square-foot wine storage warehouse project
that was falling apart. Not only had they
purchased 32 acres of
land just south of Interstate 82, they had also paid to extend roads,
city water and sewer service to it. The Port was worried about how they
would sell the land. Today, they wish they had more. Little
did they know they had a very hot item for the booming wine industry of
Prosser, Washington. (See
page one of Prosser Wine Country feature.)
No sooner did the North Prosser Business Park land go up for sale than a
flurry of interest soothed Port officials' nerves. By fall of the
same year, Dave
Minick of Willow Crest Winery had purchased a parcel and broke ground on
a 5,200-square-foot wine warehouse and production facility, planning to
build a 1,600-square-foot tasting room soon after; Becky Yeaman
and Wade Wolfe of Thurston-Wolfe
Winery also purchased a site for their new winery and tasting
room, and Olsen Brothers, a Prosser farming and grape-growing operation,
bought two parcels for a winery and tasting room. (A
groundbreaking ceremony took place for Olsen Estates winery in spring of
2006).
Within a few weeks,
winemaker Mike Haddox of Grandview broke ground on a two-parcel piece
for his Winemaker's Loft, a wine incubator
with state-of-the-art wine-making equipment that will be shared by seven
boutique wineries, each with independent tasting rooms. Haddox's new
label Michael Florentino
Winery will be one of the seven.
Another local
farming family broke ground in the Business Park in August of 2006 for
its Airfield Estates; the Miller family will open their own winery in
the spring of 2007 to showcase the fruit from their vineyards. The
family farm has been growing and selling wine grapes to many Washington
wineries for about 40 years.
Map created June of 2006
Collaboration between the Port, Prosser Economic Development
Association, County Commissioners, wineries and other local businesses
promise to make the North Prosser Business Park (a new name is being
considered to better describe the wine-centric area) a wine-country
experience to remember... and to re-visit. Engineers at the Port
of Benton have developed a "Pathway Project" that will install a
meandering, lighted pathway throughout the park that will encourage
strolling from winery to winery, picnicking, enjoying the park-like
setting and its gardens or just plain
relaxing. Yellow Rose Nursery, easternmost property of the
Park, and Susan Bunnell of Bunnell Family Cellar are collaborating on
gardens and landscaping for the 32-acre site.
Scheduled
for completion this year on North Prosser Business Park land are
wineries for Olsen Brothers Vineyards (Olsen Estates),
Milbrandt Vineyards and
The Winemaker's Loft.
Bunnell Family Cellar has secured land, but a construction date has
not been announced yet.
The Winemaker's Loft is
nearing completion in the
Port of Benson’s North Prosser Business Park
and will become a kind of incubator for seven
wineries, including space for its owner Mike Haddox. The
Tuscan-styled "winemaking studio," as Haddox calls it, will provide an
environment for like-minded winemakers with common goals and
state-of-the-art equipment at their disposal... "a true winemaking
community." Haddox is excited about the camaraderie that is bound
to develop between winemakers using The Loft.
This is not a new
concept in long-established wine regions, but it is definitely new to
the emerging and expanding wine industry of Washington State and the
Yakima Valley. Haddox has been approached by people in Yakima
regarding the construction of a similar set up there. Talk about
an idea whose time has come...
The more than 10,000 square feet of The Winemaker's Loft will be divided
into a shared 4,200-square-feet central section and six studios of 1,000
square feet each; the studios are in turn divided into
a
tasting room at the front and a barrel and storage room in the back.
A 1,000 gallon stainless steel tank is provided for each studio to use
for fermenting, racking, blending or bottling, and two of the
more-than-a-dozen, 500-gallon "variable capacity" tanks in the central
room are assigned to each studio winemaker, one for red and one for
white grapes. All totaled, each studio winemaker has enough
equipment to produce approximately 1,000 cases.
The central room of the Winemaker's Loft will serve several functions;
it will house Haddox's Michael Florentino Winery tasting room, more than
a dozen stainless steel tanks, a banquet room, a barrel room and storage
space. It will also allow Mike to share space with winemakers not
needing a full studio to produce very small amounts of wine, including
novice winemakers.
"All they need to provide," explains Haddox, "is the fruit and the
barrels. They'll find all the state-of-the-art tools they need to
produce ultra premium wines, and studio winemakers will also have retail
space to sell their wines to consumers."
Canyons Edge Winery and two others not ready to publish their names,
will be occupying studios and pouring wines from their individual
tasting rooms. Other labels lined up for small production at The
Loft are Martinez Family Vineyards, WyndStone Cellars, Kitzke Wines and Preston Family Cellars.
"The back of the
building will be ready for this year's crush (2006)," reports Haddox,
"and the front part will be completed by Thanksgiving.:
Grand Opening
of The Winemaker's Loft is planned for Friday, Saturday and Sunday of
the upcoming Thanksgiving Weekend.
Olsen
Estates is bound to wow the wine world when the new winery
(scheduled for completion in time for this year's crush)
releases its first wines in mid-2007 -- wines from the 2005
vintage, currently in barrel, that will introduce Olsen Estates'
top-tier of Rhone-style and Bordeaux-style red-blended wines
made by top-drawer winemaker, Ron Bunnell, recently retired as
winemaker at Chateau Ste. Michelle in Woodinville, Washington.
A second tier of Olsen Estates wines will be released later and
will include single varietal wines from grapes grown on the family's
800-acre vineyard located in the east end of the Yakima Valley, north of
Benton City and across the Yakima River from the Red Mountain
appellation.
What will make Olsen Estates' new wines
so special? Only the finest grapes from the long-established Olsen
Vineyards will be used.
While the Olsen Estates winery will be new to the group of
wineries setting up business in the North Prosser Business Park,
there is nothing new about the source of its grapes nor the
involvement of the principles in Washington's wine industry.
In
fact, Dick Olsen was one of the founding members of the
Washington Wine Commission.
Dick and Larry Olsen started growing wine grapes in 1979 with
the "obligatory planting of white Riesling."
They now tend 19 varietals at Olsen Vineyards,
some of which are now among the oldest vines used in Yakima
Valley wines.
Growing
grapes was a natural for the Olsen brothers; they were following in
the footsteps of their Grandpa Martin, who started
growing grapes at the turn of the century, and their father
Ralph Olsen, who grew grapes in the Sunnyside area of the
Valley, Dick and Larry
The idea of
producing wines from the best of their own grapes was born when Dick and
Larry started thinking... "wouldn't it be fun to have a winery."
"Grandpa Martin started making wine on the doctor's orders,"
explains Dick Olsen. " Grandma had rheumatic fever in the
mid 20s during the Prohibition era. Her doctor suggested
Grandpa
make some wine and have her drink it a couple of time a day.
Dad spent lots of time reading about wine. When we
decided to plant grapes, he started making wine… in the
basement… Riesling, Chardonnay, Merlot, then Cabernet
Sauvignon."
Today, Dick Olsen is hopeful their new full-functioning winery, its wines
and its tasting room will
make Olsen Estates a destination for wine travelers.
The
winery's tasting room will be completed by the end of 2006
and open to the public in the
spring of 2007.
Milbrandt Vineyards' winery is a
natural as a new winery at the Port of Benton's North Prosser
Business Park. The Milbrandt family has been growing
premium wine grapes for almost 10 years on about 500
vineyard acres of the Wahluke Slope and another 500 in the north
Columbia Valley, near George, Washington; their winemaker Gordy Hill has been producing Washington wines for the family's Wahluke
Wine Company on Wahluke Slope, a custom-crush facility where
bulk wine is made for growers and other wineries.
Construction of the Milbrandt Vineyards' winery will
begin in the North Prosser Business Park this November, and the
Milbrandts anticipate opening their tasting room on a
daily basis April 1, 2007. The new building will feature a
cave-like cellar that will include a dining room for dinners and
special events. Its barrel room will be glassed off from
the tasting room to allow easy viewing from the tasting room,
where visitors will find a fire place and overstuffed chairs
that invite relaxation. A fire pit outside with seating on
the patio will invite outdoor wine sipping and picnic use.
Parking for 40 cars will be provided with enough space to
accommodate bus tours and limo parking. A greenbelt, park-like
setting is planned between the Milbrandt Vineyards location and
the neighboring winery in the wine-centric North Prosser
Business Center.
Milbrandt
Vineyards will release its first white wines - a Chardonnay, an
unoaked Chardonnay, a Riesling and a Pinot Gris - from the 2006
vintage in the spring of 2007; the first release of its
reds from the 2005 vintage in the fall of 2007, including a Rosé
of Sangiovese, a Cabernet Sauvignon, a Merlot and a Syrah.
