Vine & Wine

    As the most planted vinifera grape in WA state, Cab is King. We planted Cabernet Sauvignon here on our property in 1998 and have won multiple awards for our Cabernet, most recently a Double Gold medal at the Winepress NW Platinum judging.   Aside from our own Estate fruit, we source Cabernet Sauvignon from Quintessence Vineyard in Red Mountain and McKinley Springs Vineyard in Horse Heaven Hills.  

A good amount of our Cabernet production is assigned to our Reserve program, giving the wines added complexity and maturity from extra time in the barrel. We also use our Cabernet Sauvignon as the base for some of our more popular red blends, like Homage and Paisan.  Our Bordeaux Club members receive the lion’s share of these wines, and Cliff Club members receive regular selections of our Cabernet Sauvignon as well.

We are a Barbera house, first and foremost, producing several wines made from this Piedmont varietal.  Our passion for Barbera began in 1990 when we planted our Old Barbera vines.  These are some of the very first plantings of Barbera in the Pacific NW and are used to make our Estate Barbera.  We make a Columbia Valley (CV) Barbera, utilizing fruit from select vineyard sites in WA state, as well as a Reserve Barbera which spends extra time in the barrel before bottling.  Red blends and Rosé wines are made from Barbera here.  Finally, there is the “Blood Red” Barbera, a rich, ripe style of Barbera and one of our most popular wines.  Our Barbera wines have won numerous awards and medals, including Gold, Double Gold, Platinum, Double Platinum, Best in Class, and Best of the Best.  To accommodate and control the demand for these wines, we created a wine club – the Barbera Club – where members are guaranteed bottles of these small-production wines every year.  

   Another standout wine for us is our Syrah. We planted Syrah here on our property in 1998 with phylloxera-resistant rootstock and have used this fruit for both single-varietal and blended wines. Our style of Syrah – like most of our red wine – is rich, fruit-forward, and representative of the warm, dry area the fruit is grown in. Aside from our own Estate fruit, we source Syrah from Shaw Vineyard in Red Mountain and Chukar Ridge here in the Gorge.  Our Syrah has been awarded Gold, Double Gold, and Double Platinum (Best of the Best) medals. We introduced our very first “Blood Red Syrah” in 2022, showcasing the intense, sweet fruit that WA state Syrah can provide. Cliff Club members receive regular bottles of our Syrah throughout the year.

One of our most popular wines, Goat Head Red (GHR) is a house red wine that we've been making for decades now.  The blend changes every year, and can include varietals like Tempranillo, Syrah, Barbera, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Dolcetto.   GHR is a light to medium-bodied blend that has soft tannins and tangy, vibrant flavors.  This is a highly versatile wine, well-suited to pair with appetizers, burgers, pizza, you name it.  Of course, it is also the ultimate, casual sipping wine as well.  

Every New Year's day, we send out our annual "Happy New Goat Head Red" online special to our club members, where they can get first crack at this cult favorite for a huge savings.  GHR is part of every Cliff Club allotment.

 We are passionate about both Italian and French varietals, and have a long history with both types of wine.  The marriage of these grapes, then, made perfect sense to us!  Paisan is our "Super Tuscan" style of wine, blending classic Bordeaux varietals like Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot with Sangiovese.  While Cab and Merlot have proven to be the pinnacle of red blends, adding the bright, mouth-watering flavor of Sangiovese to these two other grapes creates a magical wine.  This is a delicious wine at an early age, but ages very well thanks to good amounts of tannin and acid in this blend.  Our Paisan production is typically limited to a few hundred cases, and the majority of it is dedicated to the Cliff Club.   

We have been growing and producing this rarely seen, Piedmont varietal since 1988, introducing and educating the public on the delicious nuances of Nebbiolo.  Our Nebbiolo production is very small and includes single-varietal wine, red blends, Reserve selections, and Rosé wine.  Like our Barbera wine, the Nebbiolo we produce consistently receives high praise and awards from the wine industry and continues to provide a delicious, intriguing wine for the general public.  

Since our Nebbiolo production is so limited, we dedicate most of it to our wine clubs, in particular, the Piedmont Club.  Although this red wine is the lightest color of our red wines, it is one of the best aging wines due to good amounts of tannin and acid.