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Featured NW Winery - Terra Blanca Vineyards

© Eric Cook

Vintage often dictates the readiness of a wine and for that reason, wineries which can hold the wines until they are ready will always end up displaying their best when they do get to be released for sale. Not every winery can do this, but it is part of what makes Terra Blanca's wine caves so valuable. The caves, dug into one of the hillsides near Red Mountain, are a unique feature to Washington's wine landscape and among the largest caves on the West Coast, holding up to 1000 barrels of wine! (about 15,000 cases...)

Keith Pilgrim and his wife have always had a penchant for the land that supported them. Keith started with a degree from the University of California at Davis in enology, viticulture and geology. From there, he and his wife began a dream of starting a winery that had, at its foundation, a sense of "terroir".

Terroir is the situation of the vineyard in terms of sun exposure, wind exposure, soil composition, water drainage, grape choice and a couple of others. With Keith's degree in geology and after a few years researching vineyard sites up and down the West Coast, they decided to live their dream on Red Mountain, near Benton City. Red mountain is composed of calcareous soils which give it a whiter appearance, hence the name of the winery, yet the name of the mountain comes from the color of the grass which proliferates there. The Pilgrims purchased 300 acres, planted 50 of them immediately and by 1997 got their first estate-grown grapes.

Red Mountain has gained a lion's share of national recognition of late since its grape growers have produced some of the most intensely flavorful wines coming out of Washington.

Scott Williams of nearby Kiona said he knew he could get outstanding produce from the area as the sagebrush he had to plow under was over 6 feet tall! Red mountain is currently poised to become Washington State's next American Viticultural Area, or AVA, as its soil and situation produce unique, deeply flavored Cabernets, Merlots, Syrahs and others. Many of the famous Walla Walla wineries get all or most of their fruit from this proposed appellation.

From what we can tell, Terra Blanca's caves are paying off as their 1995 Cabernet finished in the top three of a public wine tasting in July. The wine was medium to full-bodied with warm, jammy flavors of cassis and dark toasted berries. Tighter and acidic at first, it evolved well over the next 2 hours. Reminiscent of some of the finest cabernets produced in the world, this wine definitely shows off better with age.

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