Topic: Wine
Allen Shoup (1943-2022) played a leading role in developing Washington’s wine industry as the longtime head of the state’s biggest winery, Chateau Ste. Michelle, and later as the owner of ...
The dynamic married team of Kay Simon and Clay Mackey founded Chinook Wines in the Yakima Valley. Both grew up in California, Simon on a small farm where her father made a bit of wine, and Mackey on a...
Rick Small (b. 1947) is a pioneer Walla Walla Valley winemaker whose Woodward Canyon Winery and Estate Vineyard helped usher in a Walla Walla wine boom. He was raised on his family’s wheat farm ...
Kent Waliser’s passion for the wine industry didn’t begin right away. In fact, he spent most of the first 50 years of his life growing apples and cherries. But after a series of life chang...
Alex Golitzin (b. 1939) and son Paul Golitzin (b. 1970) have been central figures in bringing national and international recognition to Washington wines. They are owners and operators of Quilceda Cree...
Allen Shoup (1943-2022) was a Washington wine industry pioneer who helped create a national market for Washington wines, and for Chateau Ste. Michelle wines in particular. Shoup was a top business exe...
Bob Betz (b. 1948) grew up in Seattle's Wallingford neighborhood with designs on becoming a doctor. When that didn't work out, he transitioned quickly to find his calling in the wine industry. He and ...
Doug Gore (b. 1952) helped to lay the groundwork for establishing Washington red wines not only in the nation but on a global scale. He began as the assistant winemaker at Chateau Ste. Michelle in 198...
Gary Figgins (b. 1948) was the founder and winemaker of Leonetti Cellar, the first winery in Walla Walla and widely considered one of its best. Figgins gained instant fame in 1982 when his 1978 Leonet...
Jerry Bookwalter (1940-2023) was a pioneer wine grower and winemaker from Richland who began his wine career in 1976 as the general manager of Sagemoor Farms on the Columbia River just north of the Tr...
California native Jim Holmes (b. 1936) moved to the Pacific Northwest in 1959 to work as a scientist at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in Eastern Washington. In 1972, he and fellow engineer John Will...
Three generations of the Williams family have presided over the growth of Kiona Vineyards into one of Washington's leading growers and wineries. The venture began with an investment by John Williams (...
Joy Andersen (b. 1957) was born in Pocatello, Idaho, where she lived for 15 years before the family moved to Snohomish. After graduating from Snohomish High School, Joy attended the University of Wash...
Kay Simon (b. 1953) and Clay Mackey (b. 1949) grew up on farms in California and studied at the University of California at Davis, but it wasn't until both were employed by Chateau Ste. Michelle in Wa...
After a long career in the tree-fruit business, Kent Waliser (b. 1952) has spent more than two decades contributing his knowledge to the Washington wine industry. Starting out in 2002 as the...
Since 1989, Martin "Marty" Clubb has been the co-owner and managing winemaker of the L’Ecole No 41 winery in Lowden, just west of Walla Walla. He and his wife Megan took over the operation ...
Mike Hogue (b. 1944) is one of Washington’s pioneer wine growers and the force behind Hogue Cellars, one of the state's earliest wineries, and later one of its biggest and best-known. Hogue grew...
After more than 40 years in the wine industry, Mike Januik (b. 1952) can safely say he has experienced most aspects of the business. His first exposure to fermentation was making homemade wine with ro...
Mike Sauer (b. 1947) was a farm boy from Toppenish who became the founder and guiding force behind Red Willow Vineyard, near Wapato and White Swan in the Yakima Valley. He graduated from Washington St...
In the annals of Washington wine, Norm McKibben (b. 1936) was both late to the party and early to the party. McKibben had worked as an engineer for more than 25 years and was approaching his 50th birt...
After meeting at Chateau Ste. Michelle in the early 1980s, Paul (b. 1949) and Judy (b. 1951) Champoux got married and embarked on the vineyard journey of a lifetime. They began by leasing the historic...
Richard Lewis (Rick) Small (b. 1947) grew up on a wheat farm northwest of Walla Walla and went on to become one of the founding fathers of the Walla Walla wine industry. He began his wine career by pl...
Rob Griffin (b. 1953) oversaw his first Washington wine harvest in 1977 and went on to become the longest-tenured winemaker in the state. After 45 grape harvests, he was still going strong as owner an...
Ron Irvine has been active in the Washington wine industry since 1975, when he co-founded the Pike and Western Wine Shop in Seattle's Pike Place Market. In the 1990s Irvine turned to researching and w...