At Kiona, our 240 acres are under vine, and my dad and I helped farm it all.” “People here built something from nothing. Guests can also book stays at wine-themed boutique hotels such as The Lodge at Columbia Point in Richland or bed and breakfasts set in the rural heart of desert wine country.Īs Tri-Cities vineyards spread across the landscape, replacing fruit farmland or taking over what was once stretches of empty desert, JJ Williams says a tenacious Western frontiersman spirit has made a difference. Horseback riding is another way to visit the area’s tasting rooms. Water2Wine Cruises combines wine tasting and a smooth cruise down the Columbia River. There is a choice of fine wine restaurants known for locally inspired menus including The Kitchen at Barnard Griffin Winery, Taverna Tagaris and Fiction at J. To keep up with the growth, the center promotes more than 80 wine tourism activities, a figure that has doubled since last year.Īrea visitors can sip wines at stylish and rustic tasting rooms set off charming dirt roads including Goose Ridge Estate Vineyard & Winery, Kitzke Cellars and Hightower Cellars. The Clore Center, which serves as a starting point for travelers exploring the area’s scenic wine trails that run along a vast landscape of beige, camelback hills flush with vineyards, welcomed 17,000 winery visitors last year, nearly double the number of guests passing through its doors when it opened in 2014. There are 200 wineries within a 50-mile radius, according to Visit Tri-Cities.

“The scenery is uniquely beautiful, but wine tasting here also means experiencing premium wines at a great value,” Cameron says. “Washington state has the potential to have more premium grapes than California and there’s more to come,” says Abbey Cameron, who is director at the Walter Clore Wine and Culinary Center, a modern tasting room and industry meeting place. Temperatures, soil and rainfall make Washington's Tri-Cities area ideal for wine production. Tri-Cities winemakers say they work with ideal temperatures and rainfall and the right soil conditions to produce intense fruit. What sets Washington apart is that it shares the same latitude as the world-famous Burgundy and Bordeaux regions of France. Washington’s 60,000 acres of vineyard land have the potential to expand to 200,000 acres of premium wine grapes within the next two decades, according to estimates from Ste. What stands out today are tiny islands of brown. “My brother and I rode our bikes through this sea of dusty brown with tiny islands of green. Today, the Tri-Cities area – Richland, Kennewick and Pasco – has reinvented itself as one of the premier wine growing-regions in the United States and a fast-growing travel hub for wine lovers. Today, three generations of his family are at the helm of the successful Kiona Vineyards just outside of the Tri-Cities, a desert region east of Seattle and well past the Cascade Mountains where dry, flattened hilltops peppered with sagebrush once lacked electricity, water and people.

Turns out that Williams’ grandfather was a visionary. “When my grandfather claimed that the best wine grapes could be grown here, I remember people telling him that he was crazy,” says JJ Williams. Washington wine country has had its skeptics.

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