Abeja Winery and Inn

By Eric Degerman

WALLA WALLA, Wash. —

When talking about the premier producers in the Pacific Northwest who work with the nation’s three most popular varieties — Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot — any serious buzz must include Abeja.

Ken and Ginger Harrison set the standard for a destination winery when they launched Abeja in 2000 across a century-old farmstead. Their quiet recruitment in 2015 of Daniel Wampfler and his winemaking wife, Amy Alvarez-Wampfler, resulted in new heights for the wines and the estate.

That excellence has been repeatedly revealed via recent blind judgings conducted by Great Northwest Wine, prompting the selection of Abeja as the 2023 Washington Winery of the Year.

“I joke, but it’s true — we won the winemaking lottery to be here with this foundation of hospitality, the property, the vineyards, the inn and the winemaking facility,” Daniel says. “The icing on the cake for me is to work with my spouse and navigate wine production together.”

And the Wampflers seem to be the gold standard for spouses working side-by-side in a cellar.

Abeja’s 2019 Columbia Valley Merlot proved to be one of the top releases of the variety last year, starting with its No. 1 finish atop a field of 114 entries in a Great Northwest Wine comparative tasting of Merlot.

Eight months later, it received a Double Platinum and 97 points at the 23rd annual Platinum Awards, a judging which requires a gold medal to qualify.

At the Great Northwest Invitational, an October judging staged on behalf of West Coast sommeliers and wine buyers, the 2021 Washington State Chardonnay was best of class and earned the No. 2 ranking on The Seattle Times list for Best Northwest Wines of 2022. The praise for that bottling exemplifies the delicious consistency of the Wampflers’ focused efforts because the Abeja 2020 Washington State Chardonnay won best of show the year before at the Great Northwest Invite.

Abeja’s flagship 2019 Cabernet Sauvignon received a gold medal at the 2022 Invite held in Hood River, Ore.

“We’ve been spoiled with great grapes and great equipment and great teams over the years,” Daniel says. “We don’t even own a boat, much less a boatload of money to start our own winery, but to have this place to hone our craft is pretty incredible.”

The Wampflers arrived at Abeja — named for a Spanish reference to bees — with impressive résumés. Daniel was part of the Columbia Crest winemaking team that turned its 2005 Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon into Wine Spectator’s No. 1 wine of the world in 2009. It was the first and only time a Washington wine topped Spectator’s year-end list.

Amy’s history at Columbia Crest included overseeing the Chardonnay program and its 10,000 barrels. When it came to her future husband, however, it wasn’t quite love at first sight for Amy, who grew up in the Yakima Valley with farming in her blood.

“He’s very smart, very articulate — and he can dance,” she says with a smile. “He will dance in the cellar. He’s super funny and always thinking outside of the box. We are always having fun. There have been times when I’d go home and my cheeks would hurt because he makes me laugh so much.”

Daniel adds, “Yeah, but early on she thought I was a jackass.”

He is a quick-witted jokester with a penchant for quoting lines from the movie Caddyshack Somehow, he was raised in Michigan to root for Notre Dame football by his father, a career chemist for Dow. Daniel’s mother worked as a nurse before she went back to school and earned an English degree focused on children’s literature.

“I started brewing beer when I was 15 and fell in love with fermentation science,” he says. “I thought about being a chemist, but I didn’t want to wear a white lab coat for the rest of my life.”

By 2003, he graduated from Michigan State with two degrees, which explains the T-shirt autographed by men’s basketball coach Tom Izzo proudly displayed in Daniel’s tidy office. And after college internships at wineries, Daniel got hired by Stimson Lane — now Ste. Michelle Wine Estates — as a research winemaker.

He shared an office for several years with Juan Muñoz-Oca, who recently resigned as the chief winemaker for Ste. Michelle. He also learned from working in the Horse Heaven Hills alongside Ron Bunnell, Bob Bertheau, Ray Einberger, Keith Pilgrim and the late Paula Eakin, who died last winter.

In 2008, the late Eric Dunham recruited Daniel to take over the winemaking at Dunham Cellars. A few months later, Wine Press Northwest magazine named Dunham Cellars as the

Pacific Northwest Winery of the Year.

In 2010, Amy left Columbia Crest to run Sinclair Estate Vineyards in Walla Walla. After eight award-winning years with the Dunham and Blair families, the Harrisons approached Daniel with a dream neither he nor Amy saw coming at a property they respected immensely.

“The opportunity to make wine with Amy was the one thing missing in my life, and there was a bit of a precedent at Abeja because John Abbott made the wine for the Harrisons and his wife, Molly, oversaw the hospitality,” Daniel points out.

Amy adds, “I was happy at Sinclair, and Dan didn’t want to leave Dunham, but the more we got to know Ken and Ginger and their family and the opportunity to be at Abeja, we fell in love with the idea.”

The Wampflers team up to oversee every phase of the Abeja operation — 65 acres of estate vines across three parcels, more than a dozen of the Columbia Valley’s top growers, the operation of The Inn at Abeja, the culinary program, direct-to-consumer sales, the tasting room and what goes into every bottle.

“We make all the winemaking decisions together,” Daniel says. “The rest of the business we divide — and Amy conquers.”

Their success has been reflected in growth and expansion. When the Wampflers arrived, Abeja produced 5,000 cases. Last year, they bottled 12,200 cases as Abeja’s vineyard sources continue to mature. There will be more estate plantings in 2023, which will account for the projected increase to around 15,000 cases, about triple from their first year.

The Abeja neighborhood has acquired fame along the way by attracting the likes of Jackson Family Wines, the Figgins family, Charles Smith and Doug Frost — the Master of Wine and Master Sommelier who flies in frequently from Kansas City to oversee his young Echolands project. (Abeja sold 61 acres, including 40 acres of vines, to the Jackson group.)

And starting in 2020, Daniel moved production of the boutique Pursued by Bear wines for actor Kyle MacLachlan to Abeja.

“Kyle is family to us, and I appreciate ownership for their understanding and trust,” Daniel says.

The family approach that began with the Harrisons helps the Wampflers manage their own household.

“The dogs come to work with us, and our kids work here,” Amy says. “And our daughter will come and hang out in our office after school.”

Daniel points out, “We’ve gained more time together, but it’s time together at work.”

It’s obvious the Wampflers dote on every lot of wine, yet they rarely create a new category. Those few special offerings are limited to the mailing list or The Kitchen at Abeja menu.

“Many of them are sold out almost by the time everyone on the mailing list opens their mail,” Daniel says. “We do get to play around a little and tease out a bit. For example, we will have guests who tell us, ‘I didn’t know you guys did Pinot Noir!’, but you have come here to know that. And you have to be dining here.”

An appointment is required to taste the wines, and reservations are required for The Kitchen at Abeja, but you don’t need to be a guest at The Inn or a list member.

The Kitchen is open evenings on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, and now there’s a strong local flavor with executive chef Jake Crenshaw over the stove. His history features a number of the Walla Walla Valley’s best-known restaurants, including Eritage, Tom Maccarone’s TMACS and owner/chef of Olive Marketplace and the Saint & the Sinner. Essentially, everything presented to a guest is prepared by Crenshaw and his team.

“Except the fish doesn’t come from our pond,” Daniel quips.

On the wine list, brightness remains the focus inside the bottle as the Wampflers and their team think of the dining table and the cellar.

“Because of where we’ve worked, large and small, we know what we could do in the cellar,” Daniel says. “We could make this sultry and sexy Cabernet, but those aren’t the wines we are trying to produce.”

In 2018, the Harrisons sold majority interest in the winery and The Inn at Abeja to a pair of investment groups. The winery investment group includes Seattle businessman Arnie Prentice, while the inn investment group includes John Oppenheimer — founder and CEO of Seattle-based Columbia Hospitality, which manages the eight-suite inn alongside the Wampflers and their team.

“We’ve created seven new departments, including our own viticulture department so we farm our own fruit, a national sales director and a culinary team,” Daniel says. “We’ve grown from 17 full-time employees in the last seven years to over 40 full-time employees with benefits the same as we have.”

Among the special wines to explore at Abeja is the Viognier — a benchmark for West Coast producers that ages remarkably. That is personified by the 2016 Estate Viognier, the first wine Daniel and Amy crafted at Abeja.

“We picked it early for freshness, and it sold out in three months,” Daniel said.

Since arriving seven years ago, the demand for Abeja’s wines remains intense. That explains a waiting list to be on Abeja’s mailing list, the recent construction of a state-of-theart winemaking facility, new estate plantings across Mill Creek Road and the construction of as many as eight guest suites. Most weekends spring through fall are booked 12 months in advance.

Yet the Wampflers know that despite expansion, the expectation to maintain the Abeja standards and personal touch remain.

“We can be giving a tour one minute and then turn around and be on a tractor hauling Viognier to the press, the next minute, we’re working on the budget,” Daniel says. “It’s so dynamic when you have a challenge around every corner and every minute.”

Abeja, 2014 Mill Creek Road, Walla Walla, WA 99362, Abeja.net, 509-526-7400 (winery), 509-522-1234 (lodging).

By Eric Degerman

SPOKANE — Phillip and Patricia Butterfield devoted their lives to public health, education and research, each concluding their decorated careers in Spokane with Washington State University.

At their young Winescape Winery project, the Butterfields work as a tandem in a different field where seemingly every step they’ve taken has been the right one. They came up with brilliant branding, invested in top vineyards and produced award-winning results to create a wine country experience that’s a mere 20-minute drive from downtown Spokane.

“Phil spent 25 years helping to make drinking water pure for society,” Patricia says. “He takes a similar approach to what we’re doing here — only this is a different color.”

At wine competitions last year, he turned red wine into gold and platinum, prompting Great Northwest Wine Magazine to select Winescape as the 2023 Washington Winery to Watch.

Based upon the awards for his wine during 2022 — capped by four Platinum Awards in October — it’s apparent that Phillip approaches Winescape as another career rather than a hobby in retirement.

• The Winescape 2018 Columbia Valley Merlot ($32) earned a Double Platinum and 96 points at the 23rd annual Platinum Awards after its gold medal in the Great Northwest Wine comparative tasting for the Spring 2022 issue.

• The Winescape 2018 Field Trip Red ($36), a Meritage-style approach leading with Cabernet Sauvignon, earned a Platinum and 93 points after winning a gold on Cannon Beach at Savor NW.

• The Winescape 2018 Marmot Incarnate ($35), the fascinating blend of Syrah and Mourvèdre with Malbec, went Platinum with 93 points after a gold medal at the Great Northwest Invitational.

• The Winescape 2019 Marmot Incarnate ($36), a younger edition of the same Syrah/Mourvèdre/Malbec, scored a Platinum and earned 93 points after a gold at the Cascadia International.

• The Winescape 2017 Merlot ($30) earned a gold at the Cascadia International.

• And the Winescape 2017 Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon earned a gold at Savor NW.

“In 2017, we started to really get a feel for our facility, what we can do and how we’re doing it,” Phillip said. “We’ve stayed consistent to what we’re making and pay attention to what people are really asking for. We are running a business, but I’m making wine because I want to make it.”

That explains why Winescape focuses on core Bordeaux varieties, the main Rhônes, a few proprietary red blends, Chardonnay, Riesling and, for its rosé, Sangiovese.

Winescape’s vineyard sources include historic Sagemoor plantings Bacchus, Dionysus and Gamache; the Williams family’s Kiona Estate, Heart of the Hill and Ranch at the End of the Road on Red Mountain; Devon Newhouse/ Newhouse Farms on Snipes Mountain, and Lewis and Lonesome Spring Ranch in the Yakima Valley.

Kent Waliser, director of operations for Sagemoor Farms, sells Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Petit Verdot grapes to the Butterfields.

“They are a husband-and-wife team who are very complementary to each other’s skillset,” Waliser says. “Pat is the marketing person with boundless energy and kind of the personality behind the brand, while Phillip is the winemaker and the king of the business.

“They really focus on the vineyards they work with and the wines they make from these places,” Waliser continued. “They will tell you, ‘We really appreciate what you allow us to do with your grapes.’ And they’ve got a cool spot with a cool building and it’s a cool story — having found a project post-retirement that seems to energize them as people.”

Phillip created a career in wine after decades of serving as medical research scientist — which included posts at both the University of Washington in Seattle and WSU in Spokane. Considering his background, the precision and quality of Phillip’s wines makes sense. He earned a Ph.D. as a water scientist, focusing on microbiology and biofilm engineering. He designed and installed his own Class B municipal water system at Winescape, earning the respect of county inspectors.

“We can tell you the nitrate level of our own water,” Patricia quipped.

She was a professor in the Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine at WSU and served as dean of nursing from 2007 to 2014.

“We got into wine pretty late in life,” Patricia says. “It started in 2009 with a trip to Australia and a Robert Parker wine buyer’s guide.”

That fall, Phillip drove to the Yakima Valley and returned to Spokane with 150 pounds of grapes to make wine.

“This really was a hobby that got out of hand,” he says. “The more I learned, the more I enjoyed it. There’s a creative process to it that exercises the other part of my brain, and I was doing something different than research as a college professor. And I just kept doing it — to the point where I wanted to start a winery and decided that we could probably do this together.”

Among their sacrifices was trading a Spokane landmark — the century-old Tudor-style Folsom House in the Rockwood Historic District — for a move to the Glenrose Prairie with 14 acres. It included a red barn and a dilapidated cabin that Patricia transformed into The Farmstead at Winescape, a VRBO featuring Pendleton blankets.

“We bought the property and built the facility with winemaking in mind,” she says. “We chose not to have any partners because it just didn’t seem to make any sense for two college professors to do that at our age. And we had some really good business advisers from the start.”

They began in earnest with 150 cases from the 2015 vintage, which featured a Cab from Heart of the Hill, and made those first wines at various facilities in Eastern Washington. One of their best investments was contracting with renowned Seattle architect Tom Kundig — a Spokane native — to map out their winery/tasting room. Kundig’s portfolio includes the iconic Mission Hill Family Estate in Kelowna, British Columbia.

Winescape opened in November 2017, and steady growth led them to produce 2,000 cases worth of wine from the 2022 vintage.

On occasion, Phillip will seek advice from retired winemaker Kerry Norton, an Oregon State grad who spent two decades at Covey Run, Columbia Winery and then The Hogue Cellars and still lives in the Yakima Valley.

“He’s been a good friend of ours for a while, and he’s been our savant,” Patricia says.

Meanwhile, their winemaking son, Tristan, has worked his way far enough up the ranks with Ste. Michelle Wine Estates that his signature appears on bottles of some Chateau Ste. Michelle reserve wines. His parents continually pinch themselves, especially around the holidays, with their son, their winemaking daughter-in-law and grandchild an afternoon’s drive away.

In the Winescape lineup, the most talked-about bottle might be the Syrah-based Marmot Incarnate.

“We wanted to come up with a name that was a Spokane thing,” Patricia says. “At the campus, it seems that you can be greeted by 1,000 marmots along the way that live among the basalt rocks — and then there’s the Catholic connection at Gonzaga.”

The likeness of a marmot’s face is cleverly watermarked into the moonscape of the eye-catching and versatile label design by Portland artist Michael Kirts, whose client list at Heroist.com includes Oregon cult producers Antica Terra, Ashlyn and Evening Land.

For the Butterfields, their lives together have always revolved around school. They started out as high school sweethearts in Colorado, albeit at different schools, and even though they matriculated to different colleges, they stayed connected. Wedding vows were exchanged in 1980.

“We were just as different then as we are now,” Patricia says. “It’s a miracle because we were products of the ‘70s, and it was pretty nutty then in Colorado.”

It says something about this corner of the Pacific Northwest that for the second straight year the Spokane Wineries Association can point to one of its members as the Washington Winery to Watch. (In 2022, the honor went to Liberty Lake Wine Cellars.)

Last year, Patricia served as president of the Spokane group. This year, she’s back as vice president to help the region continue its agritourism efforts.

“The South Hill has been a good place for us to draw from,” Phillip says. “And the Perry District has a nice vibe to it, like Spokane’s version of Green Lake in Seattle. There are nice breweries, a farmer’s market, and you can make it from there to here in 10 minutes.”

Winescape Winery, 6011 E. 32nd Ave., Spokane, WA 99223, WinescapeWines.com, (509) 474-0150.