Chateau Ste. Michelle Reserve Late Harvest Semillon (half-bottle) 1998
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-Erik Olsen, Head Winemaker
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1997-
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Chateau Ste. Michelle is the founding and oldest winery in Washington State. Established on December 5, 1933, Chateau Ste. Michelle is celebrating 90 years of being committed to quality grape growing and producing award winning wines. Washington’s oldest and most acclaimed winery features award-winning wines and unparalleled experiences at our historic Chateau. The wines interweave with the rich heritage to create a memorable wine experience.
The winemaking philosophy is to highlight the style, quality, and expression of Washington State. Always striving to respect the varietal characters and individuality of each location, yet still craft each wine for a pleasurable, food friend experience. Quality is the driving force at Chateau Ste. Michelle. The winery has spent decades investing in quality vineyards throughout the Columbia Valley, the finest winemaking equipment, and world-class, top winemaking talent. This commitment to quality has led Chateau Ste. Michelle to earn some of the highest accolades in the industry today.
24 "Winery of the Year" Honors from Wine & Spirits
18 "Top 100" Wines from Wine Spectator
Apart from the classics, we find many regional gems of different styles.
Late harvest wines are probably the easiest to understand. Grapes are picked so late that the sugars build up and residual sugar remains after the fermentation process. Ice wine, a style founded in Germany and there referred to as eiswein, is an extreme late harvest wine, produced from grapes frozen on the vine, and pressed while still frozen, resulting in a higher concentration of sugar. It is becoming a specialty of Canada as well, where it takes on the English name of ice wine.
Vin Santo, literally “holy wine,” is a Tuscan sweet wine made from drying the local white grapes Trebbiano Toscano and Malvasia in the winery and not pressing until somewhere between November and March.
Rutherglen is an historic wine region in northeast Victoria, Australia, famous for its fortified Topaque and Muscat with complex tawny characteristics.
A large and geographically diverse AVA capable of producing a wide variety of wine styles, the Columbia Valley AVA is home to 99% of Washington state’s total vineyard area. A small section of the AVA even extends into northern Oregon!
Because of its size, it is necessarily divided into several distinctive sub-AVAs, including Walla Walla Valley and Yakima Valley—which are both further split into smaller, noteworthy appellations. A region this size will of course have varied microclimates, but on the whole it experiences extreme winters and long, hot, dry summers. Frost is a common risk during winter and spring. The towering Cascade mountain range creates a rain shadow, keeping the valley relatively rain-free throughout the entire year, necessitating irrigation from the Columbia River. The lack of humidity combined with sandy soils allows for vines to be grown on their own rootstock, as phylloxera is not a serious concern.
Red wines make up the majority of production in the Columbia Valley. Cabernet Sauvignon is the dominant variety here, where it produces wines with a pleasant balance of dark fruit and herbs. Wines made from Merlot are typically supple, with sweet red fruit and sometimes a hint of chocolate or mint. Syrah tends to be savory and Old-World-leaning, with a wide range of possible fruit flavors and plenty of spice. The most planted white varieties are Chardonnay and Riesling. These range in style from citrus and green apple dominant in cooler sites, to riper, fleshier wines with stone fruit flavors coming from the warmer vineyards.