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Seattle, Wash.
- March 11, 2008 - Allen Shoup, founder of Long Shadows Vintners, along with members of a small investor group including respected Napa Valley vintner Agustin Huneeus, Sr. of Quintessa, announced the purchase today of the acclaimed Wallula Vineyard in the Horse Heaven Hills of Washington State from brothers Bill and Andy Den Hoed and father Andy Sr. of Grandview, Wash.
The property, currently planted with 650 acres of vines, is 15 miles south of the Tri-Cities and runs for about five miles along the famous Wallula Gap. The purchase price was not disclosed, but it is believed to be the highest price ever paid for a contiguous vineyard in Washington State.
The Den Hoeds purchased the property in 1997. They were attracted to the site because of the virgin soils as well as the diverse microclimates resulting from the property's dramatic climb from the edge of the Columbia River to 1,350 feet above sea level. The Den Hoeds will remain minority partners in Wallula and continue to manage the property for Shoup's investor group. "The sale of the vineyard will provide additional capital to develop some of the steeper, more challenging sections of the vineyard and other areas of the site with limited access," says Andy Den Hoed. The Den Hoed family has farmed Washington wine grapes since 1978.
"Washington's Horse Heaven Hills is growing some of the world's most exciting wines," says Huneeus, who is also a Long Shadows partner with Shoup and Philippe Melka in Pirouette, an acclaimed Long Shadows red wine. "I have visited vineyards around the globe and Wallula is one of most varied and extraordinarily beautiful sites I have ever seen," according to Huneeus who says the vineyard's potential for world-class reds is what attracted him to the location. Seventy-three percent of the vineyard is planted with red varieties.
The vineyard is on a steep, south-facing slope, up to 30% grade in several sections. From its highest point, Wallula drops more than 1,000 feet down to the edge of the Columbia River which crests at 300 feet above sea level. The water acts as a massive insulator and heat accumulates quickly. The bottom reaches of Wallula vineyard average above 3,200 heat units annually, ideal for ultra-premium reds planted on the lower slopes. The upper sections of the vineyard, where high quality white wines are grown, average 2,800 degree days annually.
Long Shadows has sourced grapes including Syrah, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot from Wallula since its first vintage. Chateau Ste Michelle purchases the majority of the fruit under contract, along with several boutique wineries.
The Den Hoeds recently planted 145 biodynamically-farmed acres here − primarily Riesling − for Randall Grahm's Pacific Rim Winemakers. The relationship will continue and the new ownership will continue to biodynamically farm this section of the vineyard and expand biodynamic farming to other tracts as well.
Wallula's beauty as well as its suitability to wine grapes is due in part to the famous Missoula floods that raced down the Columbia River during the last ice age. The surging waters deposited Shano silt loam soils on the site and carved the steep, basalt-lined canyon walls on which the vineyards are planted.
Other investors in Premier Vineyard Estates LLC, the group Shoup assembled to purchase the vineyard along with Huneeus, include Yakima businessman and philanthropist Al DeAtley; Seattle entrepreneur Arnie Prentice; and Long Shadows CEO Mike Williamson. Shoup will serve as managing director for Premier Vineyard Estates.
Shoup first visited Wallula with the Den Hoeds in 1997 while president/CEO of Chateau Ste. Michelle/Stimson Lane and signed long-term grape contracts for existing and future vineyards on the property. "I've said for years, as good as the Columbia Valley vineyards are now, I believe we've yet to discover Washington's best site, but with Wallula we may have arrived," he says.
Shoup is widely recognized as one of the founding fathers of the Washington wine industry. He began building Chateau Ste. Michelle and its affiliate wineries on his arrival in 1980, serving as the company's CEO for his last 17 years there before retiring in 2000 and founding Long Shadows Vintners in 2002. Long Shadows is a collection of ultra-premium wineries comprised of internationally acclaimed winemakers from the major wine regions of the world. Each is an owner/partner in the single wine they create, thus the seven wines produced at Long Shadows' new state-of-art facility in Walla Walla each represent a separate partnership dedicated to producing a single Columbia Valley "best of type" wine. Esteemed winemaker Gilles Nicault oversees daily production and makes his own red wine with Shoup called Chester -Kidder.
