Breaking Away from the Big and Bold: Washington 2026 Tasting Report

Washington State’s winemakers are calling the 2023 vintage one of the best ever, producing wines of depth and beauty on just about every level. “It was pretty damn perfect,” said Matthew Rawn, the winemaker and co-founder of Two Mountain Winery in Yakima Valley. “There is a depth and freshness to the wines. Because there was no pressure to pick, we were able to get flavor development without too much sugar ripeness as well as balanced tannin. Every variety was just about right. There isn’t an outlier.”

During a recent two-week trip to Washington, the James Suckling team tasted nearly 700 wines, primarily from the 2023 vintage, and found a distinct character and balance in the offerings, particularly in the reds, that is in stark contrast to the big, bold nature of past years’ bottlings.

What made 2023 so special, said Ryan Johnson, the vineyard manager of Weathereye Vineyard on Red Mountain, who has been farming in Washington for 27 years, was the long, moderate fall.

“It’s kind of crazy how perfect it was,” he said. “I always say it’s not how you start the year, it’s how you finish.”

That could be true everywhere, but it’s especially important in Washington, which is the northernmost winegrowing region in the United States and can have very compressed growing seasons – often featuring late spring frosts, very hot, dry summers and plentiful rain in the fall. Add to that the complexities of farming everything from riesling to cabernet sauvignon – sometimes in the same vineyard.

“In June we get two-and-a-half hours more of daylight than Napa,” Rawn explained. “But when you get into the fall, the days get shorter faster, so you’re getting a shorter window of sugar ripening. But in a year like 2023, we got longer hang time. Heat makes sugar, but hang time makes flavor development.”

We loved the savory, herbal nuances in the cabernet sauvignon-based wines, the power and intensity of the Rhone reds and the freshness of the white wines – from dry, crisp riesling to lush, full-bodied chardonnays.

The perfect-scoring Quilceda Creek Horse Heaven Hills Tchelistcheff 2023 highlights just how striking Washington cabernet sauvignons can be. The wine is powerful yet elegant with silky tannins, perfectly ripe fruit flavors and subtle savory nuances – characteristics that were largely shaped by the vineyard, according to Quilceda Creek winemaker Mark Kaigas.

“It’s kind of a perfect place,” Kaigas said of their warm, south-facing Mach One vineyard. “You gain a month on the front and on the end because it is protected by the basalt cliff and the reflection off the Columbia River.”

He said the 2023 vintage was like being on “cruise control. The fruit was beautiful with no raisining and very healthy clusters.”

Other wineries that made some of the best Bordeaux-varietal blends we tasted included L’Ecole, Two Mountain, Mark Ryan, Abeja and Matthews. 

Syrah from the Rocks District in Walla Walla also continued to intrigue and impress, with Delmas, Longshadow and Hors Categorie making wines that balance the region’s classic richness and savory umami notes with length and minerality.

Three chardonnays from the Royal Slope AVA, made by Tenor and Gard, also surprised us with their weight, density and texture alongside vibrant acidity and salinity, and we also found rich, textural, and full-bodied roussannes from Latta and Weathereye as well as a crisp, mineral aromatic sauvignon blanc and riesling offerings from Hedges and Two Mountain, respectively.

A fun and playful side of Washington wines showed up in the the form of chillable reds, sparkling and skin-fermented whites like those from Ita,  Echolands, Loop de Loop, Grograin and Upsidedown Wines.

The elongated growing season in 2023 is certainly one of the reasons the vintage worked so well, but based on our meetings with more than three dozen growers and winemakers, the sentiment is that Washington has reached a point where the best sites and wineries can produce great wines every year.

“With cautious optimism, I see the string of recent vintages and the wines being made from the best sites – they  are turning out compelling wines more consistently,” said Johnson, who spent years laying out the Weathereye vineyard on Red Mountain based on his 20-plus years of farming grapes for some of the top wineries. “Maybe because we are picking better sites and farming better, the wines are fun to drink and there are great aromatics, energy and beautiful acids.”

The SeVein vineyard, an expansion of the Seven Hills Vineyard, is one of the best places to grow Bordeaux varieties in Walla Walla. On a sunny, windy day, we toured the 1,800-acre property, which is farmed organically and regeneratively under the direction of viticulturist Sadie Drurie.

“So much of tannin management happens in the vineyard,” said David Rosenthal, the winemaker for L’Ecole No. 41, whose L’Ecole No 41 Walla Walla Valley Ferguson Vineyard 2023 comes from the very top of SeVein, where it is grown on pure basalt and is constantly bombarded by wind. It’s an intensely structured yet highly nuanced wine that gives savory nuances, freshness and longevity.

Managing the Heat

Two of the biggest challenges in Washington are tannin management – in most years they are trying to ripen red grapes during a compressed growing season – and acid retention thanks to the long, hot sunny days during the middle of the summer. It is still common for wineries to add acid to grape must, but the best producers are finding other ways to tackle these issues.

Valdemar Winery in Walla Walla was founded by the Mora family, which traces its wine roots to Rioja, Spain. They have planted some of their vineyards to an east-west orientation, maximizing cool morning sunlight and shading the western side of the canopy to protect if from hot afternoon sun.

“If you are going to grow aromatic wines that are baking on stone, you need to maximize ripening when the temperatures are cool,” said Jesús Martínez Bujanda Mora, the fifth-generation owner and CEO.

In Yakima Valley, about an hour’s drive northeast of Walla Walla, the climate changes. It’s nestled in a bowl surrounded by the cascade mountains. Yakima is the largest producer of fresh fruit – mainly cherries, pears and apples, in the Pacific Northwest.

“There is an aura here in the softness of the air, the fertility of the soil and consistent cooldown in the evenings,” said Patrick Rawn, the co-owner of Two Mountain Winery alongside his brother, Matthew.

Even on a warm, sunny day, we could feel the cool breeze coming off the mountains. The soils are incredibly well drained and even though they only get about six or seven inches of rain a year, there is plenty of water available thanks to canals that channel water from the Yakima Valley. Patrick Rawn uses it sparingly and he is as focused on farming the soils as much as the vines, utilizing year-round cover crop and other regenerative principles. The wines from here, like those from Dineen and Betz, show freshness, elegance and energy.

One criticism of the Washington wine industry, even among those who are a part of it, is that there is not one singularly defining wine grape or style for the state. What we found is that the best producers are not necessarily fixated on one variety but are instead embracing the range of unique terroirs that can be found.

“It's really a wonderland in terms of what you can plant and where you can plant, said Ashley Trout, the owner of of Brook and Bull Cellars. “We can grow so many things well; it’s hard to choose.” 

Johnson, of Weathereye, seconded the sentiment. “We can do a lot of things well,” he said, “but you have to be very intentional with your farming practices to make the best possible wine.”

The wines from Red Mountain AVA, for example, truly speak with a distinct voice, regardless of variety. The wines from Kiona are another great example. They make excellent cabernet sauvignon and syrah as well as an obscure Germanic clone of pinot noir called lemberger. The through-line of all the wines is a saline minerality, dusty tannins and an unmistakable garrigue character that no doubt comes from the fields of indigenous sage prevalent on the mountain.

A great benefit of having so many varieties to pick from is that blending can be used as a secret weapon to make unique offerings. Trout, of Brook & Bull, appreciates the ability to make unconventional blends. “There are certain varieties that are a cakewalk,” she said. “They are early ripening and you have all the time in the world to make artistic decisions. That is a fun way to be a winemaker.”

An example of this is Her Come Hell or High Water 2023, which is a blend of grenache, cabernet sauvignon, mourvedre and counoise  in almost equal parts. It’s a wonderful and complete wine – perfumed, spicy, bright and complex with a compelling range of wild berry aromas.

“All of our blends are untraditional, because why the hell not?” Trout said. “You are not going to make the same wine every year, so why not make the best wine you can every year?”

In a place that can be as challenging as Washington, it takes a great vintage like 2023 to show off the incredible work that is being done. We hope that both experienced and novice buyers will have the confidence to seek out wines from Washington, with all its terrific choices and lots of great values.

– Courtney Humiston, Staff Writer & Taster

The list of wines below is comprised of bottles tasted and rated by the JamesSuckling.com tasting team. They include many latest releases not yet available on the market, but which will be available soon. 

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