Rio Jean Photography - Prosser, WA {Airfield Estates}

Airfield Estates (http://www.airfieldwines.com/) has a very interesting history.  I will tell you briefly about it but definitely check out the website as it will have way more information.  The current owners are a brother and sister team, Marcus and Lori, and their family has been in the Yakima area as farmers for years!  In 1968 the family started to grow wine grapes and ever since then, the family has been into wine. 

Airfield started producing around 7,000 cases of wine and now they are producing 35,000 cases. Airfield has 28 different varietals (with a few clones) that span over 900 acres.  The vineyards are located in Rattlesnake Mountain and the production facility is located in Sunnyside. 

Airfield is known for their Chardonnay, Sauvingnon Blanc, Cabernet, Syrah, and Merlot. Airfield has their wines sold in 30 states and 5 foreign countries.

I had the chance to speak with Brad (see picture below) who is the national sales manager, he would like to focus more on Merlot as he thinks it is the next big wine for Washington.  I have spoken to some wine makers who would agree and think that Merlot is up and coming in Washington.  (Don't listen to Sideways by the way, Merlot is an AWESOME grape)

One of the things you will notice about Airfield Estate wines is that they don't use corks, they use screw caps! (Hogue definitely had some vision!)  I have to say, I love the screw caps!  You may think that wines that have screw caps on them aren't as good because there isn't a cork.  If so, you couldn't be further from the truth.  Do you know why the trend is moving towards screw caps? Well, it definitely isn't cheaper if that is what you are thinking.  Having a screw cap allows for consistency.  You don't ever have to worry about a wine being corked, there are no variations, and when you want to keep your bottle that is only half gone, you can rest easy that you screwed the cap on tight enough to preserve it.

The bottles and the labels are certainly beautiful!  I love the look and feel of the product and here is another winery who has done a fantastic job with branding.  You can definitely feel and see what the brand is when walk into their tasting room. Unfortunately I have no idea of what the wine tastes like as I wasn't offered a tasting...go figure right?

Airfield does have two winery dogs, they weren't present during my visit, but I hear Jax, a Black Russian Terrier, and Bella, a mix of it all, frequent the tasting room!  If you are there and see them, snap a picture and send it to me! 

I am very interested to try their wines, if you do visit, please let me know how your visit went and what you thought about their wines!

Cheers,
Melanie