
wines
a place for chenin blanc
dec 2023
I love Chenin Blanc, and it has a special place in my heart because my late father, Mark Anderson, used to regularly order Chenin with mussels at Brasserie Four, his favorite French restaurant in our hometown of Walla Walla. The first vintage of this wine was made in his honor and I see every subsequent vintage as another small way to remember his impact and encouragement.
The 2022 vintage of Chenin Blanc is a wonderful expression of its fruit and its site. We've taken what we've learned about the ripening habits of this grape from the previous two vintages and honed in on an optimal range of acidity and ripeness. The result is a beautifully tart but fruit inclusive expression of Chenin, and one of my all time favorite pét nats that I’ve produced.

Arete Vineyard straddles the top of Radar Hill, just outside of Othello, Washington. The 250 acres of vines were planted in 1983, and are managed organically and certified by the USDA. The Chenin Blanc is grown and sourced from the North Slope of the
vineyard and managed entirely by hand.
2022 was a year of extremes in the Columbia Valley. A late spring blizzard occurred right at bud break, and was followed by cool temperatures through most of June. This
put bloom two to three weeks behind recent years. Summer seemed to finally arrive in July and August with multiple 100-plus degree days. Then, a miraculous and unseasonably warm Fall came to the rescue. Temperatures were above average for the entire month, creating even ripening at lower brix. With larger yields and a shorter window for harvest, we were challenged for capacity, using every vessel that we had to process the fruit, but managed to get all of our fruit in by the end of October. Overall, it’s a stunning vintage with great structure, flavor, and color.

Chenin has usually been on the earlier side of harvest, and 2022 was no exception. Upon its arrival in the cellar, this fruit went into the press whole cluster. From pressing, it was cold settled for 7 days, then racked into stainless steel for its primary fermentation. Bottled at 1.25bx in December 2022, it aged in bottle for 5 months before hand disgorgement in May.

estate rosé evolution
nov 2023
The only pét-nat made from our estate fruit, the rosé holds a special place in our hearts. We are excited to see the evolution of this wine, as the Cab Franc and Malbec vines continue to mature, we are so excited to see the evolution of these grapes.
In 2022, after tasting the results of our first rosé pét-nat from our estate, we decided we had to make this wine again. Since the Cab Franc and Malbec at Stonemarker are still very young (planted in 2017), we are excited to turn the fruit into a rosé to create a vibrant and refreshing wine. The second vintage producing this wine proved to be very successful, especially in terms of yields, as the Malbec and Cab Franc vines continue to mature. The wine did not see any time in oak barrels this year, a departure from last year’s approach.

Compared to 2021, the fruit was harvested much later and arrived in the cellar in late September. Pressed together, we cold settled this wine for 7 days before racking into a stainless steel tank to co-ferment cold in our barrel room. This rosé was fermented in stainless steel and spent roughly 9 months on lees prior to disgorgement. Racked once for clarity prior to bottling, it was bottled on December 8th and hand-disgorged over two days in August of 2023. Unfiltered, unfined, less than 10 ppm of SO2 added at disgorgement.

Cabernet Franc instantly entices you with its smooth tannins and dark fruit flavors. Malbec brings spicy and earthy undertones to balance the red fruit and light effervescence. Aromas of white florals, green strawberries and watermelon, and soil. On the palate, notes of rhubarb, strawberry leaf, kumquat marmalade, and candied rose with well integrated acid and minerality. It is rustic and rich, but intensely bright and refreshing - an deliciously complex and intriguing sparkling rosé. For pairings think french picnic: country style patés, cornichons, and fresh cheeses, or combine with everyone's favorite app, crab rangoon.

pear + riesling co-ferment
april 2023
Juicy and aromatic D'Anjou pears meet bright and complex Riesling. Not too tart or too sweet, this blend is a treat, just in time for Spring.
I was excited to introduce a co-ferment of fruits grown at Pear Ridge Vineyards in the Columbia Gorge. As their name suggests, they grow Organic grapes in addition to several pear varieties, and this combination of Riesling grapes and D’Anjou pears is a unique expression of place done in a sparkling format. D’Anjou pears are juicy and aromatic, which compliments the Riesling beautifully by highlighting the pomme fruit notes indicative of the varietal.

Pear Ridge is beautifully situated along the Columbia River. They are a Certified Organic site that focuses on growing cool climate wine grapes and heirloom pears. They incorporate regenerative practices into their holistic growing approach, and also benefit from increased rainfall, requiring no additional irrigation.

The milled pears were pressed with the whole-cluster Riesling to allow for maximum extraction of juice and flavor. From the press pan, the juice was moved into a stainless steel tank, where it settled for a few days before being racked into a new tank and underwent a cold fermentation. When the wine reached 2 brix it was racked into a stainless steel pressure tank and locked down to allow CO2 to build pressure. We refer to this as the “Char-nat Method.” The wine was counter pressure bottled in house without any disgorgement.
This wine has a fresh, clean profile. Not too tart or too sweet, although a small bit of residual sugar remains. Refreshing floral aromas of jasmine and peony fill the glass, with the wine dancing across the palate. It’s undeniably juicy. The pear-ness is complimented by a subtle wildflower honey finish. Pairs well with park picnics, tender green salads, and delicate cheeses.

inaugural cider
mar 2023
Made from 100% golden russet apples from Iron Root Orchard in Omak, WA. Golden Russet is an heirloom American apple dating back to 1800. A beloved apple, so well-suited for sparkling cider that it was often referred to as the “champagne apple”. A fresh, clean, naturally fermented traditional method cider - the cider to our ciderkin.
Crafting an heirloom cider has been a desire of mine since I began researching organically grown apple varieties in Washington state. Very few growers in Washington focus on heirloom cider varieties since the majority of orchards are planted with popular dessert and fresh eating apples. For our inaugural cider, I was able to purchase exclusively Golden Russet apples, an heirloom American variety that at one point in time was referred to as the “champagne of apples” for its ability to produce sparkling ciders of extremely high quality. Iron Root Orchard was happy to sell some of their Golden Russets to me, and I’m excited to feature fruit grown in such a different climate, expanding our reach into the northernmost part of the state.
Made with a wild fermentation, and a traditional cider method, this is a varietal cider to treat more like a champagne, than a typical american cider. It is complex and savory, perfect for opening up on your rustic french picnic this summer. Or hold onto it for the fall for when the leaves start to turn.

When the apples were harvested at the end of October and brought to the cellar, they remained in the harvest bins outside under tarp for two weeks. In this sweating process, the apples soften up, easing the crushing and pressing process, giving better juice yields. After that, the process for making cider is not much different from winemaking. The apples were milled by hand before pressing, and once pressed, the juice began its natural fermentation pretty quickly, without the need to add any additional yeasts or a pied de cuve. The pressed juice remained in the cold room through primary fermentation and was racked 2 times to help clear up the juice prior to bottling. The Cider was bottled with a small amount of residual sugar in order to create a gentle natural carbonation.
After the apples were pressed for cider the pomace was placed in a stainless fermenter and rehydrated with water. This liquid was soaked overnight before being pressed and then fermented in stainless steel tanks to make the 2021 Ciderkin, a lighter, and lower ABV sibling to this cider.

Iron Root Orchard is a certified organic orchard and nursery situated on a one hundred year old homestead in the foothills of the Okanogan Highlands in north-central Washington. While the bulk of the apples grown there are intended for fresh eating and desserts, they also grow a large number of heirloom cider varieties. Most of the trees in the orchard are not high yield, many are wild uncultivated apple varieties- not even named.

celebrating the perpetual cuvée
dec 2022
Departing from our single ferment ancestral method style pét-nats, this sparkling wine is an ode to solera-style aging - balancing old with new, complexity with freshness. Three vintages of our field blend pét-nat come together to create a truly special wine, just in time to celebrate the new years. Trust us - a 1.5L bottle is still not quite enough (but don't worry, there are 750ml bottles releasing this Spring!)
Inspired by the aging traditions of French Champagne and Spanish sherry producers, the Perpetual Cuvée combines multiple vintages to produce a wine that favors consistency and clarity in style and taste. Beginning in 2019 and again in 2020, we held back a portion of our ancestral method Field Blend– a combination of 50% Pinot Noir and 50% Chardonnay sourced from Pear Ridge Vineyard in the Columbia Gorge– to begin the process of perpetually blending a wine from year to year with each new harvest.
Continuing with this process will allow us to focus on the uniformity of flavors that Pear Ridge exhibits as a growing site. This style also helps us achieve a dynamic flavor profile closer to wines made in the traditional method that see extended periods of aging. By blending older with newer vintages of the same wine from the same place, we are able to create something that is consistently beautiful and focuses on natural winemaking methods, versus producing a wine that is homogenous by means of alteration.

This first release of the Perpetual Cuvée is a blend of Pear Ridge Pinot Noir and Chardonnay from three vintages: 2019, 2020, and 2021. The base wine from 2019 was blended with actively fermenting wine from the 2020 harvest, spent nearly two years in bottle, and was then disgorged and topped with the 2021 vintage.
While the wine will always be fermented and aged in neutral oak, it spends most of its life in bottle. Each new harvest is blended with the aging base wine in barrel from prior vintages, and each year we reserve a small amount for blending into future harvests. With this method, we are able to continually release the wine, disgorging and labeling as needed, achieving consistency and clarity.

As is typical of wines with extended lees aging, notes of fresh pastry, almond croissants, and sourdough are prominent on the nose, with richer aromas of honeycomb lending depth. On the palate, Anjou pears and crisp green apple skins, with hints of bright Meyer lemon that are balanced by warm toasted almonds and a faint crushed sea shell finish. Because this is such a special wine, we bottles in 1.5L magnums- just in time for your holiday feasts. 750ml bottles to be released April 2023.
