High on Red Mountain

There’s no better place to start at Red Mountain than at the top. Hightower Cellars operates out of a snug little tasting room and winemaking facility perched above a ten-acre vineyard, nearly at the crest of Red Mountain. The views from the patio sweep down the hill and across the valley to the north face of the Horse Heaven Hills, and give you the feeling of soaring above it all. It’s a lovely spot. Tim and Kelly Hightower chose it eight years ago, when they moved their winery from Seattle across the mountains, right to the source.

The Hightowers targeted Red Mountain fruit from their earliest vintage, in 1997. Their wines show off the earthy, brambly characteristics of the mountain, with rich black fruit flavors, and soft tannins balanced by an acidic structure. They use a soft touch when making their wines, hand-sorting, destemming and crushing the grapes directly above open-top fermenters, minimizing the tannins from broken seeds or skins. They hand-punch the must several times during fermentation, and siphon the free-run juice directly into barrels. The rest they pour gently into an air-diaphragm press. As the pressure slowly increases, to as much as 15 psi, they taste the juice until the astringency hits the limit of the tannins they want in their wines. The rest – sometimes as much as 25 percent of the juice – goes down the drain. Twenty months or so of oak, and voila… elegant, complex and delightfully balanced wines.

Most of their fruit is still sourced from Red Mountain, although they continue to blend grapes from notable vineyards like Pepperbridge in Walla Walla and Alder Ridge in the Horse Heaven Hills. But as their estate vineyard matures, more and more of it is showing up in their bottles. Most of the fruit finds its way into their Murray Cuvee, a welcoming and approachable blend named for their dog. In fact, the 2007 Murray is 100 percent estate wine. And with the 2008 vintage they bottled their first estate Syrah. They priced it at $20, putting it in the same entry-level category as the Murray Cuvee, a move that turned out to be brilliant in the tough economy of the last two years. Many wineries, especially those (like Hightower) focusing on higher price points, suffered huge hits during the recession. Kelly reports that Hightower Cellars’ sales stayed level, even though their volume increased. Apparently their fans were happy to stock up on Murray Cuvee, and experiment with the Syrah at the same time.

The Hightowers opened a new tasting room at the winery a few years ago, making it easier to keep regular hours for the public. And that’s important. Hightower produces a bare 2,200 cases of wine a year, and sells a lot of it to select restaurants in the Seattle area, including El Gaucho, Boat Street and Lola’s. It’s available in retail outlets around the Northwest, as well as in Arizona and New York. The remainder is sold at the winery, and it’s well worth the trip to get them. Prices range from $20 for the Murray Cuvee and Murray Syrah up to $50 for the Red Mountain Blend.