Plenty is available to read about sustainability efforts, biodiversity and conservation on the customer-facing website for Echolands Winery, a relative newcomer to Walla Walla, Washington that began in 2018.
Estate wine won’t be produced from the burgeoning vines at Echolands’ Taggart Vineyard until 2022, and the winery itself won’t open for a couple more years yet, but the seeds of intention have been sown on the website, upon which Kansas City wine writer turned vintner Doug Frost has opened up about what’s to come.
Frost acknowledged in an upcoming story for the November/December issue of Vintner Magazine about his newest venture that he wanted to stake out his intentions for his vineyard before it produces a single drop of wine.
“We can’t prove anything until we’re using our own grapes, because we don’t have complete control,” Frost said. “Up to now, our vineyard, Taggart, has been organic, but I don’t know if we’re going to be able to sustain that. I don’t know what’s going to happen in the future.
“But I laid down the marker because that’s our intention, and I hope we’re going to be able to stick to it.”
While Echolands has had wines for sale since shortly after it opened, it is transparent about where its grapes come from. They’re currently being sourced from nearby growers and the wine is being produced in a custom crush facility.
Although the wine is currently being produced in a rented facility where Head Winemaker Taylor Oswald keeps a close eye on things and makes changes via written work orders, the wines currently on the shelves are still representative of Frost’s vision, which involves leaving it alone and letting it be what it’s going to be.
“All you can do is screw it up, so you try to shepherd it forward with as little bad influence as possible,” Frost said.
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