Fielding Hills Winery was born from a fascination with the land and a desire to create a wine that brought people, and the land, together. This journey has seen numerous landscapes but our end goal, a wine worth sharing, has always led us forward. In 2020, we face new and unique obstacles in our effort to share our wines with you.
Winemaker Tyler Armour along with Owners and Founding Winemaker Mike and Karen Wade
As we near the end of our 2020 harvest, we are eager to release a new vintage to the public. We have been sharing these wines with our Road 27 wine club members for the past few months, and encourage all Fielding Hills fans to join our wine clubs to ensure they get early access to our wines. These wines are complex and well-balanced. They reflect the bold structure you have come to know from our red wine program and are drinking phenomenally now or through the next ten years. The seventeenth commercial vintage from Fielding Hills Winery was memorable because the 2017 growing season was a challenging year. A frost event in December 2016 resulted in partially damaged vines across the state of Washington and at our Estate Riverbend Vineyard. A cool and wet Spring then delayed vine development starting at bud-break. Heavy vineyard disease pressure was recorded statewide early in the season, which further reduced the crop size. Though the growing season began with below-average temperatures, by early Summer temperatures warmed to historical averages and above average temperatures were seen later in the Summer. Overall, the 2017 growing season yielded less fruit across the board, but the fruit that was harvested was deeply concentrated and complex.
Pick decisions during the 2017 harvest (September to November, most years) were based equally on grape juice chemistry (Brix/pH/TA), as well as flavor and physical maturity of the grapes. Harvested early in the morning, the hand-picked grapes are promptly delivered to the winery for immediate processing. They are whole-cluster sorted to remove any material other than grapes (MOG), then destemmed and lightly crushed into 1-ton fermenters. The must is allowed to rest for 24 hours before inoculation with a selected yeast strain. The must is gently punched-down twice daily to ensure proper phenolic extraction. When fermentation is nearly complete, roughly 9 to 13 days after being crushed, the free-run wine is pumped directly into French and American oak barrels, most being 225L with some 500L puncheons used on the Cabernet Sauvignon and Syrah.
Our wonderful team at Fielding Hills Winery celebrated our 20th vintage in 2020!
Fielding Hills Winery uses approximately 66% French Oak and 33% American Oak, varying slightly with each varietal; 70% new oak and 30% once-filled barrels. The wine was barrel aged 22 months, followed by another year in bottle before release.
The 2017 vintage was bottled in early August 2019 and yielded a touch under 2,000 cases of red wine (12 x 750ml) and a few Syrah and Cabernet Sauvignon Magnums (6 x 1.5L). The varietals we produced are:
- Cabernet Sauvignon – Click here to learn more.
- Cabernet Franc – Click here to learn more.
- Syrah – Click here to learn more.
- Malbec – Click here to learn more.
- “Tribute” Red Blend – Click here to learn more.
- Carménère – Click here to learn more.
We believe a glass of wine should take you on a journey. With one sip, the story of its land and its people unfold. We are humbled to share our 2017 vintage with you and hope you, like us, find moments of happiness, strength, and contentment within each of our wines.
We cherish being welcomed into your life. This has been doubly true in 2020 and we thank you.