OUR VINEYARDS
Echolands Winery includes Taggart Vineyard and the SeVein Vineyard located in Walla Walla Valley, Washington. Echolands is a steadfast believer in sustainable viticulture with a focus on biodiversity and local impact.
“Our goal should be to create a healthy place and everything will benefit, not just our vines.”
– Brad Bergman, Chairman and long supporter of the Nature Conservancy.
A portion of our profits go to benefit the work to protect our environment.
TAGGART VINEYARD
Our estate vineyard was planted in May 2019, although we purchased this long hill within the SeVein project back in 2017. Taggart Vineyard had only ever been used for pasture and wheat lands since its settlement in the mid-19th century. However, because so much of this part of the Pacific Northwest is deep loess, our vineyard contained virtually no organic material when we took possession. We began by planting and plowing under as many useful plants as we could. Over two years, we endeavored to create a living biome underneath the soil. When we felt that we had achieved this goal in some measure, we planted about half of the 50 acres that we own. The remainder of that land is devoted to biodiversity, along with some turn-around space for the tractors.
SOIL
We spent two years tilling various beneficial plants into our soils at Taggart Vineyard. This year we included bio-char into the mulch at the beginning of the season. We appear to be the first to use bio-char in our area; it’s our effort to assist the plant in using nitrogen more efficiently.
SEVEIN water project
SeVein is a vineyard holding and water association in the Walla Walla Valley, located on the Oregon side of the AVA and known for producing some of the state’s finest grapes. Our piece of the SeVein is a hill that gently slopes down towards a draw of the Lower Dry Creek. Above us is Leonetti’s Serra Pedace Vineyard; to our west is Betz Family Vineyard. The top of our vineyard is at 1200-feet elevation; at the bottom, it’s 950 feet. That gentle slope to the north and northeast provides some solace from what can otherwise be very warm and sunny growing conditions. At the top, we’re open and exposed to the wind that seems to find moments to whip through the vineyards, giving us some protection from humidity pressures, but potentially lacerating the vines themselves. Lower down the hill, we’re more sheltered.
VARIETIES
The SeVein vineyard development project has quickly established itself as a premier set of vineyards in the southern area of Walla Walla. Taggart is our favored spot within SeVein. With the heat of the area and the rough wind that likes to toughen up grape skins, Taggart is ideally poised to create a vin de garde. It’s a mix of Bordeaux varieties with differing clones of Cabernet Sauvignon (at the top of the hill), Merlot and Cabernet Franc in the middle and at the lower elevation where it’s a bit more protected. The small section off on its own to the west (top-left of the drawing) includes a small amount of Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon. The first crop will come off of our vineyard in 2022.
BIODIVERSITY & LOCAL IMPACT
Our plan for these biodiversity spaces is based first upon what will thrive in the area. Determining that isn’t as simple as it sounds. Our initial instinct is to select plants that are native to the area, but history isn’t fixed—even the history of plants in a place. Humans and other creatures have an impact. They make choices, consciously or unknowingly. Those choices can alter the flora and fauna of a place.
We’ve bought many of our plants from local nurseries. We leaned on their expertise to make our choices. We also looked around at similar areas and asked if there were plants that might provide a useful habitat to the animals that can provide a healthier environment. While we don’t subscribe to any particular dogma, we feel bound to a larger worldview that the growth of vines and the production of grapes is merely a part of the health of a place. We’re not going to allow pesticides or herbicides. We will work with local farmers to secure manure from local sheep, chickens, and cows to fertilize our lands. We’ll use pheromone traps for some of the insects we find ourselves fighting, but our most important assets for insect control are birds and raptors. To that end, we employ a falconer to keep the vineyard clear of moles, voles, and other varmints.
