For Tom and Anne-Marie Hedges, who have a condo in Belltown, an office in South Lake Union and a place in Arizona, it's the chateau in the vineyards of Red Mountain that they call home. When they bought the land, 20 years ago, Red Mountain was no more than a geological anomaly, a modest bump in the desert landscape above Benton City at the east end of the Yakima Valley. It turned out, of course, to be an incredible location, and for the past two decades the entire Hedges family--their kids Christophe and Sarah, along with Tom's brother Pete--have dedicated themselves to creating and maintaining for Red Mountain a reputation as the best vineyard site in the state,.with Hedges Family Estates casting themselves as guardians of its terroir and tradition.
You won't find Hedges Family Estate wines "rated" anywhere; Chris, in particular, calls numerical ratings "clumsy and useless." What you will find, on the HedgesFamilyEstate website are half a dozen terrific short videos that show you the vineyards, the chateau, and its occupants without any of the stuffiness that normally afflicts the wine industry. These are serious and hard-working folks who know how to have fun; their feet are planted firmly in France (Anne-Marie grew up in Champagne) and the soils of eastern Washington (Tom grew up in Richland). Chris serves as national sales manager, chief label designer and actual builder of the chateau; their daughter Sarah Goedhart is the assistant wine maker. The wines are consistently at the top of their class, by variety or by blend, you name the price point.
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This weekend, you can visit Hedges along with the rest of Red Mountain's wineries; it's the annual Red Mountain Block Party, your once-a-year chance to visit a baker's dozen wineries and to "taste with your feet." Tickets at Eventbrite.
A reminder, mandated by the FTC, that my visit to Red Mountain earlier this year was sponsored by the Tri-Cities Visitor Bureau.
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