A few weeks ago, I was in the Three Rivers Winey tasting room to taste wines that will be reviewed in the February issue of the Review of Washington Wines. While there, I noticed a bottle of The Four Graces Pinot Noir from Oregon on the counter. This reminded me that the Three Rivers and Four Graces wineries are under the same ownership. Here's more about this and other Walla Walla Valley and Willamette Valley connections.

The Three Rivers and The Four Graces (located in McMinville, Oregon) wineries are in the Foley Estates portfolio which includes the Chalk Hill, Chalone, Foley Estates and several other California wineries. The owner is Bill Foley, who also owns the National Hockey League team, the Vegas Golden Knights. 

Over a year ago, the Seven Hills Winery was acquired by the Crimson Wine Group, headquartered in Napa, California. Casey McClellan has continued as the winemaker. Crimson's Great Estates portfolio includes Archery Summit in Oregon and Pine Ridge, Seghesio and others in California. In the past few months, I have been receiving emails offering Archery Summit wines along with those of Seven Hills as a "Northwest Collection."

Last year, the Walla Walla Vintners winery was acquired by Oregon software, Scott Haladay of Portland. Haladay grew up in Lake Oswego, in proximity to Willamette Valley wineries and was looking for a winery to invest in and came upon Walla Walla Vintners which he bought from Myles Anderson and Gordy Venneri. 

Another Willamette Valley connection is Jim Berneau of Willamette Valley Vineyards in Turner, Oregon. Berneau is also the owner of Pambrun Vineyards which owns vineyards in Oregon and the Walla Walla Valley. Jon Meuret is the winemaker for Pambrun, as well as for his own Maison Bleue winery. Both the Pambrun and Maison Bleue wines are poured at the tasting room on South Second in downtown Walla Walla. A new winery and tasting room is under construction in the "Rocks" of the South Walla Walla Valley.

So here, we have some connections between the Willamette and Walla Walla Valleys, along with portfolio inter marketing and management. There also has been expanded marketing of Oregon wines in Washington. This is an interesting development in the increasing inter-state development of winery ownership. In the February issue of the Review of Washington Wines, I will be including a selection of Oregon wines in the Best Buys section.