I was asked recently to explain, in layman's terms, what it means to be estate grown and bottled. Here was my response:
"I grew up on Red Mountain. If you were to open the front door of my parent’s house and take 10 steps, you’d be standing in a vineyard.
My grandparents live on Red Mountain. Their house is surrounded in every direction by the Kiona Estate vineyard.
The Kiona Vineyards and Winery tasting room has a sweeping vista of the oldest planting on Red Mountain, a 10-acre planting we lovingly refer to as “Old Block.”
I relay these stories not for my own egotism, but to convey that we are an estate winery. This is a term that has been distorted and confused by wine marketers, to the detriment of wine-drinkers everywhere.
Simply put, we grow the grapes that go into our wines. We own the vineyards ourselves. We farm the vineyards ourselves. There are no lease agreements, farming contracts, or outside viticultural consultants. And you know what? We’re good at it.
We’ve made the decision in our business to focus on what we do best: grow grapes and make wine, using our own fruit and our own expertise. That’s why you won’t see a gift shop in our tasting room. We don’t host weddings at our building. We don’t hire acoustic guitarists for Friday night happy hour. Heck, we don’t even have happy hour.
We don’t do these things because, in the big picture, they are a distraction from what is the core essence of our existence: we grow grapes and make wine, using our own fruit and our own expertise."
So there you have it.