Kiona Vineyards and Winery

Before Red Mountain became vineyard green, it was dusty brown. In fact, local Native Americans referred to this area as “Kiona,” which means “brown hills.” Hey, good name for a winery, don’t you think?

It must have taken a lot of intestinal fortitude for the Williams and Holmes families to set roots down on this tract of land on Red Mountain in 1972. No roads, no electricity, and the nearest water was located more than 500 feet below solid rock. Talk about your Maalox moment; indeed, there must have been times when they questioned their sanity as they surveyed miles of sagebrush and dry, crusty-looking land. However, there was water, and the roads and electric wires did come, and by 1975, through much hard work, the families succeeded in planting a small vineyard. They named it Kiona Vineyards.

If we fast-forward some 30 years later to the present, the Williams and their offspring continue to evolve their grape asset. With the recent completion of a 20,000-square-foot tasting and banquet facility, equipped with a full kitchen, Kiona Vineyards and Winery is a mandatory stop along the Red Mountain WineTrail. Built underground is the new barrel room, where wine is aged in oak at a constant temperature. In the new tasting room, you can sample Kiona’s full slate of red and white estate wines produced by second-generation winemaker Scott Williams. In keeping with the Williams family’s belief that wine should add to life’s pleasures, Scott named his second label “Vivacious Vicky,” after his wife. According to Scott, his spouse has “put up with long hours, busy harvests, lost weekends, strangers for dinner, and fruit flies for 20 years and counting.” As you will discover, this Vivacious Vicky has legs. Give the “Nice Legs” merlot a swirl, then a taste, and imagine what this place must have been like 30 years ago.

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  Kiona Vineyards and Winery was featured in WineTrails of Washington as part of the Red Mountain WineTrail on page 376!