Mount Baker Vineyards & Winery

This is the story of one man’s passion for growing and making wine. Randy Finley, owner of Mount Baker Vineyards, purchased the winery/vineyard in 1989. Prior to that, he gained fame as the creator of Seattle’s Seven Gables Theatre in the U District. However, a year’s sojourn in France gave him the wine bug, and upon his return, he purchased Mount Baker Vineyards. Now, years later, he is able to look back and reminisce. In a Whatcom County Business Pulse article in June 2002, he quipped, “They say if you start with a really large winery and handle it just right, it’ll be small in no time.” Mother Nature has a way of humbling us all.

Having a sense of humor is a prerequisite for a grape grower in northwest Washington near Mount Baker. Most years, the Nooksack Valley provides a long, mild growing season for the production of varietals favored by Mount Baker Vineyards. Randy’s 6 acres produce cool-weather grapes including chasselas, Madeleine Angevine, Müller-Thurgau, pinot noir, pinot gris, and siegerrebe. However, if the summer weather remains too cool, you do not get enough sugar. And, as we all know, without sufficient sugar, it is hard to make that all-important ingredient of good wine: alcohol. Likewise, a harsh winter can wreak havoc on the roots. Then too, the surrounding maple trees produce a powdery mildew that can ruin the grapes and negatively affect crop production.

A great way to mitigate the risk is to import Eastern Washington grapes to produce award-winning wines, such as cabernet sauvignon, merlot, lemberger, and syrah. That is precisely what Mount Baker Vineyards does. Including his estate wines, Randy is able to produce 8,000 cases per year, which requires a small army of helpers for crushing, fermenting, and bottling. Mount Baker Vineyards sells most of its wine at the winery, but you can find it in local grocery stores, wine shops, and restaurants. What’s more, Randy is quite willing to offer private-label wines and co-produce the wine, as he recently did with Kaspar Donier for Seattle-based Kaspar’s Special Events and Catering.

The other key partner to this endeavor is Randy’s spouse, Patricia Clark Finley. Her distinctive artwork adorns the walls of the tasting room and graces the wine labels of many of their releases. This convergence of land, wine, art, friends, and family define Mount Baker Vineyards.

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  Mount Baker Vineyards & Winery was featured in WineTrails of Washington as part of the Northwest Washington WineTrail on page 34!