Selah Heights Winery

The story of Selah Heights Winery is one guided by beliefs: the belief that a family can relocate to a new land and find happiness, the belief that wine grapes can do just fine in the Upper Yakima Valley, and the belief that you make wine to satisfy your own palate while disregarding the latest trends.

In the mid-’90s, Mike Clark packed up his family and moved to Selah from California. He hasn’t looked back. A grade-school teacher by day, Mike works the winery at night and on weekends, assisted by his young son Jesse and his father, Royce. The winery is a side venture for the family. Mike loves being a schoolteacher and harbors no dreams of being a major wine producer. Rather, his goals are modest, focusing on handcrafted estate wines. With an annual production of approximately 1,000 cases, white wines highlight the Selah Heights portfolio, including riesling, gewürztraminer, chardonnay and a white blend Mike has named “Kaleidoscope.” However, he also finds time to produce reds, including a red blend called “Tre Stelle Columbia Valley” (a blend of cabernet sauvignon, merlot and cabernet franc). Mike loves his estate pinot noir, saying that is shows early promise. By the way, a wine purchase at Selah Heights Winery won’t cost you an arm and a leg. Its premier “Kaleidoscope” sells for $9 a bottle.

At 1,500 feet in elevation, Mike’s vineyard enjoys cooler nights than the myriad vineyards found south of Union Gap in the lower Yakima Valley. He believes this location lends a unique flavor profile to his grapes and wonders aloud why many question his wisdom of planting grapes in the Selah area. He points out that grape growers are producing amazing fruit in British Columbia’s Okanagan Valley, even though many were of the opinion that it would be too cold there, too.

The Clarks are huge fans of the rural hills of Selah and the town’s friendliness, where the local hardware store employees know you by name. It’s the perfect climate for a hard-working family to reach its potential—and the same could be said for the grapes.