Airfield Estates

Yakima Valley was settled many years ago by families who have often held onto the land for generations. Airfield Estates is a case in point—their fourth generation is working the land and, now, making wine.

H. Lloyd Miller worked at JC Penney in Pendleton (and was actually good friends with JC Penney), but the lure of homesteading in Yakima was too much to resist. He started a real estate company in Sunnyside, Washington, and became an advocate for a second irrigation project. At that time, the Sunnnyside Valley Irrigation District (SVID) irrigated the valley floor, but the hillside farmland remained covered in sage brush. "Cold air settles in the low elevations. You want to grow grapes and apples on sloping land so that cold air ‘drains’ and they don’t freeze," explains the fourth generation, Marcus Miller. "My great grandfather’s vision for the valley is what allows us to make great wines today." H. Lloyd became the principal lobbyist in Washington, D.C. for the Roza Irrigation Project. Understanding the Roza potential, he and his family secured 1000 acres of some of the best land that would be irrigated.

Photo above: the Miller family with H. Lloyd at the far left and Mike as a boy

When WWII started, the canal was not yet complete and H. Lloyd’s land still had no water. With his connections, he got a small airbase located on his property in 1942. The "air college," as it was called, was owned by the Olympic Transport Company. Civilian pilots trained young military cadets on planes like the Stearman bi-wing aircraft. The infrastructure of the airbase included two dirt runway strips, three hangars, barracks, a mess hall and water tower. According to Marcus, there are many stories about the purpose of the airbase. "Our ‘conspiracy theory’ surrounding the airbase is that it was

one of a series of bases strategically located around the Hanford area to guard the facilities that were enriching uranium for nuclear bombs," he says. By the end of 1944, the airbase was closed. H. Lloyd bought all the buildings from the air college at very low cost and used them as the home base for his new farming operation. Due to this unique history, H. Lloyd named the farm Airport Ranch and stamped the name on his 70-foot-tall water tower. The water arrived and soon hogs and cattle were grazing throughout the farm, and alfalfa was being grown.

The family continued to farm the land on the airbase and H. Lloyd’s son Don Miller took over the operation in the late 60s. Don did not share his father’s love of livestock and wanted to get rid of the animals. "My grandfather thought it was too risky of a business and wanted to start raising crops," says Marcus. In the 60s and 70s, Don planted sugar beets, mint, corn, wheat and a host of agricultural crops. Don was friends with Dr. Walter Clore who was doing research on wine grapes in Prosser. He felt Don’s property would be a great site for planning wine grapes. In 1968, Don planted a test block of wine grapes. The initial planting included Riesling, Semillon and Zinfandel and was sold to home winemakers in Canada. "In 1968, there were just a handful of wineries in Washington," says Marcus. In 1972, Ste. Michelle Vintners (renamed Chateau Ste. Michelle in 1976) planted its first vines at Cold Creek Vineyard in Eastern Washington. Airport Ranch began selling grapes to the winery. As Ste. Michelle grew over the decades, Airport Ranch grew with it. The family began planting more and more grapes. By the late 80s, wine grapes were the largest crop. "In the late 80s and into the mid 90s, my father Mike planted a lot of wine grapes," says Marcus. "We now have 850 acres of wine grapes, 350 acres of Concorde grapes and 70 acres of asparagus. We’ve found our niche. We’ve been growing grapes for a long time and have learned how to do it well. Each year, Airport Ranch vineyards produce around 4000 tons of wine grapes that make over three million bottles of wine. The grapes are sold to Chateau Ste. Michelle, Hogue Cellars and numerous small wineries in the Yakima and Walla Walla Valleys and Oregon."

Photo above: H. Lloyd Miller

While the family has been growing grapes for forty years, they have just begun making wine. Marcus Miller, the family winemaker pictured at right, got his undergrad in business and his MBA in finance. After seven years away, he wasn’t sure about moving home and working on the family farm. "I had my MBA and felt I had to find out if farming was something that I wanted to do with my life," he says. "The first few months were very rough. Dad had me doing a whole bunch of miserable jobs out in the cold. When he told me there was a conference coming up on grape growing and winemaking, I jumped at the chance so that I could get indoors for a few days." It was at that conference, the Washington Wine Grape Grower’s Convention, that Marcus became excited about winemaking. "I heard Ted Baseler, CEO of Chateau Ste. Michelle, speak about what was happening in the Washington wine industry. Twelve Washington wines had been rated in the top 100 wines in the world, yet we only represented .3% of the world’s wine grape acreage. It wasn’t hard to see that Washington was over-delivering on quality, and that we had a bright future ahead of us." That same year, he enrolled in the WSU wine program in the Tri-Cities, taking chemistry classes. In the fall of 2003, he entered the Walla Walla Viticulture and Enology program. Within a week of his arrival, he was making his first wine, a Syrah, from grapes from the family farm. "It wasn’t the best wine I’ve ever made, that’s for sure!" With all of his experience on the family farm and working for Chateau Ste. Michelle, Marcus was able to graduate from Walla Walla’s wine program in one school year.

Airfield Estates 560 Merlot Drive Prosser, WA 99350 509-786-7401 www.airfieldwines.com

Photos courtesy of Airfield Estates.

Next month, we'll complete the story of how the winery came to be and the wines they're making.

Connie Adams/January 2010

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