Chinook Wines

Hindsight makes things seem so clear. How could a young girl who used to crush grapes with her feet on the family farm in California and had a mom who was a science teacher not grow up to be a winemaker? And how could a young boy whose family owned a vineyard in Napa Valley not stay in the business? Of course, it didn’t seem that obvious back then.

Kay Simon was interested in food and nutrition and planned to become a public health nutritionist. "I loved foods and enrolled at University of California, Davis, to study nutrition," she recalls. "When I got to the disease-fermentation program, I changed my major and moved into enology." Clay Mackey’s dad retired from the Navy and moved to Napa Valley where Clay was exposed to the world of wine. Like many people, he didn’t find school and studying that interesting. Then a family friend, Louis Martini, took him to visit all his vineyards. Clay became interested and transferred from Napa Junior College to UC Davis to study viticulture.

After graduating, Kay worked at other wineries for seven years, including United Vintners in Madera, California, as a lab tech and cellar supervisor. She traveled to Washington for her brother’s college graduation and toured Chateau Ste. Michelle. She asked such in-depth questions, they asked her if she was in the business. She said yes, met the winemaker Joel Klein, who then hired her. They transferred her to Eastern Washington when she became the first winemaker at River Ridge. Clay worked at various wineries for 10 years after graduation.

Chateau Ste. Michelle had an influx of money coming from their parent company, U.S. Tobacco, and was expanding and hiring. Clay became their Eastern Washington vineyard manager in 1979. Kay and Clay met while working in the Valley. "Neither one of us really wanted to be in the corporate world," says Kay. "Clay left and returned to California briefly to work with his family, then came back in 1983 with the idea to start our own winery. My dad was an entrepreneur and my mom worked with him, so it wasn’t a foreign idea to me. We didn’t have kids so we figured what was the worst that could happen? We’d just have to go work for someone else again. We leased a place with an option to buy. It was easy to get into." A friend, Stan Clark, was a managing partner of Quail Run and a big champion of Yakima Valley. He arranged for Chinook wines to be made at Quail Run. "That’s how things were done—everyone helped each other," says Kay.

At the time Chinook was started, there were about 35 wineries in Yakima. There are now 55 member wineries, plus some just getting established, and Yakima grapes are a key ingredient in over half the wine produced in Washington state. In 1984, Kay and Clay released their first wine (1983 Sauvignon Blanc) and got married two days later. "That way people could come to both parties," explains Kay. They started out making 700 cases of Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay. They now produce 3500 cases of wine that includes three whites (Semillon, Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay) plus their Yakima Valley White blend; and three reds (Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon) plus their Yakima Valley Red blend. They also make a dry Rose from their Cabernet Franc and make carafe wines for Lola, a Seattle restaurant owned by friends Tom and Jackie Douglas. "We have stayed small and grown slowly because we’ve always wanted to be hands on," explains Kay. "We’ve created what we envisioned, including now having younger helpers involved with what we do."

Photo above: Chinook's tasting room

They bought their property and buildings in 1985 and renovated the old barn into a functioning winery. "We have invested heavily into stainless steel," laughs Kay. "For a winery of our size, we’re well equipped. If we were marketing people, we’d have a great tasting room instead of the small one we have. Instead, we have eight stainless steel tanks, three different barrel rooms and our own bottling line!" Their latest building, nearly complete, will contain a lab and office space. Fruit and nut trees remain from the original orchard.

Photo above: Chinook's bottling line

Like a number of Yakima wines, their reasonable price doesn’t match the quality of wine they produce. The future most likely holds a marketing sea change. "We’ve always had a down-home feel to what we do and in some ways we feel it’s held us back. We want the wines to be valued for what they are." It’s a pleasure to see people doing what they love—real people who enjoy their lives, the people they’ve met through their business and who create something that gives so much enjoyment to others.

Connie Adams/October 2009

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