In the interest of completeness, below is the full statement I was provided by Chateau Ste Michelle on Monday June 20th regarding moving white wine production to eastern Washington and the listing of its Woodinville property for sale. Much of this statement was quoted in my original article:

At Chateau Ste. Michelle, we continually strive to craft high-quality, flavorful, award-winning wines while always looking for ways to improve how we produce our wines and strengthen our commitment to sustainability. We recently made the decision to consolidate our white wine production in Woodinville to our Eastern Washington facilities, where we make our Chateau Ste. Michelle red wines, starting with the 2022 harvest. Producing wine in Woodinville so far removed from our Eastern Washington vineyards has resulted in decades of shipping millions of gallons of white wine to our Woodinville facility and burning nearly 75,000 gallons of diesel through over 1,600 freight trips each year. 

With this change to our winemaking operations, we are evaluating how to best utilize the facility going forward, including exploring a potential sale of our Woodinville property, or perhaps a portion of it. While a sale of the property has not been predetermined, we are considering all options as we continue to look for ways to improve how we produce our wines, strengthen our commitment to sustainability, and grow the Chateau Ste. Michelle brand. This process is still in the exploratory phase and could take years to implement, if at all. In the meantime, we will continue to make world-class Chateau Ste. Michelle wines from Washington’s top vineyards, host exciting wine experiences in our tasting room, and welcome the community to our 2022 Summer Concert Series.

Image by Richard Duval.