Quinton and Ruth Sturgeon, Columbia Valley Wine Lab

Columbia Valley Wine Lab opened in Prosser, Washington this past June. The company is located in the Horse Heaven Hills Wine Company building that was previously the 14 Hands production facility. Horse Heaven Wine Company purchased the building earlier this year.

“We do everything from grape to bottle, all the things that people care about,” says owner and laboratory manager Quinton Sturgeon.

The laboratory offers 33 distinct analyses, from grape check panels for harvest maturity to mid-primary and pre-bottling checks. The company has drop boxes at various locations in the Columbia Valley.

Sturgeon’s ascent to providing laboratory services to a wide swath of eastern Washington has been quick. The company was founded as Tri-Cities Wine Lab in 2022 and subsequently rebranded and relocated this past summer.

Columbia Valley Wine Lab started modestly. Sturgeon had dinner with a vineyard consultant friend who asked for a favor.

“He was dreading doing the chemistry for crush,” Sturgeon says. “He said, ‘Could you do it for me?’”

Sturgeon had a wealth of experience to complete the task. He received a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Idaho and a master’s from Washington State University, both in food science.

Sturgeon started his first post-graduate job in the wine industry as a research enologist at E. & J. Gallo, spending two years at the company. From there, he ran the Quality Assurance/Quality Control laboratory at Rogue Ales & Spirits in Newport, Oregon. After five years at Rogue, Sturgeon spent two years at Ste. Michelle Wine Estates as the company’s first dedicated microbiologist and helped build the laboratory there. At the time his friend made the request, Sturgeon was assistant manager of nutrition services at the Good Shepherd Medical Center in Hermiston, Oregon.

“I convinced my wife that it would be a good idea for not very much money to support this guy,” Sturgeon says.

The couple repurposed a bedroom in their house into a laboratory. In July of 2022, Sturgeon and his wife, Ruth, started Tri-Cities Wine Lab.

That harvest, Ruth would crush grapes in the driveway. Sturgeon would do the analyses.

“It didn’t stay small long,” he says.

It turned out that Sturgeon’s friend had a friend who was interested in the same services. That friend had another friend. Sturgeon continued to add equipment to accommodate the demand.

Many wineries in the Columbia Valley either use ETS Labs for such analyses or have an in-house laboratory. ETS has locations in Seattle and Walla Walla Valley. However, that leaves a substantial space in between.

Wine testing is expensive in terms of equipment, space, and expertise. Many Washington wineries have small, in-house laboratories. However, it can be challenging to keep them staffed and running as they should.

“If I were a winery, I would not be doing my own testing, just how expensive it is to do something like this,” Sturgeon says. “Where does the math come in?”

Since starting the company, Columbia Valley Wine Lab’s customer base has grown rapidly. “We work with everyone from vineyard consultants to small, 500 case wineries,” Sturgeon says. “We’ve got some wineries that are closer to 50,000 cases.”

Earlier this year, a friend at Horse Heaven Wine Company reached out to see if Sturgeon was interested in taking over space in the building. It was an 850 square foot turn-key laboratory.

“It was a no-brainer,” Sturgeon says. “It really has been a match made in heaven.”

This year, the company added stability testing. Sturgeon hopes to add some microbiology services in the future.

Columbia Wine Lab is a true family business. The couple are co-owners. Ruth works as the company’s courier and office manager. Sturgeon runs the laboratory. During harvest, the couple’s two children turn the crank to press grapes.

“We’re a local business, and a lot of our customers like that,” Sturgeon says. “We refer to our customers by their first names.”

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