Kevin White of Kevin White Winery in 2015 © Richard Duval.

Kevin White Winery, one of Washington’s top producers of Rhône-style wines, has announced that the business will be winding down. The news came in an email Thursday morning to club members. The winery plans to sell through its yet-to-be-released wines from the 2023 and 2024 vintages before closing in the spring of 2026.

“We’re going to use the next year to celebrate the winery,” owner and winemaker Kevin White told Northwest Wine Report. White founded the winery with his wife Stefanie in 2010. He says the decision to close the winery was a personal one.

“For us, this is a family decision,” White says. “We’ve decided that we’re going to start thinking about what other passions Steph and I want to pursue.”

White says a number of factors aligned to contribute to the decision. The winery’s lease will be up next year. The couple’s two children finish high school shortly after the winery will shut down next year. Additionally, the 2024 vintage wines, which will be the last from the winery, come from an exceptional growing season.

“I’ve always thought we would love the last vintage to be one that we really think is stellar for Washington State,” White says. “We’re really bullish about 2024.”

Throughout Kevin White Winery’s existence, White has continued to work full-time at Microsoft, where he is a senior director at the AI for Good Lab. White was inspired to pursue a path in wine by a bottle of 2003 Côte Bonneville Carriage House Red Wine from DuBrul Vineyard. He subsequently visited the vineyard and began taking viticulture and enology classes at South Seattle Community College.

After being introduced to Chris Sparkman by Hugh Shiels at Côte Bonneville, White volunteered at Sparkman Cellars in Woodinville’s Warehouse District. He made his early wines at Baer Winery alongside cellar master Leroy Radford and winemaker Erica Orr.

As many of the Warehouse District wineries grew, Kevin White Winery blossomed along with them. White started out making four barrels of wine in 2010. Kevin White Winery moved into its own production facility in Woodinville’s Artisan Hill in 2015. In 2024, the winery made approximately 50 barrels of wine.

“It’s been such a fun journey to see everybody in the industry mature and grow,” White says. “I’ve had the honor and the privilege of working with so many amazing growers and vineyards and then, stylistically, trying to put our impression on what Washington wine could be.”

Among the early influences on White’s winemaking was Jon Meuret, founder of Maison Bleue winery. The Kevin White wines have always had a stylistic kinship with the early Maison Bleue wines, focusing on purity, vivid fruit aromas and flavors, and textural richness.

Just as Maison Bleue carried a torch that McCrea Cellars lit for Rhône-style wines in Washington decades ago, Kevin White Winery has carried that torch further. White hopes his wines have served as a catalyst to others, just as the Côte Bonneville wine did for him.

“Hopefully someone tasted one of our wines and felt inspired,” White says. (They certainly inspired this writer and critic.)

Talking with White when he launched Kevin White Winery in 2012, he listed several goals. One was to create a community, another was to make wines that fit on the dinner table, and a third was to keep his prices reasonable. The winery has accomplished all three. Kevin White wines have always been among the best quality-to-price ratio offerings in Washington, particularly the winery’s ‘Blue Label’ wine.

As Kevin White Winery gets ready to close next spring, White will be 49. He plans to take a year to think about areas he wants to focus on next.

“I’m really excited to be able to give myself some additional head space to think about what else do I want to do for the next 10 to 15 years,” White says. “We’re going to keep our options open.”

This article has been updated. 

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