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Early this year we dug into the pessimism surrounding Washington wine industry. In addition to discussing layoffs and decreased grape purchases at Ste. Michelle Wine Estates, the largest producer in the state, we pinpointed an ongoing crisis in the Evergreen State, one of identity. Washington is home to more than 80 different grape varieties, and it seemed that there wasn’t a dominant grape or style that the state could present as an instantly recognizable calling card. But even in the midst of the doom and gloom, a star Napa Valley winemaking team sees a lot of opportunity in the Pacific Northwest.
Star vintners Chris Carpenter and Gianna Ghilarducci have headed north to an area of Washington’s Walla Walla region known as Mill Creek to establish Jett, a new winery in the Jackson Family Wines portfolio. This prodigious duo—the same one responsible for Napa’s Cardinale, La Jota, Mt. Brave, Caladan, and Lokoya—is readying its first Evergreen State release this August with Jett Skysill Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon from 2021.
Jackson Family began buying grapes from vineyards in the state early in the decade, and it was so impressed by the quality of the fruit it decided to acquire its own land. In 2022 the company purchased 61 acres—40 of which were already under vine—and got to work. Jackson Family’s new vineyard, which it has dubbed Skysill, appealed to the team because the land near the Blue Mountains “offered both the elevation that we’re attracted to, and the area receives more rain and cooling breezes than the lands west of here,” Ghilarducci says.
Skysill vineyard
Jackson Family Wines
That elevation is no small detail to Carpenter, who is widely known as a “mountain winemaker.” In Skysill, he…