KENNEWICK — Ste. Michelle Wine Estates, Washington’s oldest and largest winery, is selling its 14 Hands Winery Prosser to a grape grower interested in expanding into wine making.
Lynda Eller, spokeswoman for Ste. Michelle, confirmed the Woodinville company has entered a sale/leaseback agreement for the winery on Frontier Road with the Andrews family, which owns Horse Heaven Wine Co.
She described the Andrews family as one of Ste. Michelle’s largest grower partners.
“We are thrilled that the purchase of the production facility, which we no longer used, will allow the Andrews family to grow their Washington wine business,” she told the Tri-City Herald.
Global wine glut
The move comes less than a year after Ste. Michelle canceled contracts for 40% of its grape buys amid a global wine glut and across-the-board declines in consumption. It confirmed it would move production of 14 Hands from Prosser to its Columbia Crest winery near Paterson.
Eller confirmed that 14 Hands will continue to use the 14 Hands tasting room and office space in Prosser. The label will continue to be produced at Columbia Crest.
The sale has not closed, so the purchase price is not yet publicly available.
The property includes a 47,000-square-foot winery and 2,800-square foot tasting room on 18.3 acres at 660 Frontier Avenue. Benton County values the property, which offers easy access to Interstate 82 at Wine Country Road, at $19 million for tax purposes.
Horse Heaven Wine Co., owned by Angela and Rob Andrews, their son and other family members, issued a news release saying it will use the former 14 Hands space as it shifts from its focus on growing grapes for wineries to producing wine on its own. The new addition will support its custom and bulk wine programs, it said.
The company indicated it will start using just a “small portion” of the facility, but could add a bottling line and state-of-the-art equipment as its business grows. It will dedicate a section to producing McKinley Springs wines, its small-lot label currently produced on its farm.
It will begin production this fall.
Diversifying business
Justin Andrews, director of vineyard and winery operations, cast the move as a shift in response to the wine grape surplus that drove Ste. Michelle to announce it was cutting contracts with grape grower during a 2024 event held in Prosser at the Walter Clore Center. Walter Clore, not coincidentally, is across the street from 14 Hands.
“Our goal now is to diversify the business and find a better balance between grape sales, bulk wine and our own McKinley Springs wines,” he said in the release.
The Andrews family first planted wine grapes in 1980, nearly 40 years after it began farming in the Horse Heaven Hills around Prosser.
Today, it grows 27 varietals on 2,400 acres and sells grapes to 23 wineries.
