While there are many excellent places to grow grapes in Washington State, for me, the Western Columbia Gorge around Hood River and White Salmon, and the Blue Mountains in and above Walla Walla provide the most excitement. These are the two places that bring together high elevation, slope, and the opportunity for dry farming better than anywhere else in the state. The results are fresher wines than most in Washington without sacrificing depth and character. I have resisted working with Columbia Gorge fruit since 2019 as I just hated facing the drive. However, as Eastern Washington growers have been slow to adopt organic farming and forward facing viticulture practices (its coming, just very slowly, bit by bit), I was finally driven back to the Gorge in 2025 with two new Organic sites. Here are the new Devium wines for spring 2026, a wonderful contrast of the Western and Eastern ends of the Columbia Valley with a laser focus on freshness.
2024 Les Collines White Wine – $24
The 2024 vintage of the Les Collines White is a blend of 53% Viognier, 23% Marsanne, 12% Grenache Blanc, and 12% Roussanne. The high percentage of Viognier and the inclusion of Marsanne is due to the freeze in 2024. Grenache Blanc and Roussanne, which are normally the lead varieties in this wine are also the most susceptible to freeze damage. Fortunately, that hasn’t had a negative impact on the finished product, as this is the finest Les Collines White so far and a wine that I can’t stop drinking myself. After two vintages with easy, smooth, happy fermentations, the 2024 vintage brought a more challenging fermentation that lasted into early 2025. While difficult ferments are incredibly stressful, they can also make for a more compelling wine, and in this instance, I think you will find this new vintage to be significantly more complex than the previous iterations while still being just as drinkable.
2025 Crooked Acres Gruner Veltliner – $24
Crooked Acres is a certified organic site high up on Underwood Mountain at around 1300’ elevation. I have never made a Gruner before, and in fact, I had never even seen a Gruner grape cluster before the 2025 vintage, so this was a completely blank slate. We picked the grapes when they were full of energy, gently foot crushed everything, macerated it for 3 days and then pressed off into a stainless steel tank. While I don’t typically choose to ferment white wines in stainless steel, I didn’t have any barrels available when the Gruner arrived. So, this was fermented mostly in Stainless, then racked into a combination of neutral barrels and stainless steel barrels to age until being bottled in February. The resulting wine is pure electricity, a mélange of green pepper, citrus fruit, and an underpinning of structure. I am thrilled with this new wine and can’t wait to share it with you all.
2025 Rainmaker Vineyard Trousseau – $24
The ethereal, pale, and surprisingly deep reds of Jura are some of my favorite wines in the world. When the opportunity to make a trousseau presented itself, I didn’t hesitate for a minute. The Trousseau comes from Rainmaker Vineyard in the Columbia Gorge, a site at around 1100’ elevation just north of the town of White Salmon. I was wanting to handle these grapes with a light touch, so this was macerated whole cluster for just 10 days before being pressed into neutral French oak puncheons to finish fermentation and to age. Because of the delicacy of this light red, I didn’t want to leave it in oak for two long, so it was bottled last month with just a small dose of SO2. You might notice that the label doesn’t have a vineyard designation on it, the reason is that there is a long lead time on label art, and this Trousseau took all that time and more to come around. But come around it did, this is a surprisingly deep and expansive expression wrapped up in a pale, delicate, lightweight package. It is extremely drinkable and will pair across a wide range of food. I can’t recommend this wine highly enough.
2025 Dwelley Vineyard Carbonic Dolcetto – $28
After the 2024 freeze forced us to blend Pinot Noir into our beloved Dwelley Dolcetto, here it is back in full flow. This is the purest expression of carbonic Dolcetto so far, just lovely from top to bottom with a surprising depth and tannic structure underpinning the fruit and floral aromas and flavors. I like this wine with a slight chill, pair it with anything. I have been getting so many questions of “why carbonic” on the Dolcetto, and the answer must be because it just seemed to work so well, no other explanation really fits. I don’t know why this grape and this site took so well to carbonic maceration, but I am sure glad it did as I can’t imagine making this wine any other way. No sulfites added.
2025 Breezy Slope Pinot Noir Pet Nat Rouge – $28
The second vintage of Rouge from Breezy Slope, and if anything, more delicious than the first. A little darker than the 2024, a little richer, and a lovely complexity beyond most Pet Nats. I poured this wine at Taste Washington and the response was almost overwhelming. So many times I heard, “I could drink this all day” or “this is the most delicious wine here”. While I may be biased, I do agree with the first statement, I could drink this all day, the second statement? Probably true as well. Pet Nat holds a special place for us here at Devium, I believe the first Pet Nat that we were forced into making in 2019 is what set our little project down the route we are on. I was already exploring and already pushing the boundaries, but Pet Nat has opened new horizons that I never expected. I hope that our Pet Nats continue to delight you by being foremost delicious, but also adventurous and fun. No sulfites added.
As always, we offer a 10% discount, mix and match as you like, and flat rate shipping on orders of 6+ bottles.