Airfield Estates Winery

Our family has been farming in the Yakima Valley for four generations.  We planted our first wine grapes in 1968.  Today, we grow 27 different wine grape varietals spanning over 900 acres.  Our family is dedicated to producing 100% estate wines that showcase the quality of our vineyards.

To honor and pay tribute to our aviation heritage, our winery was built to resemble the old WWII airplane hangars that were once located on our family farm.  The facility is complete with hangar doors that open to the patio and waterfall area.  As you enter the tasting room, you will be greeted to the tunes of 1940’s Big Band Music, and you can feel free to browse the historical photos and remnants that are on display.  There is also a 45-foot tower that serves as our VIP tasting room & library.

The Airfield Estates Vineyard is located in the heart of the Yakima Valley Appellation (Washington State’s first designated AVA). The valley is located in the south-central portion of the state and is approximately equidistant from Seattle, Portland, and Spokane.  It sits on the same parallel as the famous Bordeaux region of France, and some of its vineyards are amongst the best in the state.  In total, there are over 11,000 acres of vineyards in the Yakima Valley -- making the Yakima Valley AVA the largest producer of wine grapes in Washington State.

Airfield has been producing grapes for over 40 years. This viticultural experience has helped us tailor our vineyards to maximize each one’s potential. We are dedicated to the principle of sustainability, and we tirelessly search for softer, environmentally friendly products and methods to use in our farming operation.

The unofficial story is that the military airbase had ulterior motives. It was not just designed for training pilots. During the war years, there were six small airbases that made a horseshoe pattern around Hanford Reach. These bases were located near Moxee, Ephrata, Connell, Othello, Richland, and “Airfield’s” base in Sunnyside. These bases were strategically located around Hanford Reach in order to conduct surveillance over the highly classified Hanford Nuclear Reservation that was refining plutonium for the atomic bombs that would eventually be dropped on Nagasaki and Hiroshima. The airbase also provided potential defense if we came under attack because the runways were long enough to allow for the landing of larger fighter and attack aircrafts. Although these are just rumors, they do make a lot of sense.