Exploring the Rattlesnake Hills AVA

The lush vineyard-covered landscape of this wine-growing region is home to delicious estate-grown cuvees and welcoming tasting rooms

Written by Bob Johnson
Photographed by Michelle Johnson

SAL LEONE had a successful periodontal practice. Then in 1986, he decided to get into the wine business. Why?

“No one loves his or her periodontist,” he explains. “We do surgeries on sensitive teeth. We cause pain. It wasn’t the most rewarding business. But the wine business is full of romance. When you tell someone you’re in the wine business, they love you. The combination of food, wine and music is what life is all about. We’re in the romance business.”

Yet wine tourism in the Rattlesnake Hills region of Eastern Washington has seen a dip lately with the proliferation of tasting rooms in the Greater Seattle area, especially since the pandemic.

“But what we have that they don’t have is vineyards,” Leone points out. “If you want the wine-country experience and the atmosphere, come here.”

In addition to soaking in the vineyard scenery, visitors can nosh on pizza, panini and charcuterie—assembled by Leone himself—at Silver Lake Winery, take in a concert at VanArnam Vineyards, and attend events like the annual Crush for Cancer at Whitman Hill Winery, where owners Scott and Denise Whitman are cancer survivors.

The American Viticultural Area (AVA) known as Rattlesnake Hills is a sub-appellation of the Yakima Valley AVA. Named after the Northern Pacific rattlesnake, sometimes seen slithering on the area’s slopes, it encompasses 68,500 acres around the town of Zillah, 1,807 of which are planted to grapevines. Soils in the AVA vary based primarily on the altitude of the vineyards, which generally are higher in elevation than Yakima Valley as a whole.

Marissa Dineen, owner and vintner of Dineen Vineyards, says the best reason to visit Rattlesnake Hills is the opportunity to make a visual connection between the wines and their source.

“You can literally step out of the tasting room and see and touch the vines that grow the grapes to make the wine,” she notes.

Or as Emily Fergestrom, owner and winemaker of Fortuity Cellars, puts it: “You’re out in the middle of Yakima Valley ag land. You’ve left the city behind.”

More than a dozen and a half wineries dot the Rattlesnake Hills landscape and welcome guests.

“Atmosphere is very important for me,” says Lauren LaPierre, tasting room manager of LaPierre Farms & Winery, who studied business at Gonzaga University in Spokane and joined the family business when the decision was made to make wine in addition to growing grapes and other fruit. “Our tasting room is so approachable; it’s not pretentious. It’s an elevated experience but it’s for everyone.”

Hyatt Vineyards has been evolving by respecting tradition while embracing innovation since the passing of founder Leland Hyatt in 2023.

General manager Ashley Koempel describes it as “a great place to visit if you want to experience the history, tradition and uniqueness of everything this valley has to offer. We take winemaking seriously, but we don’t take ourselves seriously.”

Music can be a big part of the tasting room experience, and Dichotomy Vineyards may be the only winery this side of Sydney playing Australian alternative hits. Rosie Signer-Jenner and Jared Jenner own the estate, and Jared is a Down Under native.

Scenery also is an allure, and it’s available in spades at Bosma Estate Winery, where founder Julie Bosma has been told that the views are the best in the entire valley.

Bosma winery also is part of an ongoing movement in the Rattlesnake Hills: a move to estate-grown wines.

“My husband Steve and I started as wine grape growers in 2005,” says Bosma, adding that they embraced the endeavor out of a love of wine. “In 2016, we decided we were going to make wine, and founded the winery the next year. But we were winegrowers first, and that’s the trend in this valley because we can take those grapes and make absolutely fabulous wine.”

Leone says that Silver Lake was only the 35th winery in the state of Washington when it was founded, “and back then we thought that was too many, so we also made alcoholic apple cider.” But, as history has shown, the wine business endured in Washington, and Silver Lake stands as one of the longest continuously running wineries in the state.

At Dineen Vineyards, the flagship red wine is a Left Bank of Bordeaux-style wine that carries the name Heritage. “The name is a toast to what we’re all about,” says Dineen. “We have the farming tradition and multi-generational ownership.”

Brothers Patrick and Matt Rawn operate Two Mountain Winery, with Patrick serving as vineyard manager and Matt overseeing production and sales.

“We grew up as farmers and look at ourselves as farmers,” Patrick says. “We make wines that are authentic to this place.”

The Rawn brothers also embrace another trend in the Rattlesnake Hills: sustainable winegrowing.

“It’s much more about growing the wine than making it into something else,” Patrick explains. “We spend a lot of time thinking about soil health and building soil biology. We’re purposely growing grasses in the vine rows in support of soil health.”

When the LaPierre family bought its estate vineyard, it was being farmed for bulk grape sales.

“We just started farming organic and it has been so cool to see the vineyard get so much better,” LaPierre says. “It requires you to get creative and problem solve in different ways. My dad started farming organic before it was trendy to do so. Now, it’s engrained in our philosophy.”

As various forms of sustainable farming spread across the Rattlesnake Hills, it’s also not uncommon for visitors to meet the men and women who make the wines they’re tasting.

That’s one of the allures of Dichotomy Vineyards, which boasts not one but two winemakers with its husband-and-wife team. Rosie and Jared met at the McLaren Vintners custom crush facility when Rosie was visiting Australia.

“It made wine for a multitude of labels,” Jared says, “so we got to make wines of all different varieties, blends and styles.”

Now, they’re raising a son and a daughter at their winery, where the couple performs virtually all of the tasks—including pouring for guests.

“We’ve done a 20-year apprenticeship around the word,” Jared adds. “We’re excited about being the new generation coming through here.”

The personal touch also is embraced at Fortuity Cellars. “When we decided to be vintners, we embraced a new lifestyle,” says Fergestrom. “The wine [here] is poured by the people who make it.”

At VanArnam Vineyards, the wine lineup is constantly evolving.

Branden Seymour, who bought the winery last year after serving as its head winemaker for eight years, says he believes there are very few varieties the AVA can’t accommodate.

“This valley has a long growing season, which means there’s a good potential for ripening whatever we want to grow,” he says. “With proper canopy management, there are so many possibilities.”

Whether it’s dry Riesling, which Two Mountain Winery’s Matt Rawn describes as “classic Washington,” or Merlot, which put Hyatt Vineyards on the map in the 1990s and enables vintner Samantha Mallery to “follow in the footsteps of some great winemakers and bring my own style,” or Syrah, which Julie Bosma describes as “notoriously delicious in this area,” or Whitman Hill Winery’s Captain Block Cabernet Sauvignon, which Denise Whitman describes as “a big, solid, structured wine but with refined tannins so it won’t blow your tongue out of your mouth,” Rattlesnake Hills deserves to be explored—and not passed by on the way to another area.

As periodontist Sal Leone and the rest of the AVA’s vintners will tell you, finding great wines in the Rattlesnake Hills won’t be anything at all like pulling teeth.