In 2024, when the founders of Barons decided to retire from the wine industry, we acquired their former tasting room space in Walla Walla. With a shared passion for the land, we saw an opportunity to invest in their legacy and dedicate one of our labels to this respected brand. Here is a bit of their history.  

Barons Winery was started after a chance bid off at the Auction of WA Wines in 1999. Two groups of gentlemen went head-to-head bidding each other up for an auction package that included a wine tasting trip through Europe. Group 1 was Gary McLean (trucking) and Chuck Carpenter (lumber-Weyerhaeuser executive) and Group 2 was Rick Holly (Plumb Creek lumber), Dan Dutton (lumber), and Bill Currie (United Forestry Products). All five guys were big wine collectors and loved drinking wine. Chuck Carpenter was making wine in his garage and at one point Gary McLean was one of the largest wine collectors on the West Coast.

The two groups had bid up each other so high, the donor, Antinori, said he would double the trip if both groups agreed to go together. This is where the trucker and all the lumber guys met and then later traveled through Europe tasting wine. While on their trip, the group got to talking about wouldn’t this be fun to do ourselves? To have our own winery?

Once they returned home, the five guys decided to take a research trip to Napa Valley to visit Silver Oak and some other wineries. Their goal was to try and emulate Silver Oak Cabernet but from WA State. They met with the owner and winemaker and during that meeting Silver Oak talked about the use of American Oak to produce their wine and when Barons’ first started producing the Columbia Valley Cabernet Sauvignon in 2001, they used American Oak. They used American oak from 2001-2011 Columbia Valley Cabernet Sauvignon and then switched to French oak in 2012. The Red Mountain Cabernet was first produced in 2009 and was always produced using French oak.

The name Barons came from the original owners being “barons” of industry (lumber & transportation) and wanting to be “Barons” of wine.