Some people take a winding path to wine. Not Nick Mackay.

Growing up in Benton City, in the heart of the Red Mountain AVA, he was right smack in the middle of Washington’s wine country.

“Red Mountain was the cool new AVA when I was growing up,” he says.

Alan Busacca, Ph.D., aka Doctor Dirt, is one of the experts on the Capital Call Vintners team, bringing over 40 years of soil science, geology, and viticulture experience­­­, including 25 years on the faculty at Washington State University.

When you think about Italian wine grapes, the mind turns to warm afternoons sipping Chianti in Tuscany or glasses of chilled Pinot Grigio in the foothills of the Italian Alps. You don’t think inky dark Nero d’Avola in Oregon’s Columbia Gorge.