About Ste. Michelle Wine Estates
Ste. Michelle Wine Estates (SMWE) is Washington state’s founding wine company, with roots that go back to the end of Prohibition in 1934. Over the decades, it has led the way in planting vinifera grape varieties such as Riesling, Chardonnay, Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon, enabling the state to emerge as one of the great wine regions of the world. Furthermore, it has become the anchor of the Washington wine industry, which has grown from just 20 wineries to more than 500 since the mid-1980s.
Today, SMWE ranks among the top 10 producers of premium wines in the United States, with a broad portfolio of super-premium wines that receive consistent acclaim and high ratings from leading critics. In the past 12 years, Wine Spectator magazine has chosen 31 SMWE wines for its prestigious list of the “Top 100 Wines of the World.” As further proof of their international caliber, the company’s products are also exported to more than 45 countries, such as Canada, Denmark, Germany, Japan, and Switzerland, and can be found on worldwide cruise lines and airlines.
Wineries
SMWE owns a number of Washington-based wineries, including Chateau Ste. Michelle, Columbia Crest, Col Solare, Northstar, Snoqualmie, Spring Valley, Red Diamond, Domaine Ste. Michelle, 14 Hands, and Stimson Estate Cellars. It also owns 3,400 acres of prime vineyards in Washington and contracts for grapes on another 12,000 acres.
Elsewhere, SMWE’s wineries include Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars, Conn Creek, and Villa Mt. Eden in California’s Napa Valley, and Erath in Oregon.
Partnerships
Chateau Ste. Michelle, the company’s oldest and most acclaimed winery, maintains international winemaking partnerships with the Marchesi Antinori family of Tuscany and Dr. Loosen of Germany. The former produces Col Solare, a luxury red wine, while the latter is responsible for Eroica, the wine widely acknowledged to have started a Riesling renaissance in the United States.
In 2006, the first of those joint-venture partnerships opened a new, architecturally significant winery on Red Mountain in eastern Washington, which is a prime site for red grapes. The 30-acre estate vineyard was planted in 2007.
Also in 2006, SMWE formed a historic strategic alliance with the Antinori family to become the exclusive U.S. distributor for the portfolio’s ultra-luxury wines Tignanello and Solaia, as well as Tormaresca, Montenisa, Haras de Pirque and Antinori California.
Vision
"Ste. Michelle Wine Estates will be recognized as the premier fine wine company in the world."
Locations
Headquarters: Woodinville, WA
Wineries: Woodinville, WA;
Paterson, WA; Benton City; WA;
Prosser, WA; Walla Walla, WA;
Dundee, OR; St. Helena, CA; Napa, CA
Internet Address
www.ste-michelle-wine-estates.com
Contacts
Media Relations
(425) 415-3738
Investor Relations
(203) 817-3520