One of Washington’s Most Remarkable Wine Regions Isn’t Where You Think It Is

Why are there legendary books about rivers but not lakes? I’ll take the latter every time. A river runs not only through it, but through you — often, it’s hard to stand, swim, or float. A lake, by contrast, is a gentle sea writ small. And if it’s out west, chances are my feet feel smooth pebbles rather than northeastern muck, and the water is so limpid that I can see them as clearly as if I wasn’t standing in water at all. When I am west of the Continental Divide, I orient myself by the distance from the nearest Lake of Distinction, my personal seal of approval. Should I end up in trouble (intrusive relatives, loneliness, too much steak), it’s only this far to salvation.

This lake lizard marvels at Montana, is inspired by Idaho, ogles all that Oregon blue, but keeps going to the ultimate wonder: Washington. Lake Crescent, Ross Lake, Lake Whatcom — much like sunshine in California and highway exits in New Jersey, Washington has cornered the lake market. However, for years I had been hearing from fellow lake lovers that my Washington lake portfolio was missing a crucial investment. The lake in question was locally beloved but nationally unknown and had something so few Lakes of Distinction do: a mix of total solitude and bigger-place sophistication. So I booked a flight to Seattle and drove three hours east to Lake Chelan.

Lake Chelan is the Chile of lakes: more than 50 miles long and only one mile wide. There are just three permanent settlements, but over the past two decades, the region has transformed from the nation’s apple orchard into one of its most intriguing winemaking areas. In 2009, 24,040 acres along the shores of the southernmost portion of the lake were officially recognized as an American Viticultural Area.

For a long time, Lake Chelan’s relatively northern location meant it was a place to make wine from grapes grown elsewhere, but a cohort of young winemakers is out to change that. For them, Chelan is a unique viticultural area of pumice-heavy volcanic soils, easy water access, temperatures moderated by the lake effect, and considerable elevation. As a result, it’s a haven for early- to mid-ripening grapes like Sauvignon Blanc and Merlot; distinctive, acid-forward whites and rosés; and, when young winemakers can find the confidence to ignore the temptation to over-oak, reds of substance and nerve.

The first vines for production were planted in Chelan in 1998. “Chelan is in elementary school as a wine region,” Travis Clark, the head winemaker at Amos Rome Vineyards, told me. I was visiting the airy tasting room overlooking the lake that he and his wife, Briana, recently opened near the community of Manson on Lake Chelan’s north shore, where the area’s most exciting wineries can be found. In 2020, the Clarks moved here from Seattle to give their vines room to roam — and their children room to snack on the grapes, whether they’re ripe or not. “The two rows nearest the house always have toddler damage,” Travis said. “‘Still sour, Dad!’”

Despite the sun of an early September day, the tasting room was as cool as a cellar, an impression enhanced by the crisp, floral sting of Clark’s sparkling Blanc de Pinot Noir and a steely Cabernet Franc rosé. “Our goal is to prove that award-winning wines can come from fruit grown right here,” he said. Amos Rome is one of only a handful of local producers using 100% estate-grown fruit.

Chelan’s most polished bottles come from the “veterans” of the Seattle transplants: Charlie and Lacey Lybecker, who run Cairdeas Winery, which just opened a copper-roofed, gambrel-barn-style tasting room. Charlie makes wines of tremendous precision, using predominantly Rhône varietals, both well-known (Syrah, head-trained here just as it is in the Rhône) and not (Clairette Blanche, which makes a bone-dry but still lushly aromatic single-varietal sparkler).

“We moved here [in 2012] from Seattle because we didn’t want to lose the water and the mountains,” Charlie told me. “It was pizza and burgers then. But wineries have made Chelan a year-round destination, and the wines have become quite good.”

The counterpart to the earthly pleasures of “down lake,” which cluster around the towns of Chelan and Manson, hides out near Lake Chelan’s northwestern tip. The first time I heard about the community of Stehekin, it sounded mythical. Located where the Cascade Mountains meet the Pacific Crest Trail, it’s one of the remotest spots in the Lower 48 — reachable only by foot, boat, or plane and inhabited year-round by only 35 households.

I wanted to savor the passage along the length of the lake, so I took the slow boat from Chelan. After 30 minutes, the last houses vanished. After that, the sun-parched ridges that bracket the lake radiated silence broken only by the drone of the ferry as it furrowed the water. At one point, the boat acquired a human dolphin in its wake — a man on a Jet Ski who surfed the waves as if the machine under him didn’t weigh half a ton. But then he, too, disappeared, and we passengers were left alone with that slightly uneasy awe that accompanies a retreat into true wilderness.

My visit to Stehekin had Cinderella rules: I had four and a half hours to make it back for the last boat down lake. Stehekin has only one road, intermittently paved, which runs 13 miles roughly west of the boat landing until the Cascades take over. Its worthy detours include a historic homestead and a bakery. But there was no question where I was going: Agnes Gorge, flanked by the 8,115-foot Agnes Mountain, rare namesakes of my wild and willful three-and-a-half-year-old daughter. The trailhead was 11 miles away, and the trail itself another two and a half miles by foot. Could I cycle 22 miles and hike five in the time I had, with a pit stop at the bakery? I decided to try, and I snagged the last e-bike from a rental shop by the loading dock.

If bodies of water could marry, and Lake Chelan had fallen hard for the Caribbean, you’d get the 11 miles of sunstruck mountain and turquoise water past which I cycled. Periodically, I stopped to listen to the flow of glacial runoff still coming down from the Cascades in early September. When I did pass the rare hiker or bicyclist, we exchanged looks of marvel that acknowledged the otherworldly wormhole into which we had magically fallen.

The Agnes Gorge Trail consists of serene, leaf-dappled shade at a slight incline until it suddenly gives way to the torrent of a waterfall. Quiet at first, Dionysian at the heart — this was my daughter, too. Looking over the furious, foaming water, I recorded her a brief time-capsule message, which said, in part: “May your life be full of wilderness, however you define it.”

Then I raced back.

Getting there

Most visitors opt to fly intoSeattle and rent a car for thethree-hour drive to the lake,or into Spokane, a two-and-a-half-hour drive.

Where to taste

Amos Rome vineyards

Stop by the tasting room overlooking the lake at one of the region’s most exciting wineries to try some of the few 100% estate-grown wines in the area.

Cairdeas Winery

At Cairdeas (pronounced CAR-diss, meaning “alliance” in Gaelic), Charlie Lybecker crafts Rhône-inspired wines so popular they rarely make it out of the state.

Chelan Valley Farms

The hills that surround a smaller lake called Roses are Alps-level pastoral pretty — and are where Chad and Jeana Steiner have just bottled their first vintages of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay under the Lagriōth label. Depending on the season, the farm also has you-pick flowers and apples.

Hard Row to Hoe vineyards

Don and Judy Phelps run this experimental, environmentally focused winery where they play with both estate grapes and not, creating serious Barbera and Malbec and easy-drinking Shameless Hussy wines.

Rootwood Cider

Long before Lake Chelan became an AVA, the region was known for its apples. One historic, family-owned orchard started a cidery offshoot in 2015 that is now run by three sisters producing small-batch craft ciders.

Succession Wines

Brock Lindsay makes some of the most lauded wines in the valley, including a lovely, medium-bodied Pinot and a reserve Syrah. The tasting room and picnic tables overlooking the vines are truly delightful.

Where to eat and drink

Rocky Pond Winery

The winery’s downtown Chelan tasting room offers tastings, wine flights, and snacks Tuesday to Sunday. They’re planning to add more culinary experiences at their estate in Orondo in 2024.

Tsillan Cellars

One of the first producers to plant vines in the area (in 2000), they’re now one of the biggest and most decorated. Visit their on-site restaurant, Sorrento’s, for Italian-inspired bites in a grandiose Tuscan-style setting.

Where to stay

The Lookout

The Lookout is a lakeside village near the town of Chelan, with resort-style amenities such as swimming pools, firepits, an outdoor kitchen, and a marina. It offers more than 100 vacation rentals, ranging from multifamily homes to smaller cottages that are both comfy and stylish. From $386

The Farm House

Chelan Valley Farms rents out a modern guesthouse right in the middle of its vines, with gorgeous views of the vineyard, orchard, Roses Lake, and the Cascades. From $300