Louis Skinner doesn't romanticize winemaking. Waiting for perfect ripeness, in his words, is the most bullshit explanation he's ever heard.

We trace the path. Car geek in Los Angeles. Retail at Fine Wines in Redmond. The cellar at Betz Family Winery under Bob Betz, MW. Now he makes the wine at two of Red Mountain's most acclaimed producers, Force Majeure and Weathereye.

We open a 2022 Épinette, the right bank blend of Merlot and Cabernet Franc from the Force Majeure estate. What came out of the conversation: the Bob Betz feedback loop, the rapid color liberation test, why Red Mountain is Washington's Hermitage, the 2019 harvest he ran on a busted body with a crew that delivered, and what he'd tell anyone planting grapes in this state right now.

The Puget Sound AVA is the part of Washington wine almost nobody talks about. Most of the state's serious wine sits east of the Cascades in the rain shadow, on land that can grow basically anything. The west side is harder. It's wetter, cooler, more temperamental, and the few wines that come out of it have rarely justified the experiment. Kim and Larry Harris had 100 acres of family land in Stanwood, about 45 minutes north of Seattle, and a hunch that the answer there was Pinot Noir. They paid Washington State University to study the site for two years before planting a single vine. WSU came back with weather-station data and soil pits and a verdict: the growing-degree-days were close enough to Burgundy to take the swing.

Kim and Larry met in law school. Larry still practices; Kim spent years as an attorney in San Francisco before they moved north to figure out what to do with the family property. Larry brought a patent lawyer's brain to viticulture and a math-and-engineering background to winemaking, which translates to records he can pull on every gram of fruit and every barrel decision they've made since planting in 2011. The vineyard is six acres of Pinot Noir at 700 feet of elevation, south-facing, on sandy loam they amended with dolomite to dial in the pH. They're certified sustainable, salmon safe, and herbicide free. Bud break and pruning are done by hand row by row. The Précoce clone and the 777 clone grow eight feet apart and behave like different varietals, two weeks apart on every milestone of the season.

We tasted three. The 2025 White Pinot Noir is sourced from Celilo Vineyard and just being released to their club; this was the first bottle ever opened from that lot. The 2023 Estate Pinot Noir, Clone Précoce, took Double Gold at the San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition. The 2023 Estate Pinot Noir, Clone 777, won 98 points, Double Platinum, and Best Red in the Pacific Northwest at the Great Northwest Wine Platinum Awards, beating every red from Oregon, Washington, British Columbia, and Idaho. Larry says he is on a mission to make the best Pinot Noir in the world. After tasting all three side by side, the more interesting question isn't whether he can pull it off. It's how many people will be willing to drive 45 minutes north of Seattle to find out.