At Watermill Winery, our story begins in the vineyard. Long before the wine reaches the bottle or the tasting room, it starts in the earth. Five estate vineyards across two of the Pacific Northwest’s most distinctive appellations, each one chosen because it was right, not because it was easy.
Our vineyards in the Rocks District of Milton-Freewater are at the heart of what we do. Its ancient cobblestone soils and unrelenting growing conditions force the vines to struggle, and that struggle produces wines with remarkable depth, structure, and character. The vineyard becomes the signature. Bold, expressive, and unmistakably tied to the land it comes from.
Leading that work is Israel Zenteno, our Director of Winemaking. Israel’s path to The Rocks District spans three decades and two countries — from the rocky, salt-laced soils of Baja California to winemaking programs in New Zealand, mentored by Mexico’s most distinguished winemaker before finding his way to Washington State. He didn’t come here for the obvious reasons. He came because he recognized something in this land that he’d been looking for his whole career. That conviction shows up in every vintage.
Watermill is estate-driven in every sense. We farm with intention across all five vineyard sites: from the founding Anna Marie Vineyard in the Walla Walla Valley, planted in 2001, to the experimental Dugger Creek site where we’re pushing what’s possible. We craft with restraint and let the vineyard lead the conversation.
Every bottle reflects the resilience of the land, the passion of the people behind it, and our commitment to wines that are honest expressions of where they came from. That’s not a philosophy we arrived at. It’s the one we’ve always had.