Off the Beaten Path, Rooted in Legacy at Spring Valley Vineyard
Sixth-generation winemaker Kate Derby honors family history while crafting expressive Walla Walla wines
Visitors headed to Spring Valley Vineyard in Walla Walla are encouraged to just keep going.
That’s the advice given by winemaker Kate Derby when someone makes the inevitable call to the winery, worried they’ve taken a wrong turn or their trsuty GPS has gotten them lost. As Derby continues a family-driven legacy that runs six generations deep, she does so in a place well off the usual grid of wineries.
“I’m now the sixth generation of my family that has worked this land,” Derby said. “We know the land and how it was farmed. It’s been loved and cared for by the same family with the right intentions. My childhood was spent wheat farming. I remember when we planted the vineyards. It was wheat, and now it’s grapes.”
Even though she grew up in Minnesota, Derby spent her summers in the Washington vineyards. She’s carried on the family-driven legacy even after dabbling with the idea of opening a counseling center when she was in college.
As novices to the wine business, Spring Valley landed on the prestigious Wine Spectator Top 100 list. In 2002, its ‘Uriah’ 2001 was No. 17. A year later, it was No. 13. The initial success let them know they were on to something special, but it also caught them off guard.
Scratching his head, she said her late uncle Devin joked, “What are we going to do when they realize we don’t know what we are doing?”
“This is a place with a real story, and that matters when you’re making wine,” Derby said. “You feel a responsibility to honor what came before you.”
When she led a long-distance wine event, she felt the call to join the family business. The Walla Walla winery is rooted in a deep agricultural history, which is something Derby leans into with every vintage.
