The Coin Flip That Came Up Wine
From a bottle of wine and a coin toss to a thriving Red Mountain estate, Greg and Shae Frichette have built a winery and a life in Washington wine country.
A coin flip changed everything for Greg and Shae Frichette.
“We couldn’t decide if we wanted to move to Charleston or Washington,” Greg said with a laugh. “One night, sipping some wine, we said, ‘we’ve talked about it forever, let’s flip a coin.’ A little over a bottle of wine in, it came up heads which meant Washington won.”
That spontaneous moment set the couple on a path that would lead them to the heart of Red Mountain, one of Washington’s most acclaimed wine regions and an AVA near and dear to their hearts.
Greg, who grew up in a wheat-farming family in Washington, never imagined returning home.
“I told myself I’d never come back,” he said.
But after years working in IT in Southern California, where he met Shae, a South Carolina native pursuing an acting career, the pull of community and connection became too strong to ignore.
“We missed the farming vibe,” Greg said. “People who are nice, authentic and want to help you. Wine felt like farming with a social side.”
Even though neither had a winemaking background, Greg enrolled in Washington State University’s enology certificate program, while Shae handled branding and customer experience.
“That 18-month program gave me just enough to get a ballpark idea of what wine is,” he said. “WSU connected me with Charlie Hoppes, who tutored me. He’s a Hall of Fame winemaker and was the greatest connector in all this.”
By 2011, their wines were resting in barrels, but they needed a home. For a year and a half, Greg drove around the Red Mountain AVA, knocking on doors of property owners.
“We got four ‘no’s’ from the couple we eventually bought from,” he said. “Then a few months later, they emailed saying they needed to downsize.”
It also provided the name of their estate wine. The Frichette “Persistent” Red Mountain 2022 ($52). A youthful, charming blend of Cabernet Sauvignon (77%), Cab Franc (23%) that leans more towards raspberry fruit flavors but also incorporates a juicy mouthfeel and tobacco notes.
The Frichette’s purchased a shell of a barn in 2012 and transformed it into a working winery and tasting room. They opened their doors on September 28, 2013, becoming the last new winery to join the AVA before water rights were capped and new wells prohibited.
From the start, the couple did everything themselves.
“We built our building in 2016, after leasing space in Richland,” Greg said. “We pieced together all our equipment and did enough to make 3,000 cases of the quality wine we wanted. My wife and I do it all.”
The 2024 harvest, Greg said, was unlike any other.
“It was probably the most unique year I’ve made wines since 2015,” Greg said. “It was really warm up here, sugars got high quicker, but acids stayed higher. The wines are brighter. So, instead of ripe blackberry from our two-acre estate, it’s ripe raspberry.”
He calls himself a “fair-weather winemaker,” doing everything outdoors. But his approach is grounded in precision. He’s embraced soft tannins, French oak and balance.
