Champoux Horse Heaven Hills AVA

Over the past several decades, Champoux Vineyard has earned a reputation as one of the world’s most acclaimed vineyard sites, consistently producing Cabernet Sauvignon fruit of extraordinary concentration, depth, and balance. The vineyard has been the source for numerous 100-point wines along with high accolades from some of the industry’s most respected and influential voices. Producers such as Quilceda Creek, Andrew Will, Woodward Canyon, and Badger Mountain have each crafted standout wines from the site—wines that are a testament to Champoux’s pedigree and potential.

Today, the vineyard is farmed entirely by Dan Nickolaus, whose thoughtful, detail-driven approach ensures the consistency and integrity of the fruit across all blocks and vintages. His stewardship honors the site’s legacy while continuing to raise the bar through precision farming and a hands-on understanding of the vineyard.

Located in the Horse Heaven Hills AVA, Champoux is one of the oldest and most prestigious vineyards in Washington and is recognized globally for its distinctive terroir. Originally planted in the early 1970s and 1980s, this much-revered vineyard has been the source of some of the world’s most sought-after Cabernet Sauvignons, powerful wines known for their gorgeous fruit, balanced acidity and elegant tannins.

The Horse Heaven Hills AVA is one of the warmer appellations in the Columbia Valley, but Champoux Vineyard, which sits in the foothills at an elevation of 600-800 feet, benefits from cool nighttime air draining down from higher elevations and accumulating across the south-facing site. This diurnal shift moderates the daytime warmth of the vineyard, contributing to balanced, long-lived wines with lovely natural acidity.

The soils at Champoux are classified in the Sagehill series: fine, sandy loam, well-drained soils that promote deep root development and, because of their uniformity, even vigor across the vineyard. Vine density varies due to the different age of the vineyard blocks, but our newer plantings are high density, averaging 2074 vines per acre. Because of competition below the surface, the root zones of the vines are smaller. This coupled with our irrigation regime, allows us to precisely control cluster size, weight, and the number of clusters per vine, resulting in optimum concentration and flavor.