Region: Washington, USA

Vintage: 2018

Composition: 68% Roussanne, 13% Viognier, 14% Chenin Blanc, & 5%  Riesling

History: There is an economic explaination for why white wines are not more prolific on Red Mountain: when a region produces red wines as well as we do, the incentive is to plant those cultivars. The unfortunate reality is that a bottle of high-quality red wine can be sold for more than a bottle of high-quality white wine. Ergo, white cultivars are uncommon in our extremely small region, where acreage supply is low and demand is high. There is a large opportunity cost to have a white cultivar planted here. So maybe we’re bad at math. Maybe we planted white grapes here before anyone knew how good the red grapes were. Maybe we just really like white wine. Maybe it’s a combination of all of the above. At the end of the day, Kiona grows eight white culti- vars at three of our highly-regarded vineyards here on Red Mountain. Zeus III is a vertically-blended Estate Red Mountain wine unlike any you’ll find from the region.