SPOKANE, Wash. — Phillip and Patricia Butterfield devoted their lives to public health, education and research, each concluding their decorated careers in Spokane with Washington State University.
At their young Winescape Winery project, the Butterfields work as a tandem in a different field where seemingly every step they’ve taken has been the right one. They came up with brilliant branding, invested in top vineyards and produced award-winning results to create a wine country experience that’s a mere 20-minute drive from downtown Spokane.
“Phil spent 25 years helping to make drinking water pure for society,” Patricia says. “He takes a similar approach to what we’re doing here — only this is a different color.”
At wine competitions last year, he turned red wine into gold and platinum, prompting Great Northwest Wine Magazine to select Winescape as the 2023 Washington Winery to Watch.
Based upon the awards for his wine during 2022 — capped by four Platinum Awards in October — it’s apparent that Phillip approaches Winescape as another career rather than a hobby in retirement.
- The Winescape 2018 Columbia Valley Merlot ($32) earned a Double Platinum and 96 points at the 23rd annual Platinum Awards after its gold medal in the Great Northwest Wine comparative tasting for the Spring 2022 issue.
- The Winescape 2018 Field Trip Red ($36), a Meritage-style approach leading with Cabernet Sauvignon, earned a Platinum and 93 points after winning a gold on Cannon Beach at Savor NW.
- The Winescape 2018 Marmot Incarnate ($35), the fascinating blend of Syrah and Mourvèdre with Malbec, went Platinum with 93 points after a gold medal at the Great Northwest Invitational.
- The Winescape 2019 Marmot Incarnate ($36), a younger edition of the same Syrah/Mourvèdre/Malbec, scored a Platinum and earned 93 points after a gold at the Cascadia International.
- The Winescape 2017 Merlot ($30) earned a gold at the Cascadia International.
- And the Winescape 2017 Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon earned a gold at Savor NW.
“In 2017, we started to really get a feel for our facility, what we can do and how we’re doing it,” Phillip said. “We’ve stayed consistent to what we’re making and pay attention to what people are really asking for. We are running a business, but I’m making wine because I want to make it.”
That explains why Winescape focuses on core Bordeaux varieties, the main Rhônes, a few proprietary red blends, Chardonnay, Riesling and, for its rosé, Sangiovese.
Winescape’s vineyard sources include historic Sagemoor plantings Bacchus, Dionysus and Gamache; the Williams family’s Kiona Estate, Heart of the Hill and Ranch at the End of the Road on Red Mountain; Devon Newhouse/Newhouse Farms on Snipes Mountain, and Lewis and Lonesome Spring Ranch in the Yakima Valley.
Kent Waliser, director of operations for Sagemoor Farms, sells Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Petit Verdot grapes to the Butterfields.
“They are a husband-and-wife team who are very complementary to each other’s skillset,” Waliser says. “Pat is the marketing person with boundless energy and kind of the personality behind the brand, while Phillip is the winemaker and the king of the business.
“They really focus on the vineyards they work with and the wines they make from these places,” Waliser continued. “They will tell you, ‘We really appreciate what you allow us to do with your grapes.’ And they’ve got a cool spot with a cool building and it’s a cool story — having found a project post-retirement that seems to energize them as people.”
Water scientist brings wine to Spokane’s South Hill
Phillip created a career in wine after decades of serving as medical research scientist — which included posts at both the University of Washington in Seattle and WSU in Spokane. Considering his background, the precision and quality of Phillip’s wines makes sense. He earned a Ph.D. as a water scientist, focusing on microbiology and biofilm engineering. He designed and installed his own Class B municipal water system at Winescape, earning the respect of county inspectors.
“We can tell you the nitrate level of our own water,” Patricia quipped.
She was a professor in the Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine at WSU and served as dean of nursing from 2007 to 2014.
“We got into wine pretty late in life,” Patricia says. “It started in 2009 with a trip to Australia and a Robert Parker wine buyer’s guide.”
That fall, Phillip drove to the Yakima Valley and returned to Spokane with 150 pounds of grapes to make wine.
“This really was a hobby that got out of hand,” he says. “The more I learned, the more I enjoyed it. There’s a creative process to it that exercises the other part of my brain, and I was doing something different than research as a college professor. And I just kept doing it — to the point where I wanted to start a winery and decided that we could probably do this together.”
Among their sacrifices was trading a Spokane landmark — the century-old Tudor-style Folsom House in the Rockwood Historic District — for a move to the Glenrose Prairie with 14 acres. It included a red barn and a dilapidated cabin that Patricia transformed into The Farmstead at Winescape, a VRBO featuring Pendleton blankets.
“We bought the property and built the facility with winemaking in mind,” she says. “We chose not to have any partners because it just didn’t seem to make any sense for two college professors to do that at our age. And we had some really good business advisers from the start.”
They began in earnest with 150 cases from the 2015 vintage, which featured a Cab from Heart of the Hill, and made those first wines at various facilities in Eastern Washington. One of their best investments was contracting with renowned Seattle architect Tom Kundig — a Spokane native — to map out their winery/tasting room. Kundig’s portfolio includes the iconic Mission Hill Family Estate in Kelowna, British Columbia.
Winescape opened in November 2017, and steady growth led them to produce 2,000 cases worth of wine from the 2022 vintage.
On occasion, Phillip will seek advice from retired winemaker Kerry Norton, an Oregon State grad who spent two decades at Covey Run, Columbia Winery and then The Hogue Cellars and still lives in the Yakima Valley.
“He’s been a good friend of ours for a while, and he’s been our savant,” Patricia says.
Meanwhile, their winemaking son, Tristan, has worked his way far enough up the ranks with Ste. Michelle Wine Estates that his signature appears on bottles of some Chateau Ste. Michelle reserve wines. His parents continually pinch themselves, especially around the holidays, with their son, their winemaking daughter-in-law and grandchild just an afternoon’s drive away.
Brilliant branding adds to story of Winescape Winery
In the Winescape lineup, the most talked-about bottle might be the Syrah-based Marmot Incarnate.
“We wanted to come up with a name that was a Spokane thing,” Patricia says. “At the campus, it seems that you can be greeted by 1,000 marmots along the way that live among the basalt rocks — and then there’s the Catholic connection at Gonzaga.”
The likeness of a marmot’s face is cleverly watermarked into the moonscape of the eye-catching and versatile label design by Portland artist Michael Kirts, whose client list at Heroist.com includes Oregon cult producers Antica Terra, Ashlyn and Evening Land.
For the Butterfields, their lives together have always revolved around school. They started out as high school sweethearts in Colorado, albeit at different schools, and even though they matriculated to different colleges, they stayed connected. Wedding vows were exchanged in 1980.
“We were just as different then as we are now,” Patricia says. “It’s a miracle because we were products of the ‘70s, and it was pretty nutty then in Colorado.”
It says something about this corner of the Pacific Northwest that for the second straight year the Spokane Winery Association can point to one of its members as the Washington Winery to Watch. (In 2022, the honor went to Liberty Lake Wine Cellars.)
Last year, Patricia served as president of the Spokane group. This year, she’s back as vice president to help the region continue its agri-tourism efforts.
“The South Hill has been a good place for us to draw from,” Phillip says. “And the Perry District has a nice vibe to it, like Spokane’s version of Green Lake in Seattle. There are nice breweries, a farmer’s market, and you can make it from there to here in 10 minutes.”
- Winescape Winery, 6011 E. 32nd Ave., Spokane, WA 99223, WinescapeWines.com, (509) 474-0150.
Wonderful winery and wonderful people. When they were getting started, Pat would say, “We want to be know as the winery where everybody knows your name.”