When John Williams bought 80 acres of dirt and sagebrush more than 30 years ago on a dusty ridge overlooking the Yakima River near Benton City in Eastern Washington, the nuclear engineer wasn't viewed as a pioneer, a trend setter or a prophet.

"They thought I was crazy," said the owner of Kiona Vineyards Winery.

Back then, nobody would loan the Williams family a dime to plant a vineyard and build a winery. Today, Kiona is in a new $2.5 million facility - and everybody wants in on the action.

Three decades ago, Williams and Jim Holmes - co-founder of Kiona and now owner of Ciel du Cheval Vineyard across the road - were the only people who had the vision to see the viticultural opportunities of Red Mountain. They purchased the land in 1975 for $400 per acre and planted Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay and Riesling.

"You could stand on the top of Red Mountain and not see any other green out here - except us," Williams said.

Today, a lot of people in the wine business would love to trade places with them. Or at least be their neighbors. That's because Red Mountain is the hottest and most expensive land in Washington wine country. A place on Red Mountain virtually guarantees success.

Glance around the neighborhood, and it's apparent. Just down the hill from Kiona's new, spacious tasting room is Klipsun Vineyards, regularly lauded by national publications as one of Washington's finest. A Klipsun-designated wine is likely to sell to collectors at a premium price. Next to Klipsun is Terra Blanca, owned by Keith Pilgrim, who has sunk millions of dollars into a facility that stands alone in the Northwest in terms of sheer beauty and magnitude. Up Sunset Road is Hedges Family Estate and its French-inspired chateau that has been a symbol of grandeur on Red Mountain for more than a decade.

Clear up the hill to the east is Col Solare, the international collaboration between Washington's oldest winery and Italy's most important producer. Between the 18,650-square-foot winery and the 30-acre vineyard in front, Ste. Michelle Wine Estates and Marchese Antinori shelled out $8 million.

It doesn't stop there. Thanks to the state Department of Natural Resources and the Kennewick Irrigation District, land that as recently as two years ago didn't have water is now being planted. A new interchange off Interstate 82 is being planned, and everyone in the area, it would seem, is trying to figure out how to get in on this tiny American Viticultural Area while they can.

Small is good

Red Mountain isn't really red. And frankly, it isn't much of a mountain. But Brown Ridge doesn't sound terribly sexy, and nobody seems to mind. But one thing is for sure: Red Mountain is turning green. As in money and vines.

At 4,040 acres, Red Mountain is, by far, Washington's smallest American Viticultural Area, or AVA, and in the Northwest is the second smallest after Ribbon Ridge in Oregon. It became an approved AVA in June 2001. At the time, it had about 600 acres of vineyards, which has slowly grown since then.

Red Mountain is the easiest AVA for wine lovers to grasp. Compared with the vast, 11 million-acre Columbia Valley, Red Mountain is tiny. It is one small ridge on the eastern edge of the Yakima Valley that can be seen in its entirety from Interstate 82.

Ancient History

Like much of Eastern Washington, Red Mountain was severely affected by the Ice Age Floods some 15,000 years ago. The side of the mountain that is the appellation was a backwater eddy that was entirely underwater.

Alan Busacca, a soil scientist and expert on the Ice Age Floods and how they shaped the modern Washington wine industry, points to Red Mountain as a region that was monumentally changed by the largest flows of water ever recorded on Earth.

"Red Mountain is an area where the outburst floods from Glacial Lake Missoula had quite a dramatic effect," Busacca said as he stood high on the ridge at the site of a new vineyard planting. "Red Mountain stood in the way of the floodwaters that were coming out of the north. When the first waves came crashing in here, they came swirling around this spine of Red Mountain. This bench that forms the main growing area was in the back eddy."

The waters swirled and brought in gravel, sand, silt and clay and dropped them throughout Red Mountain, Busacca added. Thus, even small vineyard plantings will have tremendous variations in soil types just below the surface.

"Everything we see in all directions up to 1,200 feet was a standing lake," Busacca said. "That lake only sat here for a week to 10 days for the largest floods. Every 50 to 75 years, this lake came into existence here with incredible violence."

Water Matters

Today, water still is an issue on Red Mountain. But instead of there being too much, there isn't enough.

In fact, for several years, few grapes were planted on what is arguably the finest vineyard land in Washington because of a lack of water, which came primarily from deep wells and huge holding ponds. However, growers and winemakers have great hope that a plan by the Kennewick Irrigation District will bring needed water to Red Mountain. The $35 million plan will require the irrigation district to trade its Yakima River water rights for Columbia River water and add a new pump station downstream on the Columbia. The plan could irrigate up to 8,500 acres on Red Mountain and in the nearby city of West Richland - and as a bonus, it might even be good for salmon because it would reduce the amount of water being taken out of the Yakima. If all goes as planned, Red Mountain could have ample water as soon as 2009.

Planning Ahead

Also in the works is a growth-management plan started by Tom Hedges, owner of Hedges Family Estate on Red Mountain, and now led by Benton County officials, including commissioners Leo Bowman and Claude Oliver. The plans include walking trails, a park, a village and, perhaps most importantly, a new freeway interchange that will funnel visitors directly toward the wineries.

"There's a lot we can do when we get behind a single vision," Oliver said. "Red Mountain has the potential to be the Washington poster child for doing growth management right. People are realizing it's very hot real estate, very much a tourist destination."

The village concept would be a small area with high-end housing and perhaps a general store and restaurant. The new interchange likely is five to 10 years away from being built. More information on the project is at www.redmountainvision.org, a site run by Benton County.

Pioneers

One of the first people to have a vision of what Red Mountain could be was Hedges. In 1989, he was running an operation that purchased wine and resold it in Asia and Europe, but he wanted to plant vineyards and start a more traditional winery. That year, he attended his 20th high school reunion in Richland. He ran into an old classmate, Fred Artz, a vineyard owner on Red Mountain. The next day, they headed up Red Mountain to look at a piece of property for sale, and Hedges bought it.

Hedges worked on a shoestring to plant his vines, and he made the wine at other wineries until his building was finished in 1995. His wife, Anne-Marie, is French, so architecturally, the Old World model seemed like a good idea.

"There was no local architectural style here at the time, so we copied Bordeaux," Hedges said of his chateau. "We built something nice because we had high hopes for the area."

Today, Hedges has 88 acres of vineyards and farms nearby Red Mountain Vineyards, which is another 33 acres. The winery is now open weekends most of the year and has one of the most beautiful tasting rooms in the state. As other high-quality wineries have built up around him on Red Mountain, he finds it gratifying that he was a pioneer.

"My whole dream now is to make Red Mountain famous and successful," he said. "Our success is based on the success of Red Mountain, and Red Mountain's success is partly based on what we did. It could become a great appellation. I'd love to see 20 more great wineries up there."

Hedges, 56, thinks the next 10 years will witness tremendous growth on Red Mountain. He envisions developed vineyard land selling for $100,000 per acre. He thinks all the plantable land will be under vines and 30 wineries will be in operation.

"I don't see anything stopping it."

The Tourist Experience

One person who hasn't stopped - or even slowed down - since he arrived in 1993 is Keith Pilgrim, owner of Terra Blanca. A year ago, he unveiled his 55,000-square-foot winery that is second to none in the Northwest. Though he won't reveal just how much he spent, he termed it as "substantial," and it's certainly as grand as anything on the mountain.

Pilgrim opened his first, basic tasting room in 1998. His 80 acres of vineyards were still developing, and his big hook was the two caves he'd built into the side of the hill for barrel storage. After getting the business established, he and an architect headed to his native Northern California and visited more than 300 wineries, gathering ideas wherever they could find them. The result is today's Tuscan-style building with amazing spaces for banquets, tastings, outdoor dining and concerts.

"It gives us the ability to do more," Pilgrim said. "Anytime you're able to get wine and food together, it's a positive. It just gives us a lot more room for hospitality and a more relaxed atmosphere."

As yet, he hasn't taken full advantage of what he's created, but such programs as educational tastings, tours and special events will come.

"In California, wineries just wanted to get people to come see them," he said. "Then Napa became the biggest tourist draw in the country. Now the wineries have modified their facilities to give guests the experience they'd like to have, not just an experience.

"Washington is where California was 20 years ago. Let's give people the experience they'd like to have," he added. "Some might want to taste at the tasting bar. Some might want food-and-wine pairings. Those are things we'd like to offer, and we're getting closer."

And to think Pilgrim almost didn't come here. In 1992, he'd made an offer on land in Paso Robles in California. He happened to make a trip to Washington and tasted wines from Red Mountain.

"I was excited about the area - especially about Red Mountain because it was unique."

In his nearly 15 years on Red Mountain, Pilgrim has seen a lot of growth, and he expects that to continue accelerating over the next half-decade, with more than 1,500 acres of vineyards and at least 25 wineries.

"I think Red Mountain has the ability to be world renowned with certain grapes, such as Syrah and Cabernet Sauvignon," he said. "It can draw comparisons to small districts such as Stags Leap, Howell Mountain and other small viticultural areas, but it's its own thing. The fact it's small and defined makes marketing the area a bit easier."

Fusing Old and New Worlds

Having Col Solare as a neighbor also will help, and most wineries in the neighborhood agree. The combined forces of Ste. Michelle Wine Estates and the Antinori family will help refine the focus on Red Mountain, especially when Col Solare's sole wine, a $70 red blend, is made from 100 percent Red Mountain grapes.

"The vision we have here is that Col Solare becomes a Red Mountain AVA wine in probably a half-decade and that we would have it principally estate grown," said Ted Baseler, CEO of Ste. Michelle. "We would like the identity of Col Solare clearly as a Red Mountain estate-grown wine."

So far, Col Solare's grapes have come from some of the company's top estate vineyards, including Canoe Ridge to the south and Cold Creek to the northwest.

Col Solare was 12 years in the making after the two companies put together their Opus One-type collaboration. Renzo Cotarello of Antinori and Doug Gore of Ste. Michelle oversee the winemaking, which is under the direction of Marcus Notaro, the resident winemaker.

Col Solare is a beacon on Red Mountain, thanks to a distinctive architectural style that includes a 56-foot-tall bell tower.

"We had this vision that it would be a fusion of New World and Old World," Baseler said. "I couldn't be more happy with the way the winery turned out. It's understated sophistication. And it's a state-of-the-art production facility for making world-class wine."

Piero Antinori couldn't agree more.

"The dream has become reality," he said excitedly at Col Solare's grand opening in April. "We think it's a beautiful winery. It integrates well with the landscape."

Antinori, who lives amid the picturesque hills of Tuscany, feels right at home in dusty Eastern Washington.

"It's very different from Tuscany," he said, gazing west up the Yakima Valley. "It has great, great charm. For me, it's fascinating, maybe because it's so different.

"When I come here, I have the feeling that it can produce great wines," he added. "It's not a matter of soil or climate, just that you feel it. For an old winemaker like I am, it works when I have a feeling that it can produce a great wine."

Red Mountain info

Red Mountain is in Eastern Washington, on the far eastern edge of the Yakima Valley. From Seattle, it's less than four hours of driving, all on interstate. To get there, take the Benton City exit on Interstate 82, just west of the Tri-Cities.

Tasting rooms: More than a dozen wineries are on Red Mountain, and many of them have regular tasting room hours. Such wineries as Kiona, Terra Blanca, Seth Ryan and Blackwood Canyon are open daily. Others have weekend hours or are open by appointment. For exact hours, consult the Washington Wine Commission Web site (www.washingtonwine.org).

Where to stay: The nearby towns of Benton City and West Richland have few accommodations. The Tri-Cities (Kennewick, Pasco and Richland) is eight miles away and has plenty of hotels, motels, RV parks and camping (www.visittri-cities.com). Prosser, 20 miles to the west, also has lodging.

Where to eat: The Tri-Cities has the best choices of restaurants, including Mexican, Thai, Italian, Indian, Greek, American, Vietnamese, etc. Picnickers should seek out Yoke's Fresh Market in West Richland for high-end cheeses, olives, breads and wine. At least a half-dozen Starbucks are scattered throughout the Tri-Cities, along with many independent espresso stands. Three microbreweries offer craft beer and pub-style food.

The wines of Red Mountain

What makes Red Mountain special? Why are the grapes and their resulting wines so highly prized? This 4,040-acre bench is, indeed, unique - even amid the seemingly similar nearby hills.

First of all, Red Mountain faces southwest, providing maximum afternoon sun exposure. As far as Eastern Washington viticulture is concerned, the Yakima Valley is considered relatively cool. But not Red Mountain, which is consistently one of the warmest areas of the Columbia Valley. However, a gap between Red Mountain and Rattlesnake Mountain to the west allows cool air from the north to slip through to the vineyards, which sit at altitudes of between 600 and 1,100 feet. The Yakima River, which runs north around Red Mountain, also tempers hot summer days into cooler nights. Those help retain acidity and add levels of complexity.

Second, Red Mountain's soil is poor by most agricultural standards. It's sandy, low in nutrients and uneven. But stress can do one of two things to vines: make them struggle and work harder or cause them to wither and die. That struggle to reach deeper into the soils produces smaller grapes and more concentrated juice.

On Red Mountain, red wines tend to be more tannic, as well as more focused and complex. The hot days ensure ripeness, the cool nights preserve acidity, and the small berries create dark aromas and flavors and plenty of structure. Thus, Red Mountain has the opportunity to produce some of Washington's most age-worthy wines.

ANDY PERDUE is editor-in-chief of Wine Press Northwest. Read his blog, The Wine Knows, at www.winepressnw.com.