In an era of significant corporate ownership in the Northwest wine industry, our wineries and vineyards remain a close-knit family operation run by two generations of a Northwest farming family. On Memorial Day Weekend of 1993, the family opened the doors to their first winery venture, Duck Pond Cellars, in Dundee, Oregon. Over the past two decades, the family has grown the brand into one of the leading producers of Oregon Pinot Noir and Pinot Gris. The Fries family has always been passionate about full-bodied red wines such as Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Syrah. This love prompted their 1992 acquisition of a 540-acre parcel of land on Eastern Washington’s Wahluke Slope, an area particularly suited to growing hot-climate varietals. The family dubbed the site Desert Wind Vineyard and spent three years planting Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Syrah and a handful of other varieties. In 2001, they launched the Desert Wind brand to showcase their handcrafted wines from these vineyard sites. The Desert Wind facility in Prosser, Washington, is a destination unto itself. Perched on a bluff overlooking the Yakima River, its Southwest-inspired exterior houses a tasting room, event space, restaurant area and four overnight guest rooms. Ever the hard workers, family members were very involved throughout the entire process of designing and building the facility.