The Wine Write Article: Talking Washington State Viticulture With Andrew Schultz

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Written by

Randy Smith

September 15, 2025

The name of his company speaks volumes. Brothers in Farms serves both as a nod to his Army service and an homage to the people who farm premier Washington vineyards with him.

Andrew Schultz bumped into viticulture on his way to becoming a brewer. After Army service he enrolled at Washington State University's viticulture and oenology school, hoping to learn enough chemistry to brew beer. One of his several part-time endeavors was to research leaf roll virus. That led him to work at famed Klipsun Vineyard on Red Mountain.

The hook was set.

When the opportunity arose to work with owner Joe Hattrup and head foreman Emilio Garcia at Elephant Mountain Vineyard, Andrew jumped... despite it requiring him to drop out of school. That hands-on mentorship paid off in spades. In 2024 he purchased Elephant Mountain. His goal is to tell the world about this impeccable site and the people who farm it.

We were privileged to see Elephant Mountain Vineyard in person in April, 2025, and even more grateful for this follow-up conversation with Andrew in July. Enjoy our talk with a most impressive Washington viticulturist.

Andrew Schultz

The Wine Write: I've read you were first interested in making beer. 

Andrew: I was supposed to be a brewer after I got out of the service. The funny story is that I did become a brewer. 

As I got older, I realized I was really good with systems. That is really what I do best. I did really well in warehouse systems for a long time. I managed a bunch of those, stuff like WalMart distribution centers, furniture warehouses, and beer and wine warehouses. I entered the service and ran radar systems. I did a lot of programming work in the service. 

When I came out, I wanted to be a brewer. I didn't want an office anymore. I started growing a garden. I'd been away from my family for nine or ten years. I wanted to be near them while I was going to school. Washington State University offered viticulture and oenology. I thought they would teach me all the chemistry I would need to know to brew beer. So I did that. 

Andrew enjoying the Cabernet Sauvignon block at Elephant Mountain Vineyard

The Wine Write: At what point did viticulture grab you?

Andrew: I listened to podcasts and read stuff about brewing. There were some really astute guys from California doing those. Then I sat down one day next to a brewer, and was offered a job at a local brewery. I did that on the weekends while I went to wine school during the week. At the same time I answered emails about other offers. 

I'm a busy guy. I've been in positions where I could hold multiple jobs. So I bought a house and started rebuilding it. I worked weekends as a brewer. I went to school taking sixteen credit hours. I was also doing research at Prosser on leaf roll virus. That landed me on Klipsun Vineyard. Klipsun was one of the top twenty-five vineyards in this country at that time. We produced a one hundred point wine that year for Quilceda Creek. That's how I got into vineyards. I fell in love with it.

Elephant Mountain Vineyard

The Wine Write: Where did your path take you from there?

Andrew: I started working for Klipsun while I was doing research and brewing. And going to school. I then dropped out of school to take an opportunity to run Elephant Mountain Vineyard and Sugarloaf Vineyard. That was the second time I dropped out of school, actually. I was just a few classes shy of finishing, but the opportunity Joe Hattrup offered was awesome. He had been farming for forty years. He knew this business really well. If I was going to work in viticulture, I would prefer to actually do it. 

I ran his property for five years. I then was invited back to Klipsun to consult on water after Terlato purchased the vineyard. That was in 2017. I took over management of Klipsun as a result of my relationship with the vineyard workers and my understanding about how irrigation should be used in the vineyard. 

I had already started my consulting company called Brothers in Farms. I had been doing that for two years. In 2018 I transitioned it to a full management company. I ran Klipsun through it. I never thought it possible to go back up and purchase Elephant Mountain Vineyard, but we did that in 2024. It's been a pretty amazing run.

Elephant Mountain Vineyard

The Wine Write: How important was Joe Hattrup as a mentor?

Andrew: He was pivotal from the standpoint of learning the business. I knew how to grow good grapes by the time I got there. I had done it for four years on Klipsun. That's what I guaranteed them when I worked there. When I interviewed with Joe in 2013, I told him that I could definitely grow good grapes, but I had never run a business before. I was thirty-three years old then. So I knew myself pretty well. I knew I learned faster than most people. I have an unbelievable memory. I knew I would pick up whatever I needed from being in that position working for Joe. 

That's what we did. I did excellent work there. In my five years there we developed an additional sixty acres through savings we made in parts of the operation. We doubled that business in five years. It was a really good run. 

The Wine Write: Tell me about the partnership with Tinte Estates.

Andrew: Tinte originally came to me. One of my side hobbies involves water. If anybody gives me data, I study it. Water is so important. Tinte was out building their project and purchasing vineyard properties. One of their core values was having estate fruit. I farm on Red Mountain. I had the ear of several water attorneys, some agriculture brokers, and the regulators in the state. Somebody in that realm gave Tinte my name and number, telling them that I could look at properties and advise them on whether the site had enough water. The site on Red Mountain was one that we were actually farming. 

I took a look at it for them. They then asked us to farm it. Then they purchased a second property that was owned by Ed and Eve Shaw. The whole world works in circles. Eve Shaw's brother was Fred Artz, who built Klipsun, which I managed. Eve and I knew one another. It was an easy mix for me to hit that one. Tim Gamble of Tinte had expressed to me within a year or so of purchasing the Shaw's vineyard that they were still looking for some larger estate vineyard properties. That would allow them to become an almost entirely estate winery. 

As I was looking at building a project myself, I realized I needed some help to make it happen. I threw across the idea of purchasing Hattrup Farms to Tim and a few other guys. Tim was really interested. He and I started chatting about it. I'm a super honest guy. I think that is what Tim really likes about me. I'm going to be straight up on everything. I told him what I needed out of the project. He was open with me. We looked at property lines and figured it out. We came up with splitting off the sixty acres that he got, and I got the remaining. We were happy about figuring it out.

Elephant Mountain Vineyard

The Wine Write: Anecdotally, it seems like Washington is more likely than most areas to facilitate partnerships like that one.

Andrew: What I'd say about Washington is that we are a young region. And the world is different from what it used to be. That just changes how things are done, I think. Oregon is older than Washington, but smaller. They don't necessarily need water rights and the like. That's a consideration. A lot of things can be planted, but the parcels are smaller. The parcels in Washington are bigger. California vertically integrated a long time ago. All that happened in the mid Eighties or thereabouts. Things were a lot cheaper then. There was a major labor change. That pushed a lot of vertical integration. 

There's been consolidation in the market. We are seeing that in Washington now. There are fewer and fewer players. I haven't looked at the numbers from Washington Winegrowers in awhile, but when I started there were about three hundred to three hundred thirty growers in the state. I guarantee you we are not anywhere close to that now. Properties are consolidating. Big companies are coming in to purchase them. That's why I started my management company. We modeled ours after Walsh in Napa. They allowed me to come in and take a look at some stuff. I saw the way all this was eventually going to work. 

It has to be a partnership to some standpoint. You've got all these rules and regulations for employment now that had never existed. A field like viticulture is really specific along those lines. It really requires management. You've really got two separate businesses. It's difficult for a company unless they have two separate entities within the big one. Purchasing the property and making wine is just a part of this. There's a difficulty factor that may spawn these partnerships. Consolidation and some vertical integration is another factor. 

Elephant Mountain Vineyard

The Wine Write: How happy are you with the Elephant Mountain purchase?

Andrew: One of the reasons I bought Elephant Mountain was that, in my personal opinion, as the guy who plants the vineyards, it was good value. When Dick Shaw went to plant his vineyards over there, I had heard the cost of planting was about thirty-three thousand dollars an acre for a machine harvestable block. I know the cheapest property I built was non-machine harvestable, and I put it in for about twenty-five thousand dollars an acre. Everything is being discounted when you look at the actual costs. I have forty acres in Walla Walla I haven't planted. That was what my plans were until I decided to buy Elephant Mountain, which comes with income, prominence, and sales. Everything is set up correctly. It's a safe site with no wind machines on it. The cost was about half what it would take to get a new vineyard up to year four and produce fruit. I think it's a really, really good value right now. Vineyards in general are. 

Farmers across the United States are aging. I'm an anomaly from the perspective that I am a young farmer. There are other younger vineyard managers in this area, but by and large those guys work for someone else. There are very few people my age that actually own something.

Elephant Mountain Vineyard

The Wine Write: The wine industry as a whole is going through some doldrums, and the economy is chaotic now. How does that impact growers?

Andrew: The grower always sees it last. Right now it's a soft market for selling grapes, after all of these price increases for goods and services that we require. Even the market for contractors is crazy. Not so much chemical companies, but stuff like toilet services and other services we use on a regular basis are due on receipt. We are carrying the costs of elevated interest. Meanwhile the wineries are coming back in and negotiating lower prices on their grapes. Farmers need to sell their stuff. Then the wineries want payment terms on it, too. We start farming in November of the year prior, and in some cases may not get paid for two years out from when we started farming. That really impacts opportunity cash. The ability to continue operating comes into play. 

(Map courtesy of washingtonwine.org)

The Wine Write: What appellations are you in?

Andrew: I've grown fruit in almost all of them in Washington. I haven't grown in Wahluke, Royal Slope, or Ancient Lakes. Aside from those, I've either consulted or grown in all of them from a business standpoint. I've even done some awkward ones like Pinot Noir and Chardonnay up in the Yakima Canyon.

What I am physically in now are the Rattlesnake Hills, the Yakima Valley (which encompasses both Rattlesnake Hills and Red Mountain), and The Rocks in Walla Walla. Those are the main ones. 

Klipsun Malbec

The Wine Write: You've worked with so many grape varieties. Do you have favorites?

Andrew: It depends. Grape varieties each have their own personality. I'd say the Pinot Noir of a hot region is Grenache. You know? It's difficult to grow, which is why I enjoy it. There are some things that are just different about it. Mourvèdre is another awesome grape to grow. It's a "grower's variety". It produces higher tonnage and really good yields. The quality is excellent. It likes to grow straight, and it doesn't require much management. So that's nice. 

There are also soil types to consider. I'd put some of those in my favorites category. Down on the Columbia Gorge is a site called Rainmaker. Larry and Patty Singer have some of the most beautiful soil that I've ever farmed on. It's volcanic clay loam. They only have to irrigate one to three times a year. It's beautiful. It's an awesome place to grow. They may get forty inches of rain a year. That normally makes a plant a bush, but not on this site. It's really interesting.

Elephant Mountain Vineyard

The Wine Write: With the ability to grow so many varieties well, do you think Washington will ever have a signature grape?

Andrew: You know, that's a good question. I think the signature that will come out of Washington is about overall quality. There are several reasons for that. We have enough heat here. The other thing that makes us different from any other wine region in the world is that we have sixty to eighty thousand acres from the Rattlesnake Ridge all the way to Yakima that is available to plant. And all of that acreage is at elevation. This assumes there's water available. 

Washington Merlot

The Wine Write: From a grower's perspective, what's the key to wine quality?

Andrew: The number one key to quality wine with consistency is irrigation. That's been true for millennia. You can find evidence of that from how they did things in the past. You can see how they do it in France. Because they don't have irrigation control, like in Oregon where they do dry farming, the choice of location for their property is crucial. They're looking for the Goldilocks temperature. Were all the First Growths related in the world? They're not at the top of the hill. A lot of them are planted where the soils hold on to the water the most. They're kind of in the middle or just above that. They hold the right water. The rest of the stuff runs through. The soils they have drain well and feed the roots correctly. 

The same thing happens in Châteauneuf-du-Pâpe with the rocks. You get a heavier drain through in those soils. All of these places from a quality standpoint are based off how the water is. Water builds up the plant and creates the quality. Because we get only five inches of rain here, we have what you would call full irrigation control. If I don't irrigate our plants at the beginning of the year, the cluster will burn off. If I irrigate too much, it closes up and there's no sunlight getting in. So if you have a system where you create either of those two extremes, everything in the middle is your fault.

The Wine Write: You mentioned earlier your vineyard work in The Rocks District. What's it like to farm there?

Andrew: It's good. It's a little more difficult because of the rocks. Generally Walla Walla is a little more difficult. There are cost changes that happen related to water. The other people that grow fruit in The Rocks will probably disagree with me, but I find it easier to control irrigation in The Rocks than I do on the soils just above that. I think that just outside The Rocks you get the best of both worlds. You still get that Rocks flavor, but there's also a really strong fruit flavor. The stuff I like the most is grown about a half mile or so from The Rocks District. 

So the farming is somewhat different in The Rocks. We don't mow in those blocks, obviously. We run a cultivator through to get the weeds. That has to happen more often than it would if you could mow. Some parcels don't have as many rocks, so you can mow in some cases. In Walla Walla all the marginal areas grow grass. You have to mow. I had a client once tell me that mowing was kind of expensive. I told him we could not mow, but waist high grass is fuel for potential wildfires. I asked him how he wanted to deal with it, and I was told to mow. 

The Wine Write: Where would you like to take Brothers In Farms?

Andrew: I've got a plan. We are rolling it out. I've put myself in a position to largely do high end stuff, but we're not doing small high end stuff. It's usually larger projects. That's really what I prefer to do. Fifty or a hundred acres here or there would be what I prefer. I've never done production. I don't really fall into that category. I just don't enjoy it. 

But I do have a project we are rolling out. I can't say a whole lot about it, but I think it will be really interesting. It will be coming off of Elephant Mountain. We are working on that right now. So that's one piece of our plan. 

Generally speaking, the lynchpin of this whole deal, one of the reasons we did the Elephant Mountain deal, was the "Andy always wins" game. There's a big reason I have to play that game. I've got sixty families that I have to protect. Most of these guys I've worked with for a long time. I picked up the original crew on Elephant Mountain that I worked with... we picked up the original crew of Klipsun when I started my business. I've worked with them for more than fifteen years now. Some of those guys have been on these properties going all the way back to the Eighties.

My opinion is that those guys are really talented. They've built families here. I'll tell you a part of the project I've planned. There are stories here that the world needs to hear. I'm kind of an introvert. I'm also busy. I have to protect these families. They are such an integral part of what we do. I believe what they have done here is the true American Dream. 

Emilio Garcia has been here since the Eighties. He's taught most of these guys how to purchase real estate. They were doing that when they were getting paid $10.50 an hour ten years ago. They were getting that rate of pay with fifteen or twenty years of experience, which is absolutely insane for any industry. But they managed to have three or four rental houses in some cases to supplement their incomes. That's really impressive. 

Emilio has two daughters that are finishing their residencies, and about to become doctors in Washington State. Eight years ago or so those girls had surpassed their father's knowledge base. He came to me saying that he didn't know how to help his daughters. He had never done anything like this. We helped him through that. And that's just one of the amazing stories here. I think those stories need to get out. One of the guys has a shovel he's used for over thirty years. It's half worn out. What does it take to do that?  

The work these guys have done, the consistency over time, is incredible. In a world that moves so fast, there is way less agricultural writing these days. So much has happened in agriculture over the last two centuries. What has been written is pretty depressing for the most part. There is a lot of really awesome work people like these are doing that should be told. We are dealing with Mother Nature on a daily basis. I'm lucky. I get forty chances in my life to do what I do. The rest of the world runs at such a faster pace. More needs to be said about the work people in agriculture are doing. The rest of the world needs to see the value that we have in the world. There aren't always two birds in the bush for us. We often have to take the one in the hand. 

Elephant Mountain Vineyard

The Wine Write: Your workplace at Elephant Mountain is gorgeous and compelling.

Andrew: It's one of the most beautiful sites I have seen in Washington, especially from the standpoint of being full Bordeaux. It's got about the same heat as Red Mountain. It just runs a little bit different curve. It's absolutely safe from cold. One of the things most people don't know, even if they've been in the wine industry for awhile, is that some magical things happen at fifteen hundred feet elevation. That's especially true with the color of grapes. 

There are things that can be done in Washington with water that haven't been tried yet, because most of the research has been done on places that get twenty to forty inches of rain each year. The research is missing a piece. I've built my own regime over the last ten years or so. I've done it at Klipsun. The same regime produces even better results on Elephant Mountain. The color gets so concentrated. You can taste it in the wine. That's really distinct about that site. 

Elephant Mountain Vineyard

Andrew Schultz is rightly happy and excited about his purchase of Elephant Mountain Vineyard. It's a full circle moment, a return to the special place he began farming in 2013. He's even more thrilled to have the services of his old crew. Some of these men have farmed wine grapes for more than four decades. Many have used the labor as a vehicle to achieve their own American Dream. It's a story that should be heard. Andrew wants to help tell it.

He sees Washington as a place with plenty to explore. Acreage abounds with the potential to grow premium wine. Andrew's acumen with irrigation may facilitate that progress. While academic research has lagged in studying optimum water usage in high desert environments, his personal experience with those regimens may help bridge the gap. In many ways he's the right guy in the right place at the right time.

Andrew Schultz self describes as an anomaly. With farmers aging across the country, it's refreshing to encounter folks like him, Todd Newhouse, and Patrick Rawn, all of whom we've featured on this site. While Washington State is still in its infancy as a wine growing region, these talented growers are a reflection of the state's bright future. Wine lovers everywhere are the big winners as that happens.

Want to follow Andrew Schultz's continued journey? We venture that the Brothers In Farms Facebook page may be the best vehicle.

He does a nice job relaying developments during each vintage.

And who can top Elephant Mountain eye candy?

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