Intention. An aim or a plan.

I read something this morning that really struck a chord with me. “Food and culture cannot be separated, and how we access food creates culture. The industrial agriculture of the twentieth century, which carries over to our own time, has no heart. The heartless agriculture does not honor or value the life forces in any being-soil, plant, animal, or human.” This was written by Karen Davis-Brown, editor of the Biodynamics journal. It’s time we sit down with our wine and get to know it more, really feel it instead of just mindlessly drinking it.

Tasting Room Magazine interviewed our lovely winemaker Sarah recently, and we thought you'd enjoy and learn from her fascinating and thoughtful answers.

For those who haven't had the pleasure, Sarah is the kind of person you want to share a long lunch with. She holds three passports, as she was born in Buenos Aires, her mother is from Champagne, France, and her father is from Washington State.

It all started with Van Halen's legal rider where they demanded the brown M&Ms be removed from the backstage M&M bowl during their tours. We thought it might be appropriate to create a rider for our ridewiths. (A ridewith is when winery representatives work with a distributor rep out in the field.) In beautiful response, an east coast rep (we've changed his name for legality/safety reasons) created a rider for his visit to our winery on Red Mountain! Enjoy this brilliant document by one of the greatest comedic minds in his very small town.

Can we make a confession? All of us at Hedges have at one time or another compared our wines to our European counterparts, to their land, their wine. We've all been guilty of saying something like, "If you blind taste our Red Mountain syrah, you could easily think northern Rhône."

No one has done it yet. Not really. No one has laid down the law on the true definition of natural wine. Even dipping into the conversation for a moment at the dinner table amongst the trade can cause an episode climaxing in broken bottles and blood.

Ever hear of Van Halen's famous legal rider where they demanded a bowl of M&Ms with the brown ones removed? We thought we'd create one for our business! In the wine trade, we wineries send our sales guys and gals out into the world to work with our distribution partners. The suppliers (us) ride in the passenger seat of different wine reps' cars and go visit accounts. This is called a ridewith. After many years of sitting in passenger seats, we thought we better start making some rules!

Want the secrets to acting like a pro at your next wine festival? (For those of you offended by our humor, we apologize in advance.) After many years of standing behind a table pouring wine at festivals, we've put together a list of a few things you may want to avoid next time you go to Aspen or Naples. As a further disclaimer, it goes without saying that we on Red Mountain can't survive and make our art without you, the consumer. So please, please, laugh with us on this one and don't be offended.

Funniest job posting ever! Sorry, the position is filled... but you should probably still read it.

Our salesman, Boo Walker (author of Red Mountain), wrote a fine piece on his discovery of Hedges and Washington wine. It's well worth your time.