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About Nefarious Cellars It all started in 1998 when we planted a test block vineyard just 20 minutes north of Lake Chelan at the bottom of the Methow Valley. It had Pinot Noir, Cabernet Sauvignon and everything in between. In 2001 we loaded up our car, put our house up for sale, and headed to the Willamette to make Pinot Noir.
Dean had landed a job working for Bud Beck at Advanced Vineyards and then moved on to make wine under Isabelle Dutarte at Deponte and Tony Soter and James Cahill at Soter Vineyards. Heather took on the retail side and spent time selling wines from relatively hard to find producers.
On the side, we started a label called Nonni and Zing. It was a small project of about 250 cases annually and was made entirely from fruit sourced from the Dundee Hills AVA. That was a good time.
Step two came to an end in 2004, when Washington and the allure of its endless possibilities lured us home. We found our property on the south shore of the Lake Chelan AVA and closed on it in June of that year. That very same year, we planted more vineyard near our original test block: Rocky Mother (Syrah) and Stone’s Throw (Riesling). The following year was spent building our winemaking facility and planting our on-site vineyard: Defiance. Our tasting room opened for Valentine’s Day in 2006.