The Man Who Saved Washington Wine

Chateau Ste. Michelle CEO Ted Baseler works for the benefit of the entire state's wine industry, not just his company.

By Mike Ullmann | June 2009 | FROM THE PRINT EDITION

Credit: Photographs by Rick Dahms

Ted Baseler has been CEO
of Ste. Michelle for eight years
and in the company’s leadership for a quarter of a century. In that time he has
brought the wine world’s attention to Washington state.

Five years ago, on a stunningly clear night in rural eastern
Washington, the burgeoning wine industry that dots the rolling hills of the
Walla Walla valley faced ruin. “We have the near-perfect climate for wine,
other than this periodic arctic blast we can get in the winter, a very rare
circumstance,” says Marty Clubb, owner and winemaker at renowned L’Ecole No. 41
winery. “That January, we had one of those plunges.” In a very few hours, the
temperature hit minus 15 degrees and wiped out the 2004 grape harvest. “We had
basically no crop. We were facing a catastrophe.” As the truth sank in, though,
the telephone unexpectedly began to ring at wineries throughout the valley. On
the line was Ted Baseler, president and CEO of Ste. Michelle Wine Estates, the
8,000-pound gorilla of the state’s wine business. “He said, ‘I want to help,’”
Clubb says.

And Baseler did, supplying grapes to save the season for at
least a dozen wineries. Trey Busch, then winemaker at Basel Cellars Estate
Winery, made half his wine that year from Ste. Michelle grapes. “Ted was
reaching a hand out to all the wineries. I can’t imagine anybody in Napa Valley
doing that,” Busch says.

Baseler remembers: “Many growers and wineries didn’t have
any grapes at all. So I started calling around, saying ‘if you’re out of
grapes, we’ll get you some if you need it to survive.’” Ste. Michelle intended
those grapes for itself, but for decades, the winery has made it a priority to
broadly boost all Washington wines. “We could have used the grapes, but this
was more important,” Baseler notes.

“I am, in fact, one of the people that Ted personally
called,” says Clubb, at L’Ecole. “This is a story that supports an even bigger
story, which is that Ted and Ste. Michelle have always looked at the big
picture, over and above their own interests.”

Deep Roots

Chateau Ste. Michelle’s lineage dates to 1934, when the
Pommerelle Wine Co. and the National Wine Co. were formed after the repeal of
Prohibition. Baseler has been the CEO for only the past eight years, but his
roots—and influence—in the company stretch back a quarter of a century. He was
recruited in 1984 from the advertising world, where he serviced the account of
what was then a smallish Woodinville winery