;;
;COVER S TORY
BY HANA MEDINA
YOU CAN ;nd its wines pretty much anywhere.
Carried in all ;; states and more than ;;; countries, Chateau Ste. Michelle (CSM), Washington
state’s founding winery, is an industry icon. And
for good reason: It o;ers premium-quality wines
to ;t just about any budget, making it the No. ;
premium domestic wine brand sold in the
United States.
With hundreds of CSM wines earning scores
of ;; or more year after year, it’s hard to remember a time when Ste. Michelle Wine Estates (the
company’s o;cial name) wasn’t leading the way.
But this wasn’t always the case. In fact, when Ted
Baseler, current CEO and president, came on
board in the ;;;;s, CSM—and Washington’s
small wine industry—was struggling.
But all of that changed, due in large part to
Baseler. He not only grew CSM to become a
top-producing global winery, but he also elevated
Washington’s status in the wine world: The state
is now the second-largest producer of wine in the
U.S., behind California. Baseler, who is busy
planning the winery’s ;;th anniversary celebra-
COMPANYINFO
COMPANY
Ste. Michelle Wine Estates
CEO/PRESIDENT Ted Baseler
EMPLOYEES 1,000 plus
HEADQUARTERS
Woodinville, Washington
WEBSITE
ste-michelle.com
ITEMS AT COSTCO
A variety of wines under
the Chateau Ste. Michelle
brand and affiliated labels
QUOTE ABOUT COSTCO
“We’re just great fans of
Costco. We’ve been partners
since [Costco’s] beginning. In
fact, there was a speech that
Jim Sinegal gave, way back
when, and he said Chateau
Ste. Michelle helped get
[Costco] into the wine business, the first supplier. We’ve
had a tremendous business
relationship.”—Ted Baseler,
CEO and president of Ste.
Michelle Wine Estates
tion this year, invited The Connection inside
CSM’s headquarters at the iconic chateau in
Woodinville, Washington, outside Seattle.
Planting a giant
Visiting the chateau feels like a stroll back in
time. Just outside Baseler’s o;ce door sits a curio
case displaying some of the ;rst bottles the winery produced, before it was even branded Ste.
Michelle Estates (“Chateau” didn’t precede the
title until ;;;;, after the building was completed). The hallways are lined with classic ;oral
wallpaper and wooden wainscoting. A dark burgundy carpet upstairs makes the place feel more
like a home than a business. Baseler’s o;ce boasts
dark woods and ;ne furniture. Books about the
winery and the industry’s history litter his desk.
“When we would go out and talk about Washington wines, people would kind of snicker,”
says Baseler. “And now there’s really no question
about the credibility of Washington wine. So
things have really changed from the old days,
when people would say, ‘Well, what side of the
Chateau Ste. Michelle leads the way
Well~aged winery
Ted Baseler, CEO and president,
Chateau Ste. Michelle
RICK DAHMS