The Costco Connection - September 2017

;; ;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