Matt Reynvaan

Coming Up

Early work at L'Ecole No. 41 in Walla Walla gave Matt Reynvaan a direct read on local rhythm and local material. From there, Château Smith Haut Lafitte in Bordeaux and Michel Rolland in Bordeaux added two different training grounds: one tied to Washington’s ground-level energy, the other to Bordeaux’s exacting classical frame. The result is a style defined by discipline, site awareness, and a habit of letting the vineyard do the first round of the work before fruit reaches the cellar. winemaker for R|A Family Wines; remove 'co-founder since 2026' unless independently substantiated

Where They Are Now

At Reynvaan Family Vineyards, the title is simple: winemaker. At R|A Family Wines, it is winemaker and co-founder. Both roles point back to the Estate Vineyards in the Walla Walla Valley, where the target is exact and the scale of the ambition is already stated in the wine itself. “Our goal is to produce Syrahs that are among the finest in the world from our Estate Vineyards in the Walla Walla Valley.” That aim is less about ornament than about control of detail: character, texture, and poise come from choices made in the vineyard as much as in the cellar. Matt Reynvaan has described that kind of choice plainly: “Because of the shape of the land, I wanted to go directly north-south, which I haven’t done before in at [Reynvaan Family’s] In the Rocks Vineyard.” It is a practical line, and a useful one for understanding the work—responsive to topography, specific to site, and attentive to how shape and orientation can matter before harvest even begins.

Signature

Matt Reynvaan’s signature wines are In the Rocks, Foothills in the Sun, Stonessence, Foothills Reserve, and The Classic. Read together, they describe a house style centered on Syrah and differentiated by vineyard source and intent. The names keep the geography close: rocks, foothills, sun, reserve, classic—each one a marker for a different expression of the same underlying site.

In Their Words “Because of the shape of the land, I wanted to go directly north-south, which I haven’t done before in at [Reynvaan Family’s] In the Rocks Vineyard.” “Our goal is to produce Syrahs that are among the finest in the world from our Estate Vineyards in the Walla Walla Valley.”