Rick Small

The Path

Washington State University is where Rick Small trained before entering wine as Founding Winemaker / co-owner of Woodward Canyon Winery (since 1981). That starting point fixed the shape of the work that followed: not a side path into winemaking, but a commitment to building something durable, bottle by bottle, vintage by vintage. The winery became both workplace and expression, where the practical demands of production and the larger questions of identity in wine were worked out in the same hands. He later served as president, Walla Walla Valley Wine Growers Association at Walla Walla Valley Wine Growers Association in Walla Walla Valley (1984). Even in that short span, the title points to responsibility beyond the estate itself. His path has moved between cellar and region, between the specific decisions of making wine and the wider conversations that shape a growing wine landscape.

The Work Today

The current work remains rooted at the winery he helped start. Ownership paired with production direction gives the role its weight: it is not only about overseeing a label, but about maintaining continuity in a place he helped bring into being. The language around the work stays plain, and that is the point. For Small, production is tied to the ground beneath it and to the afterlife of each decision made in vineyard and cellar. His own words make that ethic direct: “When my kids come out, I’m going to leave this soil more alive than when I got this from my dad.” Family and future sit in the same line there, with production framed as inheritance and obligation.

Signature

Rick's signature wines include 2022 Artist Series Cabernet Sauvignon and 2022 Estate Old Vines Cabernet Sauvignon. Both sit squarely in the style associated with his work: structured, deliberate, and made with the patience premium, age-worthy wines require.

In Their Words “When my kids come out, I’m going to leave this soil more alive than when I got this from my dad.”