Cultivating a Happier Vineyard in the Rattlesnake Hills
Tucked away in the Rattlesnake Hills AVA of Washington State lies Ruby Magdalena, a respite from the active wine tasting community of Zillah. Other wineries in the area offer concerts and restaurants, but at Marty and Ryan’s vineyard you can expect perfected simplicity. A warm welcome, a serene open space to enjoy nature and taste delicious Spanish varietals, and a personalized vineyard tour where you can stroll amongst the vines and through the meadow. You’ll feel as if you’re visiting old friends – that just happen to make award-winning wines.
Marty and Ryan have been married for 18 years now and Ruby Magdalena has been licensed as a winery in Washington State since 2014.
What is your favorite thing about working together?
Marty: “Being together.”
Ryan: “I’m gone eight to ten hours during the day at my full-time job, so our time together is important. We just work better together than we do alone.”
Marty: “We motivate each other, support each other. It’s fun and very fulfilling to be able to produce a product that we can share with other people. And that’s what we’re both passionate about.”
Ryan: “We definitely balance each other, too.”
Marty: “Yin and yang. Good and bad. Salt and pepper.”
Ryan: “Like your beard.”
Marty smiled, “Like my beard. Thank you.”
Many married couples love each other, but not all have friendship. It’s clear that Marty and Ryan are best friends that have only grown closer together through their shared passion of wine.
How Ruby Magdalena came to be
Ryan: “Marty started tasting wine a long time ago – 1978 – and his palate and his passion for wine has just grown ever since.”
Marty and Ryan were living in Salt Lake City, both working for the Postal Service until 2004 when they decided to take the leap and move to Washington.
Marty: “My friend had moved up here back in the mid 80s and had been trying to hire me up ever since. So, the opportunity was there to move. He found a little piece of land, purchased property here.
I moved up to oversee the building of the house to help my friend at his winery and Ryan stayed behind to try and work on getting a transfer to come up and join me. Happened about a year later, we had the house built. 2004 – we purchased property, 2005 – we built the house, 2006 – Ryan was able to move up. Well, December of 2005.
Ryan: “Christmas week, 2005.”
Marty: “Yep, perfect time to move across the mountain. The blues in the wintertime was a marriage tester.”
In 2007, Marty and Ryan planted their first grapevine with the intent to sell the grapes to the winery where Marty was working. Marty is half Spanish and the pair had a shared affinity for Rioja wine. As a result, they planted all Spanish varieties. The first were Tempranillo and Garnacha Tinta. The Graciano had to be ordered, which meant waiting two years for it to be shipped and planted.
Who is Ruby Magdalena?
The vineyard is named after Marty’s mother, Mrs. Ruby Magdalena Vigil y Trujillo Johnson.
Marty: “She came up and helped us plant the Graciano at the spry age of 84.”
“Ruby grew up on the family ranch in Cundiyo, a small mountain village where the family raised livestock, alfalfa and hay, a small commercial apple orchard and a small family orchard and vegetable gardens that helped support the family throughout the years.
Ruby was instrumental in our desire to buy property and literally put down roots.
Always supportive of our efforts and encouraging us to persevere through difficult times, we owe any success that we might enjoy to Ruby’s positive spirit and willingness to lend a hand.
Ruby loved coming up to the vineyard to ‘house sit’ with the cats and would spend hours tending to our garden and roses.”
A happier vineyard
Ryan: “I would say our biggest success in our vineyard is we have gone through a no till vineyard. We let the weeds grow, we promote the weeds, we promote”
Marty: “biodiversity.”
Ryan: “Regenerative growth.”
Marty: “Regenerative agriculture. We’re trying to get back to a more natural setting.”
Ryan: “If you visit, you’ll be able to see our messy vineyard. The biodiversity has made a huge difference in the quality of our plants. They’re a lot happier. You can tell it’s a happier vineyard.”
Marty: “We just are trying to do things as old world as we can without owning a horse.”
Tune in on Thursday, May 30 to read about the first time Marty fell in love, more about their wines, and the trials and tribulations on their ongoing journey of opening a Ruby Magdalena tasting room.
Follow their journey on their instagram: @rubymagdalenavineyards
Editor
Natalie is co-founder and editor of The Grapevine Magazine where she helps winemakers big and small tell their stories. She lives in Manhattan, New York City.
