Airfield Estates has a deeply rooted history that traces back to 1907 when the founder, H. Lloyd Miller, pioneered to the northwest settling in Sunnyside, Washington. By 1920, H. Lloyd had acquired the site where our estate vineyard is located today. At that time, the property did not have access to irrigation water. In 1941, H. Lloyd leased a portion of our family property to the Olympia Air Transport Corporation, which constructed a flight school for hundreds of Army Air Corps pilots during World War II. The buildings erected on the site included a 70-foot water tower, several airplane hangars, a mess hall, barracks, and several smaller storage buildings. The airbase closed in 1944, and in 1946, the buildings were auctioned off to H. Lloyd Miller for $1. This marked the beginning of Airport Ranch. H. Lloyd converted the site of the airbase into his farm headquarters. Shortly thereafter, the property gained access to irrigation water. And Airport Ranch became quite diversified with cattle, hogs, alfalfa, asparagus, potatoes, onions, and oats. H. Lloyd’s son Don Miller became interested in growing wine grapes. In 1967, Don purchased 3 different varietals, Riesling, Gewürztraminer, and Cabernet Sauvignon. The year after that, Don partnered with a local nursery planting 20 different wine grape varietals in greenhouses for propagation. Don Miller’s son, Mike Miller, joined the family farm in 1974. He became highly involved in wine grape production and transitioned the farm into what it is today – 830 acres of wine grapes and 350 acres of Concord juice grapes. He sold his wine grapes exclusively to other wineries until 2005 when Mike founded Airfield Estates Winery.

https://www.airfieldwines.com/