Rasa Vineyards

The concept of Rasa Vineyards started with a bottle of 1988 Mouton Rothschild that brothers Pinto and Billo Naravane bought at a discount in Napa Valley. That bottle of wine changed their lives. They call it their epiphany wine. That Mouton inspired them to learn all they could about wine and seriously discuss starting a winery. In 2007, with Pinto’s business plan and Billo working on a degree from the UC Davis Master’s program in Viticulture and Winemaking, the two budding winemakers quit their tech jobs and selected Walla Walla, Washington, as the home of Rasa Vineyards.

They purchased 28 acres in Milton-Freewater, Oregon, just ten miles south of Walla Walla, in an area that would become the Rocks District AVA. Their first two wines won accolades and high ratings in wine publications. In 2017, Billo joined an elite worldwide group of 498 people who have earned the title of ‘Master of Wine.’

Rasa Vineyards grapes are sourced from Eastern Washington and Northeastern Oregon. Their estate bottled wine comes from the original vineyard in Oregon. They also work with other high-quality growers in the region. The Naravanes believe in a strict minimal-interventionist approach to viticulture and winemaking, letting the terroir – the influence of soil, climate, vine, and topography – speak through the wine.

Pinto and Billo are proud of their Human[e] Label Project. Every year, they ask an artist from a different country to design a label for a specific wine. Money raised from those bottles is given to charities in the United States and a charity selected by the artist in her home country. To engage wine drinkers on a personal level, certain varieties of Rasa Vineyards wines are named according to themes: Latinate and scientific, musical or poetic, and whimsical.