Echolands Winery was created in 2018 by Brad Bergman and Doug Frost, two Kansas City residents who believed in the Walla Walla Valley AVA’s ability to offer a distinct style of wine, one that would benefit from aging. Winemaker Brian Rudin has taken over from former winemaker Taylor Oswald, who is starting his own project. Rudin, who was raised in Wenatchee, has made some of Walla Walla’s top wines over the last decade. The group crafts responsibly produced wines that reflect the potential for elegant and balanced wines from this singular place.

As we care for our young vineyards, we seek to amplify that echo from the land and the grapevines in every bottle we make. Winemaking can’t be anything more than a subtle (at best) shaping of that sound; we cannot create qualities that are not there in the grapes.

In truth, all wine is an echo of the landscape, of the vines planted there, and the sound that they make in the form of their fruits. Like the creature of mythology known as Echo, we can only express what is given to us.

BRIAN RUDIN — WINEMAKER & GENERAL MANAGER

A graduate of Western Washington University and the Institute of Enology & Viticulture in Walla Walla, Brian has over 17 years of experience in the Washington wine industry. He moved to Walla Walla in 2006 to pursue his growing passion for winemaking. Brian first became a certified sommelier and started his career in winemaking at L’Ecole No 41. Throughout the years, Brian worked as a production manager for Alder Ridge Vineyard and Zefina Winery, and then as a winemaker for Cadaretta and Buried Cane Vineyards. Prior to his role at Echolands, he spent nine years as the winemaker for Duckhorn Wine Company, where he helped launch Duckhorn’s Red Mountain label, Canvasback.

An avid mountaineer, hiker and skier, Brian grew up in the farming community of Wenatchee, Washington with a love of the Cascade Mountains. He and his wife Ashley Trout, a fellow winemaker in the Walla Walla Valley, hope to teach their shared love of winegrowing to their two kids one day.