Sleight of Hand Cellars was founded in Walla Walla WA in 2007 by Trey Busch and Jerry and Sandy Solomon. Our only goal from the outset has been to make world class wines while having the most fun that is legally possible. Our love of great wines from around the world, and our love of music, have inspired our vision for the wines we produce and have helped us reach a customer base that has the same passions as we do.

Our winemaking philosophy leans towards minimal intervention, allowing the vineyards to show their true selves. All of our fermentations are completed with native yeasts, as well as ML. We use minimal to no new oak on our Rhône varietals, and allow the wines to rest on the lees until final blending. Our goal is to make elegant, age-worthy wines that deliver complexity, and puts the focus on the vineyards and the fruit. Our wines have made several Top 100 lists over the years, including Wine Spectator, Wine Enthusiast, Wine & Spirits, and Jeb Dunnuck. We work with a combination of Estate Vineyards and blocks, as well as purchased fruit from some of the best vineyards in the PNW including WeatherEye, Stoney Vine, Les Collines, and more.

Our winery and main tasting room is located on the south side of Walla Walla on a beautiful 10 acre property. In 2023, we crushed 130 tons of fruit, and we expect to bottle close to 8000 cases of wine—which more than maxes out our current facility. We have tasting rooms in Walla Walla, Seattle, and Woodinville. Our tasting rooms are something everyone who loves wine and music should experience at least once (and hopefully often). We have over 3,000 albums from a wide range of musical genres, with turntables spinning vinyl in each of our tasting rooms. Our love of ALL music inspires the wines we make (the production facility always has music—usually Seattle’s KEXP radio station--playing) as well as our marketing approach to reach our customers (we have the best winery t-shirts in the business). And our wine club, The Wine Illusionist Society, gets to enjoy our collaboration with one of our favorite music labels, Sub Pop Records in Seattle, because with each shipment we send them the latest and greatest songs on Sub Pop via digital download! We also have a record store in both our Walla Walla and Seattle locations, and started the wine business’ only VINE(YL) Club!

Great wine, great music, and lots of fun—that’s our recipe for the Sleight of Hand lifestyle.

Keith Johnson, Production Winemaker

Keith Johnson is our production winemaker at Sleight of Hand. He came aboard in 2011, right after the opening of our tasting room on JB George Rd. and before our new winery building was complete. He is an invaluable member of our winemaking team, so much so that he is now considered an indentured servant and is never allowed to leave Sleight of Hand Cellars.

Keith oversees the day to day operations in the winery, and during harvest, while Trey is in the vineyards making picking decisions, he is managing our harvest team and making sure everything is being taken care of in the cellar. He also spearheads his own winery, called Devium. One of the many things we love about Keith is that he truly believes in our winemaking philosophy. “Minimal intervention” is the term that we most often use when it comes to our wines. Keith is also a terrible singer, and an even a worse dancer. But he DOES have good taste in music, so there is that...