Rooted in Family and Fortitude: The itä wines Story
Rooted in Family and Fortitude: The itä wines Story
August is Washington Wine Month and we caught up with Kelsey Albro Itämeri, founder and winemaker at itä wines out of Walla Walla, WA.
Kelsey grew up in Seattle and spent her twenties doing what she calls career "exploring" and after a brief stint in reality television in LA, alongside working at several bars and restaurants around the Bay Area, she found herself longing for Walla Walla, where her parents had bought farm property in 2011. She and her husband got married on that farm in 2014 and in 2016 they decided to move back to Washington State and call Walla Walla home.
"I got a job at Balboa Winery, enrolled in the enology and viticulture program at Walla Walla Community College, and started making wine in my garage from a little test plot of vines at my parents' place."
An internship in 2018 at Domaine Jean Chartron in Burgundy sharpened her focus on white winemaking and taught her something else: what it looks like for a family to grow the grapes and make the wine all under one roof, across generations. It's an idea she still thinks about, especially as she looks forward to working alongside her parents on their vineyard property for years to come.
Someday, she hopes to plant her own vineyard on her parents' property, a decision she's not taking lightly as it is expensive and takes three years before a vine produces a single grape.
In the meantime, Kelsey's winemaking comes down to two lines in the sand: source exclusively from higher elevation sites in the eastern foothills of the Walla Walla Valley close to her family's property and stay out of the way.
"I want these grapes to taste like what they actually are, so I use minimal intervention in the cellar. The thing I feel most strongly about is never adding water or acid to my wines."
She explains the conviction through her old career. "I used to work in reality TV, and it reminds me of editing. You can take something someone said, rearrange it, and make it sound like they're saying anything you want. Adding water and acid is the same thing... You're putting words in the grape's mouth."
And when she uses barrels, they're always neutral French oak so the wood stays in the background. The goal is always just to listen and let the grapes speak. She tells us she's especially excited about what the foothills are doing with Chardonnay right now because those hillside sites remind her a lot of Burgundy, which is probably not a coincidence given how much time she spent there learning the variety.
How To Pivot and Persevere
In March of 2020 she planned to open her winery debuting her first 149 cases of 2019 Merlot from their Les Collines estate Vineyard. Armed with a small mailing list consisting of mostly family and friends who were anxious for her winery to open - things didn’t go exactly as planned.
"You can probably guess how that went. Year one was a crash course in Instagram, COVID regulations, and doing my own taxes, sometimes all in the same afternoon.”
During COVID, online connection was all Kelsey had. Once things opened up, she overcorrected by saying yes to everything, pouring at Taste Washington and on the road constantly. Then she had two kids, and that pace wasn't possible anymore.
Kelsey turned back to her online community, which led to some of her most meaningful connections as a business owner including with women-owned and BIPOC-owned businesses like WeRise, telling us that partnering with businesses that make wine feel genuinely welcoming to everyone is something she cares deeply about.
Kelsey has also stayed involved with the Bâtonnage Forum and the Alliance of Women in Washington Wine, mentoring and supporting their scholarship funds.
itä wines is now six years strong and still growing, from a tiny startup debut into a critically acclaimed, award-winning producer, now offering over 8 varietals.
What She’s Drinking
It’s summer and the 2025 Sémillon is topping her list right now, fermented and aged in both a concrete egg and stainless steel, "It came out so clean and bright it kind of stops me every time I taste it. It's the perfect oyster wine, which I mean very literally. I once watched people slurp oysters with tiny glasses of white wine at a market in Bordeaux at 9am on a Saturday and thought, yes, that is exactly what I want to be doing with my life."
She tells us the Carbonic Zinfandel has become customers' go-to boat wine and there's the Syrah, what Kelsey calls the “campfire wine” with savory, almost primal notes of dried herbs and a little lavender, exactly what you want once it's finally cool enough for a sweatshirt.
What's Next for itä wines
itä wines has called the Walla Walla Airport Winery Incubators home since the beginning, but the program is time-limited by design and Kelsey's time there ends in December 2026. In the meantime, she's building a barn this summer on her parents' property in the Blue Mountains, which will host wine club pop-ups and events like fall release weekend. Early next year, she'll start looking for a new tasting room space in the airport district.
Asked what she hopes people walk away knowing about her wines, she doesn't hesitate:
"That wine is for you. That's really it. Your palate is the only authority that matters. If you try itä wines and love them, then they're the perfect wines for you. If you try them and they're not your thing, that's genuinely fine too and you've learned something about what you like. There are no wrong answers."
Follow itä wines
Meet Kelsey at WeRise on August 6th for a special Washington Wine Month tasting.
You can find itä wines at WeRise. Stop by the bar or browse our bottle shop to explore wines from mission-driven makers like Kelsey. Want first dibs on new arrivals and exclusive events? Join our newsletter to stay in the loop.
Three words: Rooted, intentional, welcoming.