Our Wine & Our Story
San Juan Island natives at heart, Shaun and Amy Salamida started Madrone Cellars & Cider in 2017
With over a decade in the industry, Shaun is one of the youngest winemakers in Washington State. After studying viticulture and enology at Oregon State University, his career officially began when he accepted the position of Assistant Winemaker at San Juan Island Vineyards in 2011. This position led him to the San Juan Islands and jump-started the dream of owning his own winery in the islands someday. After a stint exploring and working in the Lake Chelan AVA, Shaun and his wife, Amy, decided it was time to start Madrone. The Madrone tree came about as we discussed where home was for us, and how we wanted whatever we did to always reflect San Juan Island.
Terroir, which is a sense of place reflected through taste, textures, and aromas, is the inspiration for our wines and ciders. We chose to focus on natural winemaking styles, which include spontaneous fermentations, zero filtration, minimal intervention, and much more. Natural, to us, means crafting wine and cider the way it was made for years. We do not manipulate our products but allow them to reflect the terrior and purity of fruit. An important distinction for us is that our products contain zero residual sugar. Residual sugar is biologically unstable, and requires chemicals or sterilization to produce a sweet wine that will not re-ferment. Natural wine ferments all the way dry and achieves balance through rest and age.
Organic, sustainable farming is key for our business to thrive. We rely on the local farmers from San Juan, Shaw, and Lopez Island for apples and pears for our cider production. Our wines reflect the farming and terrior of Eastern Washington, where we source our grapes. We only work with vineyards that farm sustainably and honor LIVE Certification and Salmon Safe principles.
Our Mission
Our mission is to tell the story. Each wine and cider reflects the farm where the fruit was planted. The farmer that chose not to spray chemicals and instead weed by hand. The location, and the importance of testing the organic matter within the soil. At Madrone, our wines and cider reflect the natural process and the people and location that are behind the glass.
We accomplish this by working with Salmon Safe and LIVE certified vineyards, local farmers that practice organic principals, only using biodegradable solutions at our winery, and much more.
Here are a few ways we decrease our footprint and practice sustainability.
Reusing glass bottles. We created a program in 2023 to encourage our community to return their Madrone bottles when they were empty. We wash, sanitize and store till our next bottling run. By implementing this program, we reused 3,600 bottles in 2023 alone.
Regenerative farming at Saltwater Farm Vineyard and estate orchards. In the winter, we prune our vineyard and orchards. In the spring, we collect the pruning wood and create ramial wood mulch that we then put back into the vineyard and orchards. This mulch feeds and builds up the population of healthy fungi (mycorrhizae) and bacteria in the soil. By fostering a healthy biological soil, we are increasing its capacity to sequester carbon from the atmosphere.
At Saltwater Farms, all mowing and vineyard operations are powered through solar.
All sanitizers and cleaners used at Madrone winery are biodegradable and Salmon Safe.
Estate Vineyard
One of the most exciting partnerships we have made in the last few years is with Saltwater Farms, a beautiful organic farm and wedding destination on San Juan Island. In June of 2021, in collaboration with Saltwater’s owners Andrew Fleming and Merriss Waters, we planted our first estate vineyard. With these vines, we will produce Pinot Noir, Albariño and Siegerrebe for sparkling wines.