If you squint just right, Hedges Family Estate could be mistaken for a centuries-old château in Champagne, France. The grand façade of the sandstone-colored chateau and courtyard gives way to a tasting room that feels like a well-worn European estate.
Lace curtains framing huge windows let the jewel-toned light onto the mahogany bar and the many bottles lining the shelves.
Not too far away, meticulously manicured gardens lead to rows of disciplined vines, their roots deep in Red Mountain’s ancient, iron-rich soils. This is a sun-scorched terroir that rewards only the most disciplined winemakers with fruit of stunning intensity.
At the center of everything is Sarah Hedges Goedhart, a winemaker with a farmer’s pragmatism and a philosopher’s mind. Goedhart draws deeply from both her French heritage and her Washington upbringing.
French influence runs deep in the Hedges family, a legacy carried from Goedhart’s mother, who grew up in the Champagne region, where her family ran a fourth-generation textile business. The old-world ethos of craftsmanship, patience and attention to detail shaped the way Goedhart came to see wine: not just as a beverage but as a narrative of place and time.
She talks about the strong French influence in her work, “French is everywhere,” she says. “From the grapes to the winemaking to the labels. It’s one of the reasons Hedges has been around so long. We don’t follow fads — we have just stayed with our philosophy of balanced, old-world-style wine.”
Her earliest memories are a blur of vineyard harvests, late-night bottling sessions and dinner parties where the guest lists read like a who’s who of the wine world. Before there was Hedges Family Estate, there was American Wine Trade, the brokerage business her parents started in 1986. Two years later, they decided to cut out the middleman and make their own wine.
Though raised in a household immersed in the wine industry, Goedhart initially charted her own path, pursuing business studies and later considering a career in veterinary medicine. The vineyard was always in the background, but her first real understanding of winemaking came during college when she took a job at a Santa Barbara winery.
What started as a means to make ends meet turned into an awakening. “That’s when I really started to see how fascinating the world of winemaking really is,” she recalls. Walking the rows of vines, watching the slow alchemy of fermentation, she was captivated by the artistry and science behind it all.
A move to Sonoma with her husband, Brent, cemented her future. The couple worked at a small biodynamic and organic winery where they did everything from vineyard management to cellar work. The experience reconnected her to something deeply ingrained in her heritage, the respect for land, the patience of winemaking, the belief that nature, when guided gently, can produce something extraordinary.
“That’s when I really fell in love with winemaking,” Goedhart recalls. “The humble grape that creates a living beverage with so many aromas, flavors and textures, and all the people involved in different parts of the business. I was hooked.”
Returning to Red Mountain in 2006, Goedhart joined Hedges Family Estate as assistant winemaker. By 2015, she had stepped into the role of head winemaker and director of winery operations, ushering in a new era of biodynamic and organic farming at the estate. “The winery and vineyard just felt more alive,” she says.
“There are so many more intriguing ideas in biodynamic and organic farming versus just being on a conventional schedule. It’s like making wine via a recipe instead of every year seeing what type of wine the vineyard wants to create.”
Red Mountain, with its distinctive terroir, has become her canvas, but the strokes are unmistakably French. Like Bordeaux, this small but mighty AVA produces wines of structure, concentration and balance. “If the wines aren’t too manipulated, you can pick up Red Mountain in a lineup of Washington wines. It has powerful restraint when made well and ages like no other AVA in the state or the West Coast.”
Her approach to winemaking borrows heavily from the Bordeaux model — elevating terroir above trends, favoring restraint over opulence and focusing on seamless blends that speak of time and place rather than individual varietals.
She credits her time working with seasoned winemakers, particularly her uncle, for reinforcing the importance of patience and precision. “I took the time with seasoned winemakers and didn’t jump the gun to head winemaker too early,” she explains. “Understanding each and every step from vineyard to bottle is important, and you don’t learn that from a book.”
For Goedhart, winemaking is as much an orchestration as it is a craft. Harvest season is a high-stakes dance, where every decision, from picking dates to fermentation choices, shapes the final expression of a wine. “Deciding to pick or not to pick on a certain day, or picking one block instead of another — it’s the start of a great ‘choose your own adventure’ novel with each wine.”
Blending, however, is where the old-world traditions truly shine.
“The few months after harvest, you really get to know each wine and its character,” she says. “It’s like writing a symphony and hearing each part in your head before hearing all the instruments together.”
The French influence extends beyond the wines themselves. Hedges Family Estate’s château-inspired tasting room was designed not only to reflect a European aesthetic but to create an experience. “We wanted a space that transports people to the old world for an afternoon, not just aesthetically but culturally,” she says. “Our winery allows people to slow down, take it all in, and just enjoy the wine and the view.”
Being a woman in a historically male-dominated industry presents its own challenges, but Goedhart prefers to be seen as a winemaker first.
“Wine should be judged on its merit, not the gender of the winemaker,” she says. While she appreciates the recognition, she acknowledges that constantly being invited to “women winemaker” panels and dinners can feel overwhelming.
Despite the demands of overseeing both the production and public-facing side of Hedges, Goedhart remains deeply involved in every aspect of the winery. She wears many hats: winemaker, manager, host and storyteller. “One of my biggest triumphs is that I am not only a winemaker but a production manager,” she says. “Learning so much over the years and becoming a jack-of-all-trades to keep the winery going has been something I am really proud of.”
Looking ahead, she remains focused on refining Hedges’ biodynamic approach and continuing to bridge the best of France and Red Mountain. “Wine is nature’s creation,” she says. “My job is to step back, observe, and let it become what it wants to be.”
