Kristina van Löben Sels

Arbor Crest Wine Cellars

In the early 1980s, Harold and Marcia Mielke began a venture that would transform the inventor’s estate into our region’s premier destination winery. After purchasing a winery in California, they relocated operations to Spokane Valley to take advantage of the budding Washington wine industry, establishing Arbor Crest Wine Cellars as the state’s 29th winery (a number that has since grown to over 980). To serve as the winery’s new headquarters, they acquired the idyllic Riblet Estate, which had been designated as a national historic landmark in 1979. The inventor’s former workshop now accommodates the Winery’s administrative offices. By 1999, the family business was being expanded to the next generation as the Mielke’s daughter, Kristina Mielke van Löben Sels, departed her position as associate winemaker at Ferrari-Carano Vineyards in Sonoma County, California, to take over as head winemaker for Arbor Crest.