For our friends Melaney Schmidt and Malia Myers of Landmass Wines, great wine starts long before the pour. Find out how community, curiosity, and the Pacific Northwest come together in every bottle they produce.
In the Pacific Northwest, there's no shortage of great wine, and at New Seasons, we're honored to get to know and work with some of the most incredible local winemakers—like women-owned Landmass Wines.
Partners in life and business, Melaney Schmidt and Malia Myers own and operate Landmass Wines with a commitment to community, connection, and respect for the land. They believe great wine is about more than what's in the glass. It's about the people who grow the grapes, the places they grow them, and the moments shared around a bottle.
Together, Melaney's thoughtful, detail-driven approach to winemaking and Malia's people-first perspective have shaped a winery rooted in curiosity, craftsmanship, and a deep sense of place.
We caught up with them to learn more about their work, their wine, and what continues to inspire their work.
NSM: What makes Landmass unmistakably Landmass?
MS & MM: Our never-ending curiosity and excitement about the places our grapes grow and the growers we get to work alongside. We’re always looking for new ways to honor both. For us, wine is where these two things meet: place and people. And then there's the culmination of years of work: the enjoyment of others who experience our wine. We get to take what we’ve learned from the land and what we’ve built with our growers and bring it to people who are genuinely excited to experience it. That connection is what keeps us curious and moving forward.
NSM: What inspired you to start Landmass, and what continues to drive your work today?
MS & MM: Landmass started from a desire to see what we were capable of and to make wine that we genuinely believed in. From the beginning, there has been a constant pursuit of quality: learning more, paying closer attention, working with better fruit, and continually challenging ourselves to make the best wines we can. But just as important to us is how those wines make people feel. We never wanted the pursuit of quality to make wine feel precious or exclusive. At its best, wine is something to gather around, celebrate, and share. What continues to drive us is that we don't feel finished. There is always another place to explore, another grower to learn from, another wine to make, and another way to welcome people into what we're doing. The pursuit keeps us moving, while the people around us remind us why we're doing it.
NSM: How does the region shape the character and flavor of your wines?
MS & MM: The Pacific Northwest is an incredibly dynamic region for growing grapes. We have dramatic shifts in elevation, temperature, rainfall, wind, soils, and exposure, often within surprisingly short distances. Those characteristics are the raw material of the wines. Every vineyard brings its own forces that ultimately guide the wine into its final form. The land gives us the starting point and, in many ways, the direction. Our job is to make decisions that allow those qualities to remain perceivable in the finished wine. That's what makes the Pacific Northwest so exciting to us: there is so much inherent character here. We want our wines to reflect that complexity and sense of place and to taste like they could only have come from this landscape.
NSM: What is it like partnering with New Seasons?
MS & MM: Partnering with New Seasons feels like a natural fit because we share many of the same values. We both care deeply about quality, the people behind the products, and creating places where people feel welcome and connected. As a small business based in the Pacific Northwest, we especially appreciate New Seasons’ commitment to supporting local producers and bringing thoughtfully made products to the communities they serve. It means a lot to see our wines alongside other businesses and makers we respect. It’s exciting to partner with a company that understands that good food and wine are the ultimate catalysts for bringing people together.
You can find Landmass Wines at your neighborhood New Seasons—including our new limited-release Overjoy Reserve Pinot Noir, created in partnership with Landmass Wines.
You can also head over to Landmass Wines to find out more about their incredible lineup of local wines.