Last week Andrew Will Winery was bustling. Grapes had recently begun arriving from the east side of the state, meaning it was go time for the small winery. After some morning rain on Friday, a sweet, pungent smell filled the air as grapes were pressed in an open-sided building and deep purple juice was already fermenting in stainless steel vats.

For two decades Andrew Will Winery, just miles from Vashon town, has produced 5,000 cases of wine a year, shipping bottles to 40 states and several countries. While the operation has flown largely under the radar on Vashon, wine enthusiasts know Andrew Will Winery, founded by Chris Camarda, as a pioneer in the Washington wine industry and one of the country’s leading winemakers.

Just last week, Andrew Will was named as one of the best 100 wineries in the world by Wine & Spirits Magazine, adding to a long list of accolades it has garnered since moving to Vashon in 1994. The winery has also been named the top wine producer in Washington and one of the 25 top producers of Cabernet worldwide.

“They’re wines that the wine world and wine drinkers know and love,” said Chris Youman, wine steward at Thriftway. “They’re world-class wines that are made here on Vashon.”

Tucked on five forested acres off Bank Road, Andrew Will Winery has the feel of both a high-end operation and a small family business. On Friday, Will Camarda — Chris’s son and the “Will” in Andrew Will — oversaw the small handful of employees pressing grapes. A Greater Swiss Mountain Dog named Bigger patrolled a neatly landscaped yard, and chickens scurried around in a nearby pen. Inside a modern home, Chris worked in his office while a loaf of bread baked in the oven.

“We’re focused on what we’re doing as a kind of craft,” Chris said, explaining that unlike some winemakers, he and his small staff take an artisan approach to wine. He likens wine more to food than to alcohol, he said, something to be savored with a meal and enjoyed while socializing.

He also considers his wine an “agricultural statement,” he said.

While Washington is fairly new on the wine scene, Chris believes the state actually has has one of the best climates in the world for growing Merlot, Cabernet and Cabernet Franc grapes. Many Northwest wineries use blends of grapes from a variety of wineries, but each of Andrew Will’s vintages are intentionally sourced from the same place. Grapes come from four specific vineyards in the Columbia Valley and the Horse Haven Hills area. Chris is part owner of one, the Champoux Vineyard just outside Yakima, and in 2000 he planted the 30-acre Two Blondes Vineyard a couple miles away.

“When you’re making wine, you start to realize how important the vineyards are,” Chris said. “I wanted the experience of planting my own vineyard, making my own mistakes and correcting them.”

Every location turns out different types of grapes, Chris noted, and weather each year affects the crops as well, giving grapes unique characteristics that Chris says he hopes to reflect in each wine. Bottles are named after the winery the grapes originated from, something that’s traditional in Europe but not common in the Northwest.

“It captures something from the past,” he said. “It captures something from that time and from the agricultural world.”

Chris founded Andrew Will in 1989, after developing a passion and a palate for wine during 20 years working at upscale Seattle restaurants such as IL Bistro and The Oyster Grotto.

With encouragement from his wife Annie, he set up his first shop in a 10-by-60-foot industrial space in Seattle and dubbed the operation Andrew Will after his nephew Andrew and son Will.

Without any training or experience in winemaking, Chis simply tried to make wine that he himself would like to drink, he said, with grapes from a couple choice vineyards — Ciel du Cheval and Champoux in south central Washington. He also picked up tips from other Washington winemakers he had come to know through the restaurant industry.

“They were kind enough to help me out often,” he said.

However, Chris quickly proved he could join the ranks of those winemakers when his first efforts were met with good reviews by Seattle critics.

“That was a seal of approval,” he said. “It helped us in Seattle right away.”

In 1991, his second vintage was named to a top 10 list by Robert Parker, one of the nation’s leading wine critics.

Still, Chris said, he kept his eye not on critical acclaim, but on making good wine, and making enough of it to turn a profit. He made five vintages in his cramped Seattle quarters and after a half-dozen years was able to leave his restaurant job to focus on wine full-time.

In 1994, Chris and Annie, along with their two young children, moved to Vashon, building a home and state-of-the-art winemaking facilities on a picturesque plot just west of Fisher Pond.

Annie, who kept gardens there and enjoyed cooking while the rest of the family worked at the winery, died from cancer in 2005. One of the winery’s labels still carries her name.

“I don’t know if things would have turned out this way for me as a winemaker had I never met her,” Chris said.

These days, Andrew Will is still a family affair. Will, who graduated from Vashon High School in 2005, recently joined his father as winemaker. Now 27 and married, Will has a degree in geology from the University of Washington, but always loved the winery, he said, and now commutes there from his home in Seattle. Will says that in addition to challenging process of winemaking, he enjoys the social aspect of wine. He can often be found at tastings and events.

“It’s a product people do truly enjoy,” he said. “It’s definitely a connected community in that sense.”

Though they currently have no plans to grow, Will’s work at the winery frees Chris to spend more time at his vineyards, where his staff says he has a special touch with grapes.

“He has a unique ability to know when to pick the grapes at the right time,” said Robin Pollard, who lives and works at the winery, “and how to do things in the vineyards that are going to influence the final product, which is the wine.”

Andrew Will Winery is not open to the public and doesn’t even have a sign — Chris says that was never part of their vision — but they sometimes donate to local auctions and six of their wines are available at Thriftway. Youman, at Thriftway, said that with a top price of $75,  the wine is “underpriced considering the quality,” and he noted the less expensive black label bottles that go for around $30.

Pollard, who has also been head of the Washington State Wine Commission, called the latest top-100 award from Wine & Spirits Magazine significant, but emphasized that a positive review from a customer can be just as rewarding.

“At the end of the day, if we can make people feel good and give them a product that’s memorable, and they share with their friends and have a wonderful experience, that’s where the real satisfaction come in.”