Wineries raise a toast

Two Spokane wineries are opening a new tasting room downtown and hope to entice other regional wineries to join them.

Both Grande Ronde Cellars and Mountain Dome Winery have received state licenses needed for their new premise, tentatively called the Wine Cellar. Two other wineries, Forgeron of Walla Walla and Masset Winery of Yakima, are applying for licenses to join the Spokane wineries.

The tasting room is located in the Freeman Center at 906 W. Second Ave.

“This has been a lifelong passion of mine,” said David Westfall, winemaker for Grande Ronde and the principal mover behind the tasting room.

“I have wanted a downtown location for people to sample the wines of Washington. We hope to have about 10 wineries participate in the project in the near future,” he said.

Westfall entered the Washington wine business in its infancy, opening a retail wine store in Spokane in 1984. He and business partner David Page became distributors in 1987 when they started Northwest Select Wines.

“I knew the ultimate goal for me was to start a winery,” said Westfall. “It was the final progression of the journey.” He co-founded Grande Ronde in 1997 with Page, John Mueller and Michael Manz. The same four partners are opening the Wine Cellar.

The tasting room, located about two blocks from the Davenport Hotel, will be open from noon to 6 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday. It will feature retail sales of wines, and the co-owners plan to host events at the location, including introducing new wines to the market, holding wine and food pairing seminars and performances by local musicians.

Mueller said the partners want the Wine Cellar in Spokane to be like The Tasting Room in Seattle’s Pike Place Market, offering wine education courses, special events and the opportunity for locals and out-of-town guests to sample Washington wines.

The Freeman Center, where the Wine Cellar is located, is on the eastern end of the West Downtown Historic Transportation Corridor, one of Spokane’s National Register of Historic Districts, and in the Davenport District. The partners say they want to work with downtown merchants to coordinate events and become a part of the downtown scene.

“This is another way to get the word out on the wines we are producing locally and regionally,” said Westfall. “We are very excited about where this can go and what we can do with it.”