The Warehouse District Garagistes
Near Woodinville, Washington
Some of Washington's most acclaimed wines are made in what look like ordinary industrial units. This is the Woodinville Warehouse District, a cluster of low slung post industrial buildings that became an unlikely wine neighborhood. Starting in the early two thousands, aspiring winemakers realized these warehouses were the perfect launch pad.
Rent was cheap, the ceilings were high, and the roll up loading doors were tall enough to let a forklift unload bins of grapes trucked in from the vineyards of eastern Washington. Winemakers who work at this small hand crafted scale are sometimes called garagistes, a French borrowing that once poked fun at people making serious wine in garages. In Woodinville they wore it as a badge of honor.
What made the district special was density. Dozens of tiny wineries set up within walking distance of one another, sharing tips and sharing equipment. For visitors, the payoff is a walkable maze of tasting rooms where you might meet the actual owner pouring behind the bar.
The polished chateau down the road gets the postcards, but much of the real experimentation happens here, in the warehouses.
