Maryhill Winery will open a 4,890-square-foot tasting room at The Waterfront Vancouver later this year, owners Craig and Vicki Leuthold announced.
The property will be the second satellite tasting room for the Goldendale-based winery, which produces about 80,000 cases of wine annually.
“We’ve been eyeing the Vancouver market for many years,” said Craig Leuthold in a media release. “The city’s waterfront district along the Columbia River is a natural fit for us, given that our two other Washington tasting rooms — our flagship tasting room in Goldendale and our tasting room in Spokane — are also riverfront properties. The Waterfront tasting room will allow us to better serve our wine club members in the Portland-Vancouver area, and help others discover our wide variety of Washington wines.”
Maryhill’s head winemaker, Richard Batchelor, took home the 2018 Winemaker of the Year award at the annual Indy International Wine Competition.
The Waterfront Vancouver is a $1.5 billion project spanning 32 acres of property adjacent to the Columbia River. The mixed-use development will include restaurants, office buildings, condos and hotels — and a public park with a grand opening scheduled for next month. The public-private partnership is being overseen by Gramor Development.
“We are very excited about having Maryhill Winery come to The Waterfront,” said Barry Cain, president of Gramor Development, in the media release. “They make great wines and are one of the fastest-growing wineries in Washington.” Maryhill Winery was established in 1999.
The tasting room will be situated along the Waterfront Renaissance Trail near the Grant Street Pier. It will be designed similarly to the winery’s Spokane satellite tasting room, which opened last year.
“I know visitors will really appreciate being able to try and purchase Maryhill’s wines in the unbeatable atmosphere The Waterfront offers,” Cain said in the media release. “It’s businesses like this that will make The Waterfront the thriving mixed-use development we’ve envisioned.”
Cain told The Columbian that the tasting room will open in the ground floor of the building on Block 12, alongside the future Twigs Bistro and Martini Bar.
Cain said the Leutholds approached him a couple months ago proposing a tasting room. Until then, he hadn’t really considered the possibility, but he said it fits with the atmosphere.
“It’s one more thing that people enjoy doing, that they’re really going to enjoy doing in that kind of setting. It’s not something that we anticipated in our plan,” Cain said.
The owners are tentatively planning to open their doors by the end of the year, he said.
“Having Maryhill there will give people the wine-tasting experience right on the Columbia River,” Cain said. “It’s a great thing for tourists who come to town and want to experience a great Washington wine and not have to travel a couple of hours away.”
