The Wine Knows

Columbia Winery's new owner, Ascentia Wine Estates, is making all the right moves - and fixing some of former owner Constellation's bad ones.

First and foremost, Columbia Winery will stay put at its iconic winery in Woodinville, Wash., directly across the street from Chateau Ste. Michelle. It will announce Friday that it has signed a long-term lease on the former Haviland Winery building.

Why in the world Constellation thought this was a good idea when it announced it last December is a huge mystery to me. If I ran a tasting room across the street from the state's busiest winery (Ste. Michelle), I would stay put for as long as possible.

Columbia moved into the building in 1989 and has been a staple for Woodinville wine tourism since.

Said Jim DeBonis, Ascentia CEO: "The decision to keep Columbia Winery in Woodinville was very important to us. It was paramount to Ascentia's growth plan for our Columbia Winery brand and for the protection of employees in the Pacific Northwest. It is also essential to our local consumers, tourists and distributors, while maintaining a significant presence in the growing Washington wine industry."

This is great news for the Washington wine industry - and Woodinville in particular, which banks on wine tourism from nearby Seattle.

Another Constellation sin was closing its one Eastern Washington tasting room - Covey Run's in the Yakima Valley town of Zillah. I know for a fact that DeBonis is looking at the potential of opening a tasting room in Eastern Washington. That, too, would be a great strategy.

He told me this a few months ago:

"It is very important that we have tasting rooms for our brands, and it's one of the challenges we're working through. Our strategy is to have tasting rooms for Columbia Winery and Covey Run. We've looked at a couple of different strategies for Covey, either Seattle or the Yakima Valley - or both. You can have two, and I could see having a couple of locations.

"I see nothing but benefits to having a tasting room."

Here is a wine company that is doing things right.