The following article is from the Summer edition of Seattle Metropolitan magazine.

The art is striking. The wall is exposed brick. The pours are top-notch. But this Gård Vintners tasting room isn’t in wine country. It sits in downtown Ellensburg on the same block as a tavern, a barber, and a tuxedo shop—and it’s an important part of the new model for wine success in Washington.

At one time, drinkers found the best bottles at a high-end wine store or their local fine-dining restaurant. More rarely, at a winery itself. But how and where local wineries sell their products has fundamentally changed in recent years. Today, selling wine direct to consumer—DTC in industry parlance—is king, and not just at singular tasting rooms either. “If the pandemic showed us anything, it’s that DTC is extremely important,” says Matías Kúsulas, head winemaker at Gård Vintners.

Read the rest of the article here.

Also, read a series of red wine picks, with callouts to Foolhardy, Grosgrain, Top Source, Kevin White, and Lucius.