Open: Year Round
Our story at Townshend Cellar started with a winery in Tri-Cities, an air chiller unit, and fruit. In 1979, Don Townshend was working with Preston Winery on installing an air chiller unit for their winery and was exposed to wine making for the first time. With no previous experience in the wine industry, Don was intrigued about the industry and the wine making process.
Nearly ten years later in 1987, Don moved to the Green Bluff area North of Spokane. Where he moved into a home surrounded by local fruit growers of apples, apricots, strawberries, raspberries, peaches, and pears. By 1990, Don started toying with the idea of opening a small business on his property where he would make wine completely from locally grown fruit.
After analyzing the complexity and cost of making fruit wine, he determined that making fruit wine would be far too difficult because of the price he would have to charge for the wine. For now, Don shelved the idea of becoming a fruit wine maker...but the story doesn't end there.
With the thought of winemaking routinely on Don's mind, he was determined not to give up on the idea of becoming a winemaker. The idea of making fruit wine from locally grown farmers soon shifted to making traditional wine from grapes.
In 1995, Don made a barrel of Cabernet and Merlot. Three years later, in 1998, he bottled the wine. As he recalls, the wine..."was as good as any California or Washington wine I had ever had. That was all it took. I filled out the paperwork and started my winery immediately." And Townshend Cellar was born!
