Well-known Walla Walla winery opens cozy Tacoma tasting room with 18 bottles under $40
The Proctor District is home to one of the city’s best beer bars, an acclaimed Olympia-based coffee roaster and now a Walla Walla winery.
Browne Family Vineyards has opened its third standalone tasting room right here in the South Sound, in the ground floor of the Madison 25 building next to Cactus and across the street from Met Market.
Proprietors Andrew and Courtney Browne have, with the help of the talented Tacoma-born designer Heidi Caillier and architect Heidi Kihlman of BCRA Design, created a midcentury-meets-Northwest destination for exclusive house wines — bold Washington reds, full-bodied whites, crisp méthode champenoise sparkling — accompanied by light bites from Gayle Orth Catering.
To describe the space merely as a tasting room, though, would be a hard undersell. The couple considers it an extension of their own home, and those living-room vibes feel at once homey and sophisticated, with velvet couches and an aubergine-colored banquette, brass accents and a dark marble bar top.
It’s a cross between a coffee shop, posited Andrew Browne, and a wine bar that happens to serve bottles you won’t find elsewhere.
“I want someone to come in, bring a cup of coffee and sit down,” he said, and once late afternoon rolls around, “I’m ready for a glass of wine. They just feel comfortable.”
Then they bring their friends and out-of-town guests, and how easy is it to stroll around the block to Europa Bistro or Crudo & Cotto for an excellent Italian meal, or Peaks & Pints for a cold beer?
“It’s such a good culture,” said Browne. “We feel like we’re coming in, we’re being a very distinct, different business that can just add to the flavor and the whole experience.”
Browne’s flagship wines, including its cabernet sauvignon, Bordeaux red blends from the Columbia Valley, are common sights on grocery and liquor store shelves. At the company’s first tasting room in Walla Walla, opened in 2014, and its second in Seattle, which opened two years ago, guests have access to annual vintages for sale by the glass, bottle and case. That exclusivity will hold true in Tacoma.
“I’m talking about a dozen eclectic small lots, different varietals,” explained Browne. Pour lists and flights will vary, but the opening wine list offers three dozen bottles, ranging from $18 to $189 for a mega 3-liter bottle, with 18 choices under $40.
The Spymaster series of cabernets, for instance, comes from Browne’s 103-acre estate vineyard in Walla Walla, using grapes from three different blocks every year. The Heritage line, a cab and a pinot noir sold only to restaurants, can be purchased here by the case.
Join the wine club for a 20 percent discount off all cases, plus first-dibs on reservations — highly recommended right now — and, in the future, special events and winemaker meetings.
BROWNE WINE IN TACOMA
Despite the brand’s Walla Walla origins, the Brownes have laid very South Sound roots. They moved to the area in 2018 and now live on Fox Island. Both of their young children attend Annie Wright, while business partners Dan Baty and Alex Ootkin Evans graduated from Wilson High School and Bellarmine Preparatory, respectively.
To say that the couple adores Proctor might be an understatement.
“I think the Proctor community is really one of the true world-class communities,” Andrew Browne told The News Tribune in a phone call this month, and it starts with Tacoma.
“When you have people who are so open and excited about where they live and why they love where they live — when we started looking at doing a tasting room in this area,” he said, “we kinda zoned in really quickly.”
The interconnectedness of each business and the walkability of the neighborhood reminded him of downtown Walla Walla.
“Proctor just felt like a really nice fit for our brand and what we thought would really evolve in the next decade,” he said.
After decades working for other wineries and importers, Browne started the winery in 2006 in honor of his late grandfather William Bitner Browne.
Though he was raised in Ohio, Bitner, as the family knew him, attended the University of Bordeaux just before World War II.
“He fell in love with everything, and loved French wine. He gave me that passion,” Browne recalled. During his grandfather’s service, he said, “If you ended up at the farm, the one thing you were gonna get was bread, maybe cheese — maybe cheese — and a glass of wine.”
In addition to Browne Family Vineyards, Browne is the founder and CEO of Precept Wines, the largest privately owned wine producer in the region. His partner, Baty, operated Columbia Winery from 1980 to 2001, and the duo launched Precept in 2003, scooping up vineyards in Washington, Oregon, Idaho and even New Mexico in the 17 years since.
Precept brands include 4 Cellars, Callaway, Davey & Browne, Sagelands, Ste. Chapelle, Gruet and HOUSE Wine. Recently, the parent company acquired Pampelonne, a California-based producer of wine-based canned cocktails.
The Browne Family tasting room in Proctor joins a growing legion of wineries extending their footprints to cities outside growing regions. As the third-largest wine producing state, Washington is home to more than 1,000 wineries growing more than 70 grape varietals over 60,000 acres, according to the Washington State Wine Commission.
Other wine destinations include Mattawa’s Gingko Forest Winery in Old Town, Tacoma Wine Merchants in Stadium, Black Door Wine in Hilltop, Wildside Wines in the West End and El Tufo near downtown. Just this year, Tacoma gained two more: Amitie Wine Company on Pacific Avenue and Field Bar & Bottle Shop on Sixth Avenue.
BROWNE FAMILY VINEYARDS TACOMA
▪ 2508 N. Proctor St., Suite B, Tacoma, 253-904-3066, brownefamilyvineyards.com
▪ Hours: Sunday-Thursday 11 a.m.-8 p.m., Friday-Saturday 11 a.m.-9 p.m.
▪ Menu: flights $20-$25, by the glass $7-$17, bottles $15-$87; wine club members receive 20% discount
▪ Visit: opens Oct. 30; reservations recommended through CellarPass
This story was originally published October 30, 2020 at 5:10 AM.