Yes, Tacoma has wineries. ‘Wine Passport’ lets you jet-set your way to free drinks this spring
Is Tacoma a wine town? It’s definitely starting to feel that way, as several wineries have recently chosen Tacoma over other Puget Sound cities for their first locations or expansions.
With two local wine bars and bottle shops, including the venerable Tacoma Wine Merchants, four of them have banded together to create the first Tacoma Wine Passport in honor of Washington Wine Month, a biannual celebration of the state’s more than 1,000 wineries. Typically, the spring event ties into the popular Taste Washington event in Seattle, featuring grand tastings and ticketed dinners.
Through April 14, visit these businesses for a chance to win cool wine-related prizes, including free tastings with the winemaker, gift cards and more.
How does it work?
Pick up your passport card at any of the participating shops. You also can pick one up at Central Co-op on Pearl, which offers a more compelling wine selection than most area grocery stores.
At each location, show your card and get a stamp — no purchase necessary, although what a missed opportunity to not relax with a glass or a flight while you’re there!
Every stamp acts as a raffle ticket: Drop off your passport at any of the seven businesses by mid-April. Then await a potential phone call or email about your winnings.
The passport idea started with AnnaLee Zenkner, general manager at the new-last-year Water from Wine tasting room near the University of Washington Tacoma. The nonprofit winery is offering a wine and chocolate tasting for four people in the raffle.
Andrea Dahlman, co-owner of Dahlman Cellars with her husband and winemaker Jim, said the event was a way for Tacoma’s wine pros to draw attention to what’s happening right here. You don’t need to drive all the way to Woodinville, where the Woodinville Wine Pass allows, for instance, club members at one winery to enjoy club perks at another.
Dahlman was raised in Tacoma, and the couple recently settled into an apartment just a few blocks from their Stadium District tasting room that opened in 2022.
“There are wine drinkers here,” she said in a phone call about the inaugural passport promotion.
The Dahlmans and the owners of other wineries that decided on Tacoma (including Browne Family Vineyards, which has a Proctor District outpost but is not involved in this event) also knew they had club members here. There is also room to grow, compared to the already quite dense wine city of Woodinville, home to more than 120 winery tasting rooms, or Walla Walla, nearer to most of Washington’s vineyards.
She noted the recent addition of Structure Cellars’ Tacoma tasting room on the edge of downtown, less than a 15-minute walk from their shop.
Other participants include Ebony and Ivory Coffee, the expansive cafe with espresso, wine and beer on the ground floor of the renovated Tacoma Centre. There guests can sample On Blended Knee Winery, based in Woodinville but an exclusive partner of the cafe.
From Tacoma Wine Merchants in Old Town, you could snag a $100 gift card. The Buried Bottle downtown, in the same building as Fujiya Japanese Restaurant on Broadway, is also one of the passport stops.
Importantly, Dahlman said, “We didn’t want it to cost people anything. You can come to any location, pick up a passport and get a stamp.”
TACOMA WINE PASSPORT
▪ March 11-April 14 at select locations, washingtonwine.org/event/taste-wa-wine-month-tacoma-wine-passport
▪ Water from Wine, 1704 Pacific Ave., waterfromwine.org
▪ Ebony & Ivory (with OBK Winery), 1145 Broadway, ebonyandivorycoffee.com
▪ The Buried Bottle, 1130 Broadway, buriedbottlewine.com
▪ Structure Cellars, 632 St. Helens Ave., structurewines.com
▪ Dahlman Cellars, 113 N. Tacoma Ave., dahlmancellars.com
▪ Tacoma Wine Merchants, 2112 N. 30th St., tacomawinemerchants.com
▪ Central Co-op, 4502 N. Pearl St., centralcoop.coop
Reporter’s Note: This story has been updated to reflect that the Spring 2024 Tacoma Wine Passport will run through April 14.
This story was originally published March 22, 2024 at 12:00 PM.