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Westport Winery expands tasting room, adds fresh produce

By Andy Perdue on February 5, 2014

Westport Winery has expanded its tasting room and begun to sell fresh produce near Aberdeen, Washington.

Westport Winery on the Washington coast has expanded its tasting room to accommodate its increased number of customers. It also is selling fresh produce and has created a fresh juice bar. (Photo courtesy of Westport Winery)

ABERDEEN, Wash. – A coastal winery that has found stunning popularity despite its remoteness from traditional wine country is doubling the size of its tasting room and adding a fruit and vegetable stand.

Westport Winery, which is about halfway between the city of Aberdeen and the Washington coastline, announced this weekend that it is doubling the size of its gift shop and tasting bar to accommodate ever-growing crowds of fans. The winery, owned by the Roberts family, makes nearly 7,000 cases of 33 different wines and recently added three ciders to its lineup of offerings.

“We’ve been struggling to accommodate all those who want to try our wines, as we’ve grown so much in the past six years,” said co-owner Kim Roberts. “Because we can’t add on to the building, we’ve reallocated space inside in an effort to better serve everyone.”

Westport Winery, which launched in 2008, has added a number of amenities to its winery throughout the past half-decade, including a restaurant, bakery, nursery, sculpture garden, themed gardens, dog park and vineyard maze. It is in the process of developing an arboretum on 40 acres across Highway 105 from its main property.

All of this has made the winery a top destination, even in remote Grays Harbor County. Thus the need for the expanded tasting room and gift shop. The winery hired Kelly Niemi, a Grays Harbor County firefighter and concrete contractor, to create the second tasting bar.

With the changes, the winery has added to its retail offerings by providing access to food.

“We’re adding a lot of non-GMO foods, vegan and gluten-free options, and more local produce,” Roberts said. “Since we grow so many fruits and vegetables, we’re also adding a new section of fresh produce.”

Westport Winery also is adding several to-go items, such as soups, sandwiches and salad dressings, as well as a fresh-juice bar.

“All of these changes in the winery give us the chance to further enhance the nature of who we are and what we do,” Roberts said. “We make fresh food with local products and offer them on a daily basis. It’s a new kind of convenience store. We’re local, healthy and focused on quality.”

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About Andy Perdue

Andy Perdue is the editor and publisher of Great Northwest Wine. He is a third-generation journalist who has worked at newspapers since the mid-1980s and has been writing about wine since 1998. He co-founded Wine Press Northwest magazine with Eric Degerman and served as its editor-in-chief for 15 years. He is a frequent judge at international wine competitions. He is the author of "The Northwest Wine Guide: A Buyer's Handbook" (Sasquatch, 2003) and has contributed to four other books. He writes about wine for The Seattle Times. You can find him on Twitter and Google+.