The Whidbey Island Winery began as a dream and a chance for career changes for Gregory and Elizabeth Osenbach. The two lived in Monroe and were making homemade wine. Producing wine in Monroe was a bit of a problem because the climate was too wet.

The biggest part of that dream was moving to Whidbey Island and starting a winery from scratch. As many of you know, Whidbey Island lies in the rain shadow from the Olympic Mountain Range. This makes Whidbey somewhat drier than much of the Puget Sound.

In 1984 Greg and Elizabeth moved to Whidbey Island. They found a 10-acre site that would be perfect for their winery; it was very close to Langley and would be a good location for retailing their wines.

They built a home and started growing grapes. With a maturing crop of grapes it was time to expand. In 1990 they built the winery building and proceeded to get all the licenses that would be required to sell their wines.

1991 was their first production year and by the summer of 1992 they had sold 400 cases of wine. Today that number is between 3000 and 3500 cases of wine.

Currently about one third of the grapes that are used in producing their wines comes from the Whidbey Island vineyard; the rest of the grapes come from the Yakima Valley.

Greg and Elizabeth have developed a strong relationship with the growers in Yakima. They have input on how the grapes are grown. It used to be that the growers were paid by the pound for their grapes. This tended to reduce the quality of the grapes grown since the emphasis was on quantity.

Now grapes are sold by the acre; there is less of a focus on quantity and more on the quality.of the grape. If the crop level is lower you have better quality and the flavors are more intense.

If you click on the wine label above you can view a short video about the winery.

Elizabeth does the important book work that is needed for the enterprise’s success. Leah Waaramaki is the other half of the wine making team, with Greg, and she is also involved in the wineries marketing efforts. Leah comes from the wine growing area of California and has provided a lot of energy and love to the business and it’s wine making.

If you click on the above label there is a video interview with Leah Waaramaki talking about Seattle’s 2009 Wine Awards. The Whidbey Island Winery won a Gold Medal for their White Rh0ne Style  2007 Roussanne.

The Whidbey Island Winery produces both white and red wines. Three of the whites are produced at the vineyard; Madeline Angevine, Island White and Siegerrebe.

To find out more about the winery you can visit their website by clicking here.

The Winery is located on 5237 Langley Road in Langley, Washington, 98260.

You can call them at 360-221-2040