The Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater area has for many, many years enjoyed a lovely swath of forest & river (namely Fort Lewis and the Nisqually Delta) to the north, separating us from the metropolitan central Puget Sound.
But we do have all the little gems of city city life- great theaters, music, political sideshows, etc. We just get to enjoy them in a more relaxed, personal setting.

The slow pace fosters a whole bunch of wonderful family-owned businesses too. And because they operate on personal scale, they are unique from each other, and very different from the big stores selling so much of the same stuff in strip mall after strip mall (I just returned from Tucson, if you want to hear about strip malls).
It also means we rely on each other to share when we find a new gem! So I am doing my duty as a South Sounder to bring you news of yet another wonderful Winery, right in our backyard!

MADSEN FAMILY CELLARS

A couple weeks ago I was driving through the Hawk's Prairie area of Lacey (NE of I-5, out near Cabela's & Shipwreck Beads in the Meridian Campus area) after showing some houses. I was headed toward the I-5 exit off Marvin Rd and saw the small sign out of the corner of my eye. My car decided to follow it (my car is well trained to look for things like this). After going past some sports fields I saw some metal buildings. Thankfully it was a Sunday, they were open for tasting!

I was greeted by the proprietors (not pictured) and the very friendly wine greeters/ wine guardians (pictured). Inside was much as you would imagine a metal building housing a wine makers to be: full of wine in barrels and a small counter at which to sample & chat & purchase.

I was on my way to lunch, so was not able to stay too long or try everything, but the proprietors were very friendly and I was able to sample a few of their offerings.

The wines:

Of course they have the Washington classics: Cab sauv from Red Mountain grapes, a Yakima Riesling and even a couple Chardonnay- they are very proud of their unoaked.

Right now (March 2009) they have a small batch of a Raspberry white wine blend which I liked (I am not a big fan of these usually) as it is not sweet, but tart. It is undergoing a secondary fermentation in the bottle, so it would be a lot of fun to use a variety of ways. I am thinking summery vinaigrette? Maybe a special sparkling mixer? I told my restauranteur friends to check it out.

My personal favorite (and the wine I took home that day): a dry Gewurztraminer! I loved this wine! It was light and dry and really balanced. In fact, it is all gone now. I need more. So I have to go back soon, and this time I will try more of what they have to offer. (For those who wine-shop by the eye, they do have a lovely label- the whole local artist / local business connection is great.)

I hope all you South Sound wine lovers take some time to stop in too.

Hours: Saturdays & Sundays, 12 to 4.
Directions: From I-5 take Exit 111 to North on Marvin Rd (I-5 is going east-west at this point) past the 2nd roundabout, and watch for the little sign on the Left and follow to the shop.
The address (and map link): 2825 Marvin Rd NE, Lacey WA.

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If you are moving the the Olympia / Ft Lewis area and believe that small businesses like this winery are important to your quality of life, I would love to help you make this your home and learn about the area. (And all those shops!)
I help Buyers, Sellers & Investors throughout the South Puget Sound buy & sell homes.
Call me or email me with any questions, or CLICK HERE to find homes for sale in NE Lacey near the winery.

Straight from the mouth of Fred Meyer development directors regarding the Hawks Prairie area just north of Lacey, WA they have identified this as a "over-retailed" corridor based on demographics alone.  To give you some perspective here is an abbreviated version of the whole story - 

Hawks Prairie has grown tremendously over recent years and the boom has seen retail landlords scrambling to pick up as much dirt as possible to land the next big box or brand name client.  This cut throat industry is mind numbing when you consider some of the updated statistics on how many developments are coming out of the ground.

One of the major developers "donated" 25 acres to Cabela's to draw them in, although that wasn't enough, the City of Lacey also had to provide $10M in improvements in that ultimately will come from taxpayers.

That development has over 3,000,000 SF of retail/office space available for lease.

Directly East of this is a 35 acre site that has 350,000 SF for lease and sits right on the interchange.

North of this is another site approximately 9 acres that has space for lease.

A national developer has a 20 acre chunk up for lease just NW of this particular space.

We already have Costco, Home Depot, Walmart, Safeway, LA Fitness, and many other national retailers in the market......who else do they think they are going to fill these spaces with???

Are we over retailed? Or will this turn into the "Field of Dreams" and "If you build it, they will come?"