Seattle, Wash. — October 24, 2016 — Survival and success for Seattle’s oldest urban winery is a demanding challenge. As owner of OS Winery, Peggy Sullivan is both determined and creative. “Our winery is nearly 20 years-old,” states Peggy Sullivan. “We have great wine and a wonderful history, but today’s marketplace for Washington wines is crowded. It takes more than history and great wine to flourish. I am constantly searching for new ways to promote our tasting room and expand the market for our Bordeaux-style, food-friendly wines.”
Peggy reveals, “We want to attract new faces; people living in our urban environment. Feeling artistic? How about a paint date? It’s a regular Saturday afternoon tasting room event. How about a Thursday evening popup store for women’s fashions? We do that too. Next on the horizon? We’re working on a ukulele jam session. Bring your ukulele and your friends; play music, sing, have fun and drink wine.”
The winery’s sweet spot is annually producing 2,000 cases of wines crafted from cabernet, cabernet franc, and merlot.
Ownership evolution
When Peggy took ownership from her father in 2013, she reassessed operations and overhead and made moves to better position the winery for marketing, visibility, and long-term profitability. To improve accessibility, the tasting room and business headquarters moved to a new location near Georgetown.
As owner, Peggy Sullivan juggles everything from hosting guests at her winery’s tasting room to free deliveries in downtown Seattle, recruiting teams of volunteers, sourcing grapes, managing barrels and blending tanks, bottling and labeling, coordinating with independent distributors, marketing, and managing the wine club.
Additionally, Peggy has fostered partnerships with downtown apartments, condos, hotels and restaurants where she hosts wine tastings and co-hosts chefs’ dinners.
From area grocers to fine dining spots, OS Wines are routinely delivered in person. Peggy’s father, Rob Sullivan, has retired from ownership but still enjoys making deliveries to customers from Bellingham to Tacoma including Costco locations.
What is an urban winery?
As opposed to being in more traditional locations near vineyards, an urban winery is defined as having its business operations within a metropolitan area. This was an adventuresome thing to do when OS Winery was founded nearly 20 years ago by Bill Owen and Rob Sullivan.
Having worked at the winery since its inception, Peggy Sullivan acquired ownership from her father in 2013.
The winery started in borrowed-space on Vashon Island at the Vashon Winery. In 1999, it moved to Tukwila; after that to South Park where it was located for 10 years. In 2014, OS Winery moved to its current Georgetown location – a space one-fourth the size of its previous location in South Park.
Concurrent with their relocation, most of the wine-making equipment and much of the wine production and aging operations were moved to Zillah, in eastern Washington. Ongoing wine production at the 4th Avenue South location includes their Rosé and a specialty red table wine for Costco. Bulk-storage for bottled wines is at a commercial facility in Kent.
Peggy discloses, “We have a great winemaker, Scott Greer, and a fabulous office manager, Victoria Odden but small wineries wouldn’t make it without a slew of enthusiastic volunteers.”
The wine industry has a history of being collegial. In its early days, OS Winery borrowed needed grape processing equipment from fellow winemakers. Over the years, OS Winery opened its doors to other winemakers; loaning the use of its equipment and operations. Due to the generosity of OS, some great wineries have sprung to life – Mark Ryan, Chris Gorman, and Sheridan.
About OS Winery
OS Winery is located at 5319 4th Avenue South (about four blocks south of Costco). OS Winery is known for making food-friendly, approachably-priced wines created in the Bordeaux style. Wines range from $25 to $50. Some cellar wines are $75+.
In 2012, OS Winery added a value-priced label, Sonas. In Gaelic, “sonas” means happiness and prosperity. The Sonas collection includes a cabernet sauvignon, merlot, and cabernet franc at $25; a Chardonnay at $20; a Rosé at $18.
For the past 15 years, OS Winery has sourced grapes from vineyards in Zillah; predominantly from Sheridan Vineyard.
The reach of OS Wines is strikingly diverse. Of course, OS wines are sold in the state of Washington but wines are also sold in the Carolinas, New York, New Jersey, Florida, Montana, Oregon, and Japan. Chicago will soon be added to the list.