Downtown Vancouver’s first winery bottles success in year one
Hiding between the coffee shops, office buildings and art galleries, lies something unexpected in Vancouver’s downtown.
On the corner of Washington and West 19th, just one block past Main Street, you’ll find Gougér Cellars and Winery.
That’s right, there’s a winery downtown – pressing grapes and all.
The heart of a city might seem like an odd location for a business that’s typically found out in the country or on a farm, but owner Gary Gougér says downtown is precisely where he wants to be.
“I like being in the city,” said Gougér, who operates the winery along side his wife, Bonnie. “I think people in this area want something like this downtown. They congregate here, they meet friends here and they make friends here. We couldn’t ask for a better, more fun thing.”
With a background in pharmaceuticals, Gougér said he never envisioned owning his own winery. After all, his interest in wine making was just a hobby. It wasn’t until 2002 that he actually tried it.
“I bought and read the books, then bought our first barrel,” he recalled. “It was a 2002 zinfandel, and it ended up taking international gold in competition. From then on, we increased our barrels every year, and in 2004 I went to Australia and got a degree in wine making.”
Gougér said he chose Australia for school because he wanted to take a path that was different from the one most winemakers in the Northwest were taking. At the same time, he wanted to travel.
With a degree in hand, Gougér Cellars and Winery opened its doors in September 2009.
Despite entering the market during a time when most businesses are just looking to survive, Gougér is growing. The winemaker said he has doubled his production this year and plans on doubling again next year.
“We greatly exceeded what I thought we would even come close to,” Gougér said. “We’ve been very fortunate.”
Gougér attributes much of his success to the unique variety of wine he specializes in.
“From zinfandels and petite syrah, to cabernet sauvignon blends, I’m doing things that are not typically grown in this type of a climate,” he said. “There are a considerable number of people in this area that are looking for those big reds and so I’ve concentrated in that – all the big, chewy, in your face bold red wines.”
The only thing you won’t find at Gougér’s downtown winery is the vineyard. The business purchases grapes from Eastern Oregon, Eastern Washington and Northern California. Gougér said he buys from those regions because each one has a certain thing they do well.
“I get my syrah from Eastern Oregon and I have cab sauv from Suisun Valley, which borders Napa,” Gougér explained. “Then I blend things, like old vines and young vines from two different regions. It gives a very well-rounded experience for the person tasting it.”
Nearly every type of wine you’ll find at Gougér Cellars and Winery has been honored in competition. In fact, Gougér said his dessert wine was recently awarded double gold at the San Francisco International Wine Competition – a first for a Pacific Northwest winery in the 30 year history of that event.
In the end, the winemaker said the metals are just icing on the cake.
“They are a nice thing to get, but we’d still love it just as much without,” he said. “It’s got to be fun or else I don’t really want to do it.”
And that’s a concept I think we can all drink to.
