E.B. Foote Winery

Burien’s E.B. Foote Winery is all about fun and enjoying life. Owner and winemaker Sherrill Miller wouldn’t have it any other way. To this end, you’ll discover quirky quotes throughout the winery and plenty of convivial conversation at the tasting room bar. You can also join Sherrill for the Breeders Theater, which takes place twice yearly, in January and three weekends in July. Of course, the winery will provide the wine (as well as hors d’oeuvres) to accompany the plays, which are described as “wacky, silly, and just plain fun.” With titles such as “Gone with the Wine,” you can count on an evening of laughter. And be quick with your ticket purchases; these plays often sell out.

When it comes to wine, however, E.B. Foote gets serious with a full offering of reds and whites made from Eastern Washington grapes. Sherrill’s focus is on reds, and despite having zero winemaking experience (she was a former schoolteacher) when she and her husband Rich Higginbotham (deceased 2008) bought the winery in 1991, she has managed to amass a number of accolades along the way. Her “Perfect à Trois” red blend of cabernet sauvignon, merlot, and cabernet franc is a delicious example of their school-of-hard-knocks winemaking skills. Perhaps the Louis Pasteur quotation on one of the winery’s walls applies to this taut, fresh red blend: “The flavor of wine is like delicate poetry.”

Located in Burien, west of Sea-Tac Airport, this small working winery is in the “cellar” of a retail building. Here, assisted by a small army of volunteers lovingly referred to as “Volunteer Vintners,” Sherrill hauls, crushes, presses, ferments, bottles, labels, and sells her wines. She produces about 2,500 cases per year, with 90 percent of wine sold directly from the winery.

In addition to the annual plays, E.B. Foote Winery hosts Red Wine and Chocolate; Red, White and Blue Days; Spring Barrel Tasting; Father’s Day Weekend Special; Summer Celebration; and Christmas Open House. Consult E.B. Foote’s website for a calendar of events.

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  E.B. Foote Winery was featured in WineTrails of Washington as part of the Around the Sound WineTrail on page 98!