Glacier Peak Winery

Take one part magnificent beauty, one part truly nice people and add a dash of Hungarian grapes and you have the makings of Glacier Peak Winery. Steve and Susan Olson opened their tasting room in 2005 along the Cascade Loop Highway in Rockport, Washington, surrounded by mountain peaks. One of those peaks is Glacier Peak—one of five active volcanoes in Washington. Fortunately for WineTrail trekkers, Glacier Peak has not stirred for nearly 200 years.

Winemaker/viticulturist Steve Olson produces a combination of wines using fruit from the Yakima Valley as well as several estate wines. His estate wines feature pinot noir, siegerrebe, and a unique Hungarian varietal called Agria. By itself, Agria offers a robust flavor that pairs nicely with Northwest seafood. However, Steve takes it a step further by blending Agria with siegerrebe to create a delicious wine he calls “Glacier Sunrise.” Steve’s Eastern Washington grapes go into the production of rich full-bodied cabernet sauvignon, syrah, and merlot. Together he makes about 1,000 handcrafted cases per year and he wants to keep it that way—“quality over quantity,” he notes. Given the accolades wine connoisseurs have given Steve recently, he must be doing something right.

When Steve and Susan first opened their tasting room, they encountered bureaucratic paperwork and had not received the appropriate water permit necessary for cleaning wine glasses. Not to be derailed, the Olsons purchased 1,300 wine glasses with the idea that they would charge a tasting fee to recover the cost of the wine glasses. Tasters not only got to sample great wine but also kept the wine glass. For most folks, the $5 tasting fee became a good deal. Consequently, the tasting fee and you-keep-the-glass idea stuck, and today the Olsons still have the tasting-fee policy, even though they have long since obtained the water permit. Necessity is the mother of invention.

The beauty of the upper Skagit River Valley, great wine, and wonderful people all conspire to make this a mandatory stop along the Cascade Loop Highway.

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  Glacier Peak Winery was featured in WineTrails of Washington as part of the Skagit County WineTrail on page 40!