O·S Winery

When Republican ex-banker Rob Sullivan joined forces with liberal Democrat winemaker Bill Owen in 1997 to create Owen Sullivan Winery, you would have put money on a short-lived partnership. But you would have been wrong. Now, nearly 10 years later, the recently renamed O•S Winery is clearly a success story, as measured by the frequent appearance of the words “SOLD OUT” next to the winery website’s list of wines. Or by the following comment from Wine Spectator’s Harvey Steiman: “From their jury-rigged winery in a nondescript business park near Seattle-Tacoma Airport, Bill Owen and Rob Sullivan are making some of Washington’s plushest and headiest reds. … They make small lots that just keep getting better with each vintage.” Powerful words.

World traveler, restaurateur, and winemaker-in-training, Bill Owen had toyed with the notion of launching his own winery. He asked an acquaintance, a banker, if he knew of a financial type who could assist him with his business plan. It turns out the person he asked was Rob Sullivan, who, after a full career of banking and with a longstanding love of wine, was eager to try something new. A review of the pro forma statement, followed (we suspect) by a glass of wine or two, and Rob Sullivan and Bill Owen were business partners.

When it comes to wine naming, O•S Winery takes the cake. With names like BSH, R3, and M, the monikers are unabashedly simple—although some of the names require a secret decoder ring. The name “M” comes from the fact that merlot is the primary ingredient in this wine. The “R3” moniker comes from the use of three reds (merlot, cabernet sauvignon, and cabernet franc). But the crème de la crème is “BSH,” which Bill Owen, a lover of big, full-flavored wines, accidentally coined when he exclaimed that a still-in-the-barrel red wine was built like a Brick Sh-t House.

Yin and yang. You say “potāto,” I say “potăto.” But as one Sydney J. Harris noted, “Opposites attract because they are not really opposites, but complementaries.”

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  O·S Winery was featured in WineTrails of Washington as part of the South Seattle WineTrail on page 90!