Pend d'Oreille Winery

A visit to the Pend d’Oreille Winery website had me scrambling for my French phrase book. On the home page is the maxim “Rêves ta vie, vis tes rêves,” meaning “Dream your life, live your dreams.” The phrase struck a chord with owners Steve and Julie Meyer when they were gaining winemaking experience in France during the mid-’80s. It was there that they observed how wine is an important ingredient for the local lifestyle; not an end in itself, but rather, a beverage to be shared with friends, family, and a meal.

Located in the former Pend d’Oreille Brewery in downtown Sandpoint, the Pend d’Oreille Winery goes way beyond the concept of a simple tasting room. It holds a gift shop proffering elegant gifts for home, garden and life (such as natural bamboo dishtowels, Pizza on the Grill cookbook, and Riedel stemware), a handsome handcrafted concrete wine bar, and casual space for live music. For tasting wine, comfy bar stools invite guests to sit rather than stand.

Given Pend d’Oreille’s wide assortment of whites, reds, and sweet wines (including a beguiling Huckleberry Blush), you may find yourself planted on that stool for a while. In between smelling the floral notes in my sample of pinot gris, I asked the pourer where Pend d’Oreille Winery gets its grapes. It turns out that its fruit comes from both Washington and Idaho growers. The fact is, logistically, it’s a lot easier for a winery in Sandpoint to get grapes from Washington’s premium Columbia Valley vineyards. As we moved on to the subject of the winery’s award-winning reds, our conversation was interrupted when someone came in with an empty magnum bottle. What’s this I wondered . . .

Adopting the slogan “Think green, drink red,” Pend d’Oreille Winery began an innovative refillable-bottle program featuring its food-friendly Bistro Rouge red table wine. An innovative idea to us maybe, but refillable wine bottles are common practice in the French countryside. The first bottle costs $25, but after that, the magnums are refilled at a recession-busting $16. In Idaho’s Panhandle, the refill program is a huge hit with many fans of Pend d’Oreille Winery, who refill their magnums two or three times a month!

Now I understand the Meyers’ mantra “Dream your life, live your dreams.” Steve and Julie are living the dream they envisioned years ago in the vineyards of France. To them I lift my glass and say, “Santé!”

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  Pend d'Oreille Winery was featured in WineTrails of Idaho as part of the North Idaho WineTrail on page !