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Wine
Toast of the Town Don Townshend’s history and future in local wine by Laurie L. Ross Photo by Rocky Casenada
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ost winemakers can clearly recall the precise moment they were first intrigued by the wine industry. Sometimes after that initial encounter they play hard to get, while for others its love at first sip. Either way with Washington State being home to over 750 wineries, we’d say the grape is quite the temptress. The story of how Townshend Cellar came to be began back in 1979, and involved a TriCities winery, commercial air chiller and the lure of the fruit. Don Townshend was a sales engineer working with Preston Winery in the Tri-Cities, installing an air chiller unit for the winery. Being at Preston Winery for that routine installation was the pivotal moment that wine captured his attention. Townshend had a BS in Civil Engineering from the University of Alaska Fairbanks and a Masters of Engineering Management from WSU, but no experience with winemaking. He was enticed, but went about his business of designing and selling commercial heating and airconditioning systems as usual. Nearly ten years later in 1987, Townshend moved his family to North Spokane and settled in the Green Bluff area where he found himself surrounded by local fruit including apples, apricots, strawberries, raspberries, peaches and pears. By 1990, with wine still on his mind, Townshend started toying with the idea of opening a small business on his property where he would make wine exclusively from locally grown fruit. After analyzing the complexity and cost involved in Spokane CDA • September • 2013
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