Liberty Lake Wine Cellars [May 2021]

While I always love a good road trip… YIPPEE we have finally arrived at our new summer home!! We had a pretty big spot towards the back corner of the campground, near the nice big doggie run. In my usual fashion, I must explore our area and find things to do nearby. You wouldn’t believe me if I told you a found a winery practically within walking distance of the RV park, would you!? Well… it is absolutely true!! Haha!! Liberty Lake Wine Cellars, aptly named such... since we are in Liberty Lake, Washington.

The original owners of Liberty Lake Wine Cellars, Doug and Shelly Smith, opened its tasting room doors in 2007. This is just a few years before Mark and Sarah Lathrop [the current owners] discovered Liberty Lake’s tasting room. I will get to that in a minute, first I want to tell you a little more about Mark and Sarah. They met at Eastern Washington University in 2005 and cultivated their relationship around their mutual love of wine, and the dream of maybe one day owning a winery and making their own wine!! [you can see in the photo below that dreams really do come true!!]

Whether it was going to a wine tasting somewhere new, making wine and food pairings at home, or taking a trip to wine country for a special occasion, Mark and Sarah were up for it. They became wine club members at Liberty Lake Wine Cellars, as well as, fast friends with the owners. [remember Doug and Shelly Smith??] Then one year, Mark and Sarah didn’t receive the wineries annual “crush” invite. [this refers to harvest season... the initial winemaking step of breaking grape skins to release juice; done by stomping or machines to begin the fermentation process] and they wondered why.

Turns out that the Smiths did not have grapes to harvest this year and they were planning to close the winery after selling the wine they had on hand. After much discussion and going back and forth with the Smiths, Mark and Sarah bought Liberty Lake Wine Cellars, taking over operations in January of 2016. They relocated into the heart of Liberty Lake [right near the RV park where we were staying] in 2017. The new, nearly 4,300 square foot building offered them the space to crush, ferment, barrel, bottle and store their wine right here on site.

I met Mark a time or two, at different events but mostly I saw Sarah when I went over for a taste, and they allowed me to join a version of their wine club. [since we were only going to be in the area for the summer] It was a win-win, as I was then invited to participate in wine club events, get free tastings, and receive a discount on wine bottle purchases!! As seen in several photos, I was even lucky enough to be in town to go see a wine crush!! Mark went to pick the grapes up himself from vineyards in Red Mountain area. They must be doing something right since all seven of their 2018 vintages won platinum awards!! They couldn't be more happy that their hard work is paying off!!

We recently visited the area, [like summer of 2025] as this is now where my work daughter Hayley lives with her beautiful little family. We made a few stops at some of my favorite wineries, even though Hayley was unable to taste wine with me at this time. [IYKYK] We still had a wonderful visit catching up and Liberty Lake Wine Cellars was at the top of the list.

Next week, Wine with Wixy will be stopping by a one of a kind tasting room!! You see while driving back and forth from Liberty Lake to downtown Spokane for my summer job, [assignment was at Deaconess Hospital] I saw a colorfully painted building along the I90 advertising Latah Creek Winery... to be continued!! LOL

Cheers to you my wine loving friends, and TTFN!!