William Church Winery Grows Along with the Local Wine Industry

These days in Woodinville, it’s getting hard to remember a time when just mentioning the city’s name wouldn’t trigger an immediate association to wine.

And yet, just a mere half-decade ago, the burgeoning wine industry hadn’t penetrated the public consciousness quite so much, said Leslie Balsley, co-owner of William Church Winery.

“(It was) a pretty low key scene going on here,” she said. “People knew about the area, but it wasn’t broadly marketed at all.”

Leslie and her husband Rod saw the potential in Woodinville — and it seems they were right — and established William Church in 2005. Years earlier, they had been introduced to the winemaking craft by a neighbor who made small batches in his garage.

Not content for their winemaking to remain a hobby, Leslie and Rod made the leap to commercial production, while trying to retain the charms and accessibility of a small enterprise.

“One of our goals when we started the winery (was) to involve our friends and family in what we’re doing,” she said.

The family heritage is evident in the winery’s name — William is Rod’s father’s name and Church is Leslie’s father’s middle name — and the atmosphere of their main location and tasting room in the Warehouse District, where their children can often be seen helping out, Leslie said.

“We’re a family,” she said. “We’ve got two dogs, two cats and a bird. We kind of wanted it to be not a stuffy place.”

Now, William Church produces eight different wines each year, including a Viognier, a Malbec and several Cabernet blends. There’s been steady growth since the steep learning curve of opening a new winery, Leslie said.

“There was a lot to learn,” she said.

Initial questions ranged from “How do you figure out how much wine to make?” to “What equipment should you buy and what should you lease?” With help from consulting winemaker Matthew Loso of Matthews Cellars, Leslie and Rod figured out the answers to these questions and progressed from 300 cases a year to their current output of 2000 cases a year.

The growth continues. A recently opened second tasting room next to Purple Café on Woodinville-Redmond Road will give William Church more visibility and more opportunities for customers to taste and buy wine.

With the wine industry’s continued growth in Woodinville, such a step has become even more necessary. The days are likely gone when the scene could be considered low-key.

For William Church Winery, that doesn’t mean a change in approach though.

“Our feeling has always been as we’ve seen this area grow is that you make the best quality wine that you can, and you put your product out there,” Leslie said.

William Church’s new tasting room is open from noon to 6 p.m. Sunday through Thursday at from noon to 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday at 14455 Woodinville-Redmond Road. The original winery location is open from noon to 4 p.m. Saturdays and from 1 to 4 p.m. on Sundays at 19495 144th Ave. NE, Suite A100.