Charles Smith’s Jet City Winery Opens in Georgetown

Charles Smith brings his wild ways—and wildly successful winemaking facility— to Georgetown

By Paul Zitarelli August 11, 2015

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This article originally appeared in the September 2015 issue of Seattle Magazine.

Any day now, grapes from the 2015 vintage in Washington will be harvested from vines, placed into bins in temperature-controlled rigs, hauled over Snoqualmie Pass and trucked to Seattle’s Georgetown neighborhood, where a team, likely dressed in black, will receive them at a 32,000-square-foot refurbished former Dr Pepper bottling plant. Truck after truck will arrive, laden with enough grapes to crush a half-million bottles of wine. And each of those grapes carries a simple message: Charles has arrived.

There are only a handful of folks in Washington winemaking circles with big enough personalities to be referred to by a single first name. Charles is one of them. Big wines, big hair, big billboards in little Walla Walla: The man is well suited to Washington’s biggest city. And now Charles Smith’s Jet City Winery—perched across from Boeing Field—is open, just in time for what is shaping up to be a warm, early 2015 harvest. Smith and his team, led by Brennon Leighton (formerly of Efestē winery), will crush all of the prestige wines for Smith’s family of wines here, including the K Vintners, Charles Smith and Sixto labels, approximately 40,000 cases in all. His larger-production wines, such as Kung Fu Girl Riesling and Wines of Substance Cabernet Sauvignon, will continue to be made at partner facilities near the vineyards. Smith produces 750,000 cases a year, making him the most fruitful independent winemaker/producer in the state.

Visitors to Jet City will witness every step in the production process; the upstairs and downstairs tasting rooms look onto the first-floor production area. Or, they can turn 180 degrees and stare down Boeing Field’s north runway to the splendor of Mount Rainier, which looks over the winery like a friendly neighbor.

The first floor of the Tom Kundig–designed building is classic Northwest decor—

concrete, steel and wood (also common materials used in wine fermentation and aging)—and its tasting area will feature wines from the Charles Smith and Substance brands. The second floor celebrates Seattle’s aviation history (back when it really was Jet City) by evoking an early-1960s sky lounge, including a large Lucite tasting bar with a base painted in 1961 Ford Fairlane blue, and floor-to-ceiling windows offering views of plane after plane alighting on Boeing Field. Wines from K Vintners, Sixto and B. Leighton (a new venture for Smith and Leighton) will be poured here.

The second floor also contains a full commercial kitchen, which will allow the winery to host harvest lunches and fully catered events. During non-harvest seasons, the 8,000-square-foot production floor can also be turned into an event space, and music business veteran Smith, who used to manage bands in Scandinavia, is keen on bringing concerts to the winery (capacity: 800). The roof of the building is not currently being used. “Not yet,” says Smith, mischievously, suggesting plans are afoot.

The opening of Jet City will provide a fascinating test case to see whether the industrial district (SoDo and Georgetown) can provide an alternate winery center of gravity to the crowded Woodinville scene. While a number of wineries are already here (Cadence and Kerloo Cellars), as are breweries and distilleries, there has never been a project as ambitious as Jet City. But that’s Charles. When he’s confident about an idea, he’s comfortable pushing all his chips to the middle of the table. And he is confident that this is the right time for a move, and the right place. “Georgetown feels like the Seattle I knew in the ’80s,” he says. “It’s the part of the city where people make things.”

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