Liberty Lake Wine Cellars Named a 2023 Washington Winery of the Year
The Washington State Wine Awards has named Liberty Lake Wine Cellars one of its “Fabulous Four: Washington Wineries of the Year” in their 2023 awards program. This recognition comes as a result of the winery earning nine gold medals in the 2023 Seattle Wine Awards competition, which is the largest and most prestigious wine recognition program in Washington state. These medals include a wine from the 2013 vintage being designated as a “Diamond of the Decade”.
This award also follows several other recent recognitions given to Liberty Lake Wine Cellars. Just last year the Spokane-area producer was named the 2022 “Washington Winery to Watch” by Great Northwest Wine Magazine after being awarded Platinum medals for every one of the winery’s entries in their 2021 invitation-only competition. The last two vintages from the winery also had six wines receiving “Editor’s Choice” designations from the industry leading magazine, Wine Enthusiast, as well as being awarded the highest score for a North American produced Carmenere. Much of the winery’s production over the last two vintages has attained 90+ scores from Wine Enthusiast.
Also over the course of the past two years, the winery has earned four Double Gold medals and three Gold Medals in the Pacific Northwest Wine Competition. Of those wines, a 2019 Syrah Reserve and a 2020 Reserve Blend received 96 and 95 points, respectively.
Liberty Lake Wine Cellars focuses on small-lot production of many varietals and uses a philosophy of “No Water Added” in its production. This means that more importance is placed on pick dates to attain balance in the wines, versus the practice of adjusting with water or artificial acids after the grapes are crushed. The winery also uses cutting edge techniques of bioacidification using non-ethanol producing yeast strains, and doesn’t use pumps or filtering in their production of red wines. The winery sources grapes from the critically acclaimed Red Mountain AVA, which is located just south of the Tri-Cities and is a 2.5 hours’ drive from the winery.
Mark and Sarah Lathrop of Coeur d’Alene, Idaho co-own the winery, with Mark serving as winemaker and Sarah managing the tasting room, wine club, and marketing. Sarah also serves as a board member and treasurer of the Spokane Winery Association.
Mark Lathrop added, “This award really cements the fact that we are doing things the right way, and that when you have access to some of the best fruit in the world amazing things can happen. Of course, our growers play a huge part in our success too and allow me to really nail down those perfect pick dates.”
Liberty Lake Wine Cellars is located at 23110 E. Knox in Liberty Lake, WA. The winery is currently open to the public Friday 12-8PM and Sat-Sun from noon-5PM without reservations. Liberty Lake Wine Cellars has been in operation since 2005. The winery can currently ship directly to customers in California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington.
Liberty Lake Wine Cellars
23110 E. Knox Ave.
PO Box 383
Liberty Lake, WA 99019
509-951-0951 (cell)
www.LibertyLakeWineCellars.com