Mari Womack of Damsel Cellars
When Mari Womack was pursuing a psychology degree in college, she never imagined herself as a winemaker. She worked in restaurants during and after college, and eventually had a landscaping and a real estate business. When the bottom fell out of the real estate market in 2009, she moved to Woodinville and started volunteering at wineries. The production side of winemaking seemed so appealing that she wanted a winery of her own. In 2011, winemaker Darby English hired her to run his tasting room, but she was soon helping out in the cellar. For 4 years she was Darby’s Assistant Winemaker, learning winemaking via the apprentice method. In 2012, she started making her own wines, and three years later Darby encouraged her to move out on her own. By 2015 Mari had her own space and Damsel Cellars label, with plenty of fans ready to become wine club members.
Today, Damsel Cellars has two tasting rooms in Woodinville – one in the Artisan Hill area and one in the Hollywood District. The latter facility is more casual and touristy, and the former one, which is also the production facility, attracts more serious tasters and club members. You are most likely to see Mari at the Artisan Hill tasting room, where she often mingles with tasters and shares stories about her wines. Although she is partial to Rhone style wines, particularly Syrah, Mari also produces impressive Bordeaux style wines. Her mythology series is fun, as each wine has a mythological name that reflects the winemaking techniques or style of the wine. In this fascinating interview, Mari discusses advice for food and wine pairing, what has surprised her about a winemaking career, the interesting reasoning behind the name Damsel Cellars, and much more.
Listen to the Interview: