Cole Sisson, Doe Bay Wine Company

At a time when the wine industry is facing historic headwinds and many businesses are closing, Washington’s Doe Bay Wine Company is not just surviving but thriving. The small, locally-owned business recently celebrated the second anniversary of its Phinney Ridge location in Seattle.

“We’re not just a wine bar, we’re not just a tasting room, and we’re not just a bottle shop,” owner Cole Sisson says of how the business has survived the current turbulent environment. “I think it’s really helped us because we can react.”

Doe Bay Wine Company’s Phinney Ridge location is small, with about 20 seats. The bottle selection is highly curated, with several hundred labels represented at any one time.

“We try to be pretty conscientious about who we bring in and what we bring in,” Sisson says. “We like a wine to tell a story. It’s also definitely a place where you should be able to find something that’s a little off the beaten path.”

As a Northwest business, Doe Bay Wine Company offers wines from Washington and Oregon. However, it also offers their counterparts from around the world.

“What we’ve worked to do is create more of an open conversation that break down walls,” Sisson says. “So if you’re a big fan of Merlot, then we’d love to offer you one from Walla Walla and one from Pomerol. If you really enjoy Pinot Noir, then you should be trying Burgundy, but you should also be trying the Willamette Valley.”

The tasting room aspect is focused around The Orcas Project. Sisson’s “house winery” partners with Northwest winemakers to produce a diverse assortment of wines.

“We call it our experimental winery,” says Sisson. “We’re trying to educate and also provide a platform for some grapes and some people in regions that are in our backyard that we might not see everywhere.”

In addition to being poured at Doe Bay Wine Company, The Orcas Project has a wine club as well as limited distribution. Winemakers include Javier Alfonso (Pomum, Idilico), Chris Peterson (Avennia, Liminal), Morgan Lee (Two Vintners, Covington), Dusty Jenkins (Sage Rat), Bree and Chad Stock (Limited Addition, Concinnitas Farm), and Doug Tunnell (Brick House).

Sisson started Doe Bay Wine Company on Orcas Island in 2016. A native of the island who had been away for 18 years, Sisson originally envisioned it as a consulting business. However, a year later, he opened a brick-and-mortar store, using a hybrid model of a tasting room, wine bar, and bottle shop.

With Orcas island business highly seasonal and tourist-driven, Sisson expanded to Seattle in the summer of 2023 using the same type of model. He says the Seattle location has evolved over the last two years.

“It’s morphed into a little more of the wine bar side, though we still have the bottle shop and the retail influence,” Sisson says. “We’ve definitely noticed, whereas Orcas is a lot more grab wine, get some food, head off to your place, Seattle is a meet a friend, go enjoy yourselves type of environment.”

Though still young, Sisson has worked in the wine and hospitality industries for over two decades. This includes working in various Seattle area restaurants as a sommelier as well as being head sommelier at Michael Mina restaurant at the Bellagio in Las Vegas. Sisson interned at Betz Family Winery in Woodinville and worked for two years as the national sales and marketing manager at Spain’s Bodegas Ontañon.

Given Sisson’s background, hospitality is a key aspect of Doe Bay Wine Company’s offerings. So is teamwork.

“I’ve had the honor and privilege of working with some extraordinarily talented people,” Sisson says. “It’s a group effort.”

Amidst the wine industry’s current turbulence, Sisson says one of the keys to Doe Bay Wine Company’s success has been being agile.

“I think that not having huge levels of inventory and being able to be very nimble and react pretty quickly allows us to do a lot of things that are much harder for larger businesses,” Sisson says. “It’s not as easy [to sell wine] as it used to be for certain, but we’ve continued to adapt.”

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