Diamond in the Rough

Rope Rider No. 9 fairway and Tipple Hill
Rope Rider No. 9 fairway and Tipple Hill

Today, the 11th hole is alive with activity. Workers drain the spring snow runoff from the area around the tee, while others sand the bunkers, seed the fairways and recondition the greens. What was just eight months ago a painful reminder of better times has been transformed into the fun and challenging risk-reward par-5 it was meant to be.

A quarter mile away sits the resort’s newest crown jewel, the 41,000-square foot Swiftwater Cellars winery. Built literally above the entrance to the No. 9 and No. 10 mines, Swiftwater represents the logical pinnacle of the decade-long growth of the golf and wine industries in Washington state — an ambitious, elegant winery that will serve as the clubhouse for a similarly ambitious destination golf course.

Two of the largest construction projects in the county at the time they were completed in 2009 and 2010 — and now two major employers as well — Swiftwater Cellars and Rope Rider Golf Course are combining to breathe a second life into Suncadia Resort and the communities of Roslyn and Cle Elum, and becoming a must-stop pin in the map for our state’s thousands of golf and wine tourists.

“One of the things that really drew us to this site was the chance to do something unique in Washington state,” says Swiftwater Cellars owner Don Watts. “There are plenty of places where there are wineries close to golf courses, or close to destination resorts, but this is the only location where you can go to a resort, play a great round of golf, then walk right off the 18th hole and into the winery.

“It’s going to be the nicest 19th hole in the state of Washington.”

It was Watts who first saw the potential for the partnership. A farmer and vineyard owner from Paterson, Wash., Watts had long dreamed of building a winery of his own, and upon selling his farm in 2008, decided the time was finally right. Furthermore, he knew that the Suncadia property — with its prime location off I-5 just 80 miles from Seattle and a steady stream of permanent residents, year-round tourists and vacation home owners — would make an ideal location.

Suncadia, meanwhile, was making investments of its own. As the housing market began to turn for the better in 2009, with new construction returning and signs that the worst of the recession might be passing, the resort decided to push ahead with the further development of the Rope Rider Golf Course, and brought in PGA star and noted course architect Peter Jacobsen to complete the design and ready the course for a 2011 opening.

It didn’t take long for Watts, who wanted to build a winery, and Suncadia, which needed a clubhouse for its new golf course, to realize the significance of their mutual interests.

“It’s a perfect marriage for us,” says Jared Jeffries, the Tumble Creek Club manager, who has been at the resort since 2004 and has been heavily involved in the day-to-day development of Rope Rider. Suncadia sold acreage to Watts to build Swiftwater Cellars, and in return, Watts leases part of the building back to Suncadia to use for Rope Rider’s pro shop, cart storage and other golf course operations.

“Mr. Watts’ vision for a winery that embraced the coal mining history around Rope Rider, and also provided us a beautiful golf shop, was an unbelievable opportunity,” Jeffries says. “We sold Don a parcel that we were planning to invest money into to build a clubhouse, and he turned it into a beautiful property that we can market as an added amenity to the resort.”

It was a no-brainer for Watts as well, who has turned the winery into a true family affair. His son, Donnie, is the winery’s general manager, and wife Lori and son Derek are both involved in the business as well.

“When the idea was first suggested, all I could think was, ‘That’s brilliant,’” Watts says. “Now not only do we get our normal traffic coming through to visit the winery, we get an additional 20,000 to 30,000 golfers coming through the winery and calling this their 19th hole. It’s a great match.”

In addition to the pro shop, Swiftwater Cellars includes a full-service restaurant, indoor and outdoor banquet areas capable of hosting meetings, weddings or corporate events, private dining rooms, a comfortable lodge-style sitting room, and — of course — a tasting room where visitors can sample pours from the winery’s No. 9 and Swiftwater Cellars wines, all of which are produced on-site. Grapes are crushed each fall right outside the restaurant doors, then barrel-aged for up to two years in temperature-controlled rooms directly below winery’s main sitting room. Swiftwater produces primarily red wines, including Bordeaux blends and Watts’ personal favorite — pinot noir.

“We’re the only winery in Washington state that gets pinot noir grapes from the Willamette Valley in Oregon, which is known for producing some of the finest pinot noirs in the world,” Watts says. “It’s a difficult grape to work with, but if you get the right people who know what they’re doing, it’s incredible.”

Since Swiftwater Cellars officially opened in September of 2010, the winery has already seen a significant amount of business from vacationers, locals and special events at its Hoist House Restaurant — named after the building that housed the machinery used to bring the coal-laden mine cars, and the miners themselves, the hundreds of feet back to the surface from the depths of the No. 9 and No. 10 mines. The foundations of the original hoist house sit untouched today, just a few steps from the winery’s front door.

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