Madsen Family Cellars

Madsen Family Cellars is a rare gem in the south sound! We found them a couple of years ago, and LOVE their wine. The owner, Dana, is low key but passionate about winemaking. He makes a stunning array of red wines, from sangiovese to petit verdot and almost everything in between. He makes a couple of dynamite red blends, and our personal favorite, the cab franc. If you like whites, he’s got some nice ones for you, too. But his real strength is big reds. They are really good.
The outside of Madsen’s tasting room is easy to miss in a funky warehouse past some batting cages. But don’t judge a book by its cover. Inside it’s another world: low lights, café tables, and a beautiful long tasting bar, usually with music playing. But even without the ambiance, it’s worth the trip for the wine alone. The whole experience takes me back to the early days of Napa, before they got all snooty. If you can’t come by, he sells on Amazon. Madsen’s wine isn’t super cheap, but it’s in line or less than others at this quality level. His wine is definitely reasonable for the quality.

Big shout out to Tom for helping us feel like there are people out here that still care and are willing to help without us even asking Thankyou Grace for your great hospiality and wine

This winery is part of the South Sound Wine Trail and should not be missed. They are on the backside of the same industrial area as the Northwest Mountain Winery. I believe they have similar weekend hours which makes it easy to visit both in the same afternoon.
The tasting room is not elaborate, but they are making a nice selection of delicious wines in this area. The space is open to accommodate the crowds that weekends can draw. We enjoy tasting and chatting with our friends between tastings. This is definitely one of my favorite stops when we are visiting our friends. Both times we visited we found the winery employees (owners?) to be friendly and welcoming. I love the pride that the winery owners and employees have in their business.

Okay, so the one thing this place has going for it is a great selection of wines. The selection is much more extensive than the other wineries in the area. My experience, however, was not so great. The hostess was polite, but cold. And the «tasting room» is nothing more than a unit of a warehouse, complete with a garage door, a wine bar, and an outdoor «patio» which is a fenced-​off portion of the asphalt parking lot just outside of the warehouse/​strip mall. If I wanted a suburban strip mall, I could get that at the tasting room 5 minutes down the road; I didn’t have to drive to Olympia. The place completely lacks any sort of ambiance, which, in my opinion, is essential to a good wine-​tasting experience. I’ll give them kudos for not charging a tasting fee.

We were on our way between portland and seattle and decided to do a little wine tasting and exploring along the way.
Unilocal gave me this little portion of Olympia and this was definitely a winner.
The location is in a warehouse district, but one you get inside, it’s cozy and cute.
The gentleman working the bar was very nice and gave us lots of different tastes and information regarding where the grapes came from and the tastes.
It was some very good wines and i look forward to going there again!
Wines are available on amazon, but the prices are a bit higher!

All the wines made by Madsen were very good. I particularly liked the Cabernet Franc. The tasting room was very nice; dark, but nice. Love the education about the wine and the family and the process. Wish I could have tasted the Petit Verdot!

I got to have a wonderful private tasting with Dana Madsen and his son Leif — tasting through all of their wines. I have to say, all were wonderful! Dana is very down-​to-​earth and knowledgeable about wine and explained everything to a novice like me, but didn’t talk down to me at all.
The wines are a wonderful value and taste far more expensive than they are. A great find!
Their wines are also now available on Amazon as well.

We went to Madsen Family Cellars since I found a Unilocal deal (Thanks Unilocal!) for tastings and a few free bottles of wine. The parking is unpaved and our navigation device got lost trying to get us here… it’s sort of on the way to Cabela’s, in the more industrial warehouse area of Lacey. We walked into what looked like a warehouse, complete with sliding down gate, and were greeted by a kind older gentleman and his two huge dogs.
The wine tasting was decent, good service, and they were playing broadway tunes. I was excited to see that they sell Beecher’s cheeses here, so I don’t have to make the trek up to Seattle for some excellent cheese. I was a little sad that I couldn’t pick out the bottles of wine I wanted (thought it was a voucher for a flat dollar amount, but they said I had to get a merlot, and some other bottles that I am not remembering at the moment. All in all, a good deal, I just wish I had known upfront about having to take Merlot, since I’m racist against merlot.

I recently moved to Olympia from the Bay Area. Missing the wine country experience, I decided to give Madsen Family Cellars a try this last weekend. This place is a true family-​owned boutique. I didn’t know what to expect out of a place in Olympia, but I found myself very pleasantly surprised with the quality of wines and the personal attention I received. The red wines in particular were quite yummy, and the orange muscat dessert wine was very memorable. The main winemaker, Dana, clearly loves what he does, and his passion is reflected in the wines his family makes. South Sound wineries are new on the block, but I look forward to returning to Madsen Family Cellars and visiting the other wineries in the area.

Truly enjoyed my wine tasting experience here. Just like most located around Olympia, they are in a little warehouse/​strip mall type place but the friendly nature of those providing the wine tasting and the huge selection of varietals really makes this place shine! I liked several of their wines, including (gasp) their blush wine… they call it summer in a bottle and well, you would be hard pressed to find anyone who doesn’t like this sweet, light wine.

Wonderful wines. Knowledgeable service and great experience tasting several wines. Actually liked every single one that I tried both reds and white wines.

A hidden gem. While visiting my hometown, I had the chance to stop by Madsen Family Cellars. What a find!!! They have a very nice range of wines, so even if you like your wine a little sweeter (my mom) or a little drier (me), you will find, not just something that you like, but a very nice bottle of wine! Now I just have to figure out how to get my wine on the flight home :)
Loved the lightly oaked Chardonnay and the HH Cab… The owner was there for the tasting. Very nice and had great recommendations and answered all my questions about how he makes/​bottles the wine.