FEATURE l Rain Shower Cellars
Military firefighter creates Rain Shower Cellars on Whidbey Island
By Dan Radil When Department of Defense firefighter Sean Merrill received a promotion in 2008 that took him and his wife, Kim, from Colorado to Whidbey Island, they couldn’t envision starting a winery in the tiny town of Coupeville just five years later. He had picked up some experience in the wine industry while living in Napa in the early 1990s prior to transitioning into firefighting. But nearly two decades had passed, and Coupeville, with a population of about 2,000 and at least 200 miles from the nearest Eastern Washington vineyard, could hardly be considered a mecca for winemaking. And yet, it was there that the idea for Rain Shower Cellars took root, driven by a partnership with Oak Harbor natives Craig and Kristy Anderson that started in the Anderson garage. There’s now a dedicated production facility and the island’s newest tasting room.
Spark begins with work in Napa cellars Born in Cincinnati, Sean enlisted in the Marine Corps, which took him to California, where he met Kim in Monterey in 1995. He was in the early stages of being a firefighter at Fort Ord military base; Kim, originally from San Jose, was working as a paramedic.
A few years earlier, while Sean was living in the city of Napa (“back when Napa was cool,” he said with a smile), he worked at Beaucanon Estate and Monticello Vineyards. “I was part of the winemaking process at Monticello, and I learned a lot from founder Jay Corley,” he recalls. “It was a great time, and I had a lot of fun, but life took Sean Merrill and his wife, Kim, recently began working with estate plantings of Burmunk me in another and Iskorka, two white varieties native to Russia. PHOTO COURTESY OF, DAN RADIL. direction.” After two to Washington state. He now is Whidbey Naval seasons with the California Department of Air Station district fire chief. Kim is a nurse at Forestry and Fire Protection, he knew he had Island Hospital in Anacortes. found his calling. From there, it was on to the Monterey Peninsula, and then to Colorado Rain Shower Cellars takes shape Springs from 2000 to 2008 before transferring
with Anderson family
PHOTO COURTESY OF, DAN RADIL.
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Once the Merrills settled in at their home on north Whidbey, Sean made a work connection with Craig, who is fire captain for the City of Oak Harbor. The two quickly became friends. “Craig had no experience with wine, but he liked to drink it,” Sean laughs, “and they were also making ciders at home, so that started the discussion about winemaking.” Kim, along with Craig’s wife Kristy, a nurse practitioner in Coupeville, initially knew little about what their husbands were working on. “They started talking about the process, and he and Craig would scheme without Kristy and I being there,” Kim said with a grin. “But we had to have a better plan than, ‘Hey, we want to make wine,’ ” added Sean. “We knew Mark Hulst of Skagit Cellars, who in turn knew Carl Engebreth at Tulip Valley Winery in Mount Vernon. He introduced us to Carl, who said, ‘I’ll let you make some wine here to see if you remember if you know what you’re doing.’ We stayed with them for a year and loved the hands-on work.”
