Farm-To-Table Getaway in Brewster

The North Central Cascades are filled with awe-inspiring nature. Head to Lone Point Cellars, a destination where wine, food, lodging and relaxation abound.

Written by Bob Johnson
Photographs by Michelle Johnson and Spencer Wirkkala

A MAGNET FOR wine lovers in the picturesque North Central Washington community of Brewster, Lone Point Cellars attracts fans for a winning combination of wine, scenic vistas, farm-to-table dining, lodging and RV park.

There is something for everybody at this destination winery.

The bistro-style menu in the tasting room’s restaurant indulges guests with scratch-made dishes ranging from shareable bites like the Cougar Gold melted cheese dip to heartier fare like pizzas made with hand-tossed crust, piping hot sandwiches, chowder and salads.

And the seasonal Chef’s Dinner series are sumptuous three-course feasts paired with wines.

Vacation getaways are a popular option thanks to the winery’s modern six rental cottages, each boasting eye-catching territorial views of the Columbia River. (There’s even a “river house” that can accommodate groups up to a dozen.) The scenery is bucolic, with sweeping outdoor spaces for festive weddings and events.

The latest addition is an upscale RV park that opens seasonally from May through October. Nestled between a working cherry orchard and vineyard, the park features 20 spacious pet-friendly RV sites offering shaded picnic tables, gas fire pits and full hookups.

For outdoor recreation, there’s a pickleball court, putting green and shaded pavilions for lounging. Golfers will appreciate the world-class 18-hole golf course minutes away.

“Our vision has always been to create a destination that celebrates wine, food, and community,” says the winery’s owner, Jim Divis, who co-founded Lone Point Cellars with his wife, Dana, in 2019. “The new RV park is a natural extension of that vision, allowing travelers to stay longer.”

A Man, His Family & His Dog

Lone Point Cellars is the story of a man and his father, a man and his wife, a man and his children, and a man and his dog. The winery estate was built on a dream, plenty of sweat equity and family values.

Jim Divis is the son of an entrepreneur. His father owned the one-screen Rio Theatre on Main Street in downtown Brewster. He also owned an auto parts building and planted a small orchard around his home.

“I grew up in the orchard just loving it and knowing that’s what I was going to do,” Jim says.

Like so many of his generation, Jim’s dad served in World War II. He was one of the fortunate ones who came home, but only after being saved from a Navy ship that went down, leaving him with serious physical challenges for the rest of his life.

“I never once heard him complain about it, and he worked his tail off,” Jim recalls, tears appearing in his eyes. “So, I always wanted to please him.”

Jim attended Washington State University, earned a degree in horticulture, returned home and started farming. In 1984, his parents gifted him a down payment on a 12-acre orchard.

Farming on Brewster Flat had been made possible, in part, by Jim’s father providing part of his land to the Bureau of Reclamation for a pump station as part of the Bureau’s new water system. The availability of water helped transform sagebrush into orchards.

Joy Of Cooking

Jim’s wife, Dana, grew up in the small town of Sonora in California’s Sierra Nevada foothills. She often visited her grandmother, Millie, who lived an hour and a half south in Chowchilla. Because Millie spent a great deal of time in the kitchen, so did Dana.

“I’m sure that’s where my love of cooking came from,” Dana says. “We’d go to the grocery store only for staples—milk, eggs, flour. Everything was made from scratch. My grandpa, Jack, also was a great cook, and he loved to eat as much as he loved to cook. We always had a breakfast, a lunch and a dinner, and my grandma fed a lot of people; not just family, but also local farmers.”

When Dana’s family moved to Brewster, as her father helped build the Viacom Cable TV system from the northern Oregon border up to Canada, Dana went to work as a waitress at a local drive-in burger restaurant. After being tipped off by a friend that “a really cute girl” was working there, Jim drove over one day after work. He ordered a glass of lemonade for himself and an ice water for his dog, an English springer mix named Josh.

“That really got me—that he ordered water for his dog,” Dana recalls. It wasn’t long before Dana had replaced Josh in the front passenger seat of Jim’s car.

Jim and Dana married in 1987 and welcomed a daughter, Jamie, the next year. Two years later a second daughter, Kelsey, was born. Then in three-year increments, sons Clay and Luke joined the family.

First Came Lemberger

While overseeing the orchard, Jim always had a day job to supplement the family income. Early on he worked as a fruit consultant, then moved into apple packing, warehousing and marketing. With so many contacts, he was able to gradually expand his family’s orchard holdings as neighboring farmers retired.

Yet as the farm grew, Jim grew restless. “I had raised about 36 or 38 apple crops and cherry crops, and I thought it might be fun to get out of my comfort zone and do something a little different,” he says. “I’d been thinking about making wine for a while, so we planted some Lemberger grapes behind one of our orchards.”

Lemberger, known as Blaufrankisch in its native Austria, is a late-ripening variety that fares well in cooler climes. It’s noted for its dark hue and pepper-tinged dark fruit flavor.

“When the vines were ready, we made some wine,” Jim says. “If that wine had been really bad, I probably would have stopped there—but it turned out good.”

Insurance Policy

With that, Jim began formulating plans to plant winegrapes that would share farm space with the family’s ten varieties of apples (Honeycrisp, Envy, Cosmic Crisp, Golden Delicious, Granny Smith, Gala, Fuji, Pink Pearl, Opal and Green Dragon), three varieties of cherries (Santina, Coral Champagne and Chelan), blackberries, raspberries, marionberries, strawberries and blueberries.

Despite growing such a wide mix of fruit products, Jim is quick to credit one in particular for the family’s farming success. “Honeycrisp built this tasting room,” he says. “It started out as a real high-value apple, and the timing was good for us to take advantage of that.”

All of the fruit has always been sold direct to consumers at the farm, although today some of it—especially berries—is used in dishes featured at the winery’s restaurant.

“Dana had been catering, and always wanted to open a restaurant,” says Jim. “When we thought of doing a tasting room with some kind of restaurant, it just all kind of fit.”

Still, there were missing pieces in the puzzle. “Being out here in Brewster, we knew that it couldn’t be only a tasting room and restaurant because it would just sit and flounder,” says Jim. “That’s when we agreed that cottages would make us more of a destination where people could come out and stay.”

Even with family members doing much of the construction work to save on costs, a combination winery, restaurant and cottage destination was not guaranteed to succeed.

The “insurance policy” came in the form of nearby Gamble Sands golf course, which opened in 2014, attracting golfers from across the country with two 18-hole courses, a short course and a putting course.

“If the Gamble family had not done that, we would not have done this,” says Jim. “We have a lot of golfers coming here to eat and stay.”

Award-Winning Wine

Even with all the amenities, Lone Point is still driven by its wine offerings. From its debut lineup of six wines when the winery first opened in 2019, the portfolio has expanded to include two dozen different red, white, Rosé and sparkling wines.

Lone Point’s wines have earned a place on Washington Tasting Room Magazine’s annual list of “Best 75 Wines of the Year” for the past two consecutive years.

“Our mix of varietal wines developed organically,” explains Jim. “I like to make wines that I personally enjoy. And because everyone has different tastes, we want to appeal to as many people as possible.”

That’s where wine consultant Jessica Munnell came in. She is an alum of Chateau Ste. Michelle and co-founder of Wautoma Springs Winery in Prosser. One of her recommendations to Jim and Dana was to consider planting Grüner Veltliner, a white wine grape with high acidity.

With its Honeycrisp apple flavor, whisp of white pepper and refreshing mouthfeel, Lone Point’s 2024 Grüner Veltliner is a versatile food companion—something that Chef Dana appreciates as she creates dishes for the restaurant menu.

 

“I find it interesting and challenging to cook with wine in mind,” she says. “When I’m working on a recipe, I’m thinking about how the dish and a particular wine can work together to bring out the best in each other.”

Dana describes the fare at Lone Point Cellars’ restaurant as made-from-scratch “down-home cooking,” utilizing fresh, high-quality ingredients.

The quality of the dining experience speaks for itself—reservations for the annual Chef’s Dinner series are sought by locals and visitors, and often sell out.

Family-Run Winery

Sons Luke and Clay have been involved with the winery from its genesis while maintaining their day jobs—Luke as a mechanical engineer and Clay as an orchard manager. Their carpentry skills and other talents saved the family untold thousands of dollars as various aspects of the estate were built out.

Now, they’re getting more involved in the winery itself, and their first collaboration as winemakers is a Rosé made from Pinot Meunier grapes, aptly dubbed “Brosé.”

Given the success Jim and Dana Divis have had in transforming a family orchard into a destination winery, there is little doubt Jim’s war hero-dad would be proud of their accomplishments.

With a lineup of high-scoring wines, farm-to-table dining, cottages, an upscale RV park and breathtaking views, Lone Point Cellars offers an immersive wine country getaway in an awe-inspiring setting.