Visitors to Kennewick’s downtown area can now add wine tasting to their itineraries with the opening of 4 Whistles Winery.

The Eltopia-based winery recently moved from the Public Market at Columbia River Warehouse into a roomier space at 119 W. First Ave.

“It was always going to just be a stepping stone to get more wine club members, get some exposure, get our name out there and get used to selling wine. We knew we were eventually going to try to get a brick-and-mortar location of our own. The opportunity came about and we decided to go for it,” said Jane Dailey, co-owner of 4 Whistles with her husband, Phil, and son, Samuel, who graduated from Washington State University’s viticulture program.

The Daileys have an acre-and-a-half planted in a variety of wine grapes at their home in Eltopia where they press, age and bottle all of their wines using a combination of their grapes supplemented with others from Red Mountain and Walla Walla.

The new tasting room is roughly four times as big as their previous space at the market and will enable them to offer more amenities and entertain a larger number of guests.

“It’s going to be more eclectic; where some places everything matches, ours is going to be more homey,” Jane Dailey said. “We’re going to have a shuffleboard table in there, a cool coffee table that’s a game table with chess and checkers and a kids’ corner. We want people to bring their families and friends. It will be a nice place for people to come, have a glass of wine or a tasting, sit back and relax or sit back and talk with us.”

Samuel Dailey said the winery aims to provide a wine tasting experience that’s very approachable. “We do have tasting notes and food pairing recommendations, but we’ll get down to whatever level you’re at,” he said.

Local craft beer also will be available as well as some pre-packaged snacks like cheese and crackers.

4 Whistles’ tasting room is also proudly pet-friendly. 

The Daileys were attracted to downtown Kennewick for its charm, culture, synergy and spirit of partnership among its businessowners.

They said they liked the idea of adding wine tasting to the downtown’s offerings while also not being too far from Columbia Gardens Urban Wine and Artisan Village on Columbia Drive, which is home to the tasting rooms of four other boutique wineries.

Homegrown roots

Prior to opening their public market tasting room in May 2023, 4 Whistles exclusively sold its wines online across the U.S. and through their wine club. Its label also could be found at a few local restaurants.

The name 4 Whistles is a reference to the railroad tracks off Highway 395 that drivers must cross to enter Eltopia, a rural Franklin County community about 20 miles north of the new Kennewick tasting room. Train conductors are required to blow a four-whistle pattern – two longs, one short, one long – at railroad crossings. 

The Daileys also have four sons. The other three live out-of-state and come to town to help with the family business when they can.

4 Whistles is a young winery with its first vines planted in 2017, when Samuel Dailey encouraged his parents to give wine grapes a try on their new property.

After living and raising their family in Maryland for many years, Phil and Jane Dailey moved to Eltopia in 2014 to finish out their working years at Hanford and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, respectively.

Jane Dailey is from Maryland and her husband grew up in a farming family in Whitman County near Pullman. The couple met at a work conference in New Orleans years ago.

“We’d done a little wine tasting in our lives, always liked wine, liked to drink it and we liked to grow things and make our own jams and jellies and put up our own vegetables in the winter,” Phil Dailey said.

Samuel Dailey wasn’t originally enthused about going to college, but he saw industry growth and career potential in the viticultural field and decided to go all in and get his hands dirty.

He said the comingling of science and art involved in winemaking appealed to him, especially the biology side of it.

As for 4 Whistles, “it genuinely started as just a hobby. We bought this kit online and a couple of carboys. Basically, it was some juice mixed with nutrients that you just had to add the yeast to and it would turn into wine. It wasn’t good,” Samuel Dailey admitted.

He continued, “It was more of a joke than anything – that we were going to fill the property with grapes. Then it became, ‘Actually, we could do that,’ and it snowballed from there. We did the soil tests and found out we could legitimately do it.”

The trio talked to as many people involved in winemaking as they could to learn what it would take. “You can only watch so many YouTube videos, read so many books and talk to so many experts and then you have to figure it out on your piece of property,” Phil Dailey said.

4 Whistles has 1,175 vines planted at its estate in Eltopia.

| Photo by Laura Kostad

First vines

The Daileys planted 100 vines initially as a proof of concept. Jane Dailey said it takes at least four years before vines are mature enough to make grapes good for winemaking, and some are just now maturing after seven years.

In the meantime, they continued to learn about the craft. 

“We tried it the next year with 200 pounds of whole fruit from a guy with vines producing grapes … it turned out better than the year before. We kept buying in a little more every year,” Samuel Dailey said.

Once the grapes were coming on strong, the Daileys began to ferment their own grapes in 30-gallon Brute containers, then later, as they continued to grow, upgraded to 500-gallon tanks and wooden barrels.

“We aim to make all of our wines with as little input and interference as possible. We believe this helps the wine and the grapes it came from speak to every person in a unique way,” Phil Dailey said.

The Daileys now have 1,175 vines planted.

“We’ve learned a lot,” Phil Daily said. “The last 100 vines were so much easier than the first 100.”

4 Whistles is looking forward to continuing to hone its craft and connect with more people at the new tasting room. The family hopes to offer periodic events such as wine and food pairings, paint and sips, industry nights, wine club-exclusive events and more.

A grand opening is planned for December.

4 Whistles Winery Tasting Room: 119 W. First Ave., Suite B, Kennewick; 509-980-2414; 4whistles.com; Facebook; Instagram.