By Phil Clapham

For The Beachcomber

Opening a wine shop in the midst of a pandemic is, Julie Burke admits, a decision that could reasonably lead people to question her sanity.

Burke is the owner of Wine Shop Vashon, which opened in Vashon Village in July.

“It could have been anything,” she said. “I could have opened, say, a toy shop – but that wouldn’t have been as interesting to me. I grew up in the Willamette Valley in Oregon, so I was always surrounded by wine.”

Wine Shop Vashon is a small store with a larger feel. It is light, airy and welcoming inside, a conscious design choice that Burke made when she rented the building.

“I can’t compete with the big wine sections of supermarkets,” she says. “So I wanted to create a space that was calm and interactive, where customers could come and feel comfortable chatting, and discussing food and wine – the way you just can’t do in a supermarket aisle. You know, nothing pretentious. And I wanted to offer a good selection of wines without the room feeling crowded by too much shelving.”

She typically stocks around two hundred selections, with a focus on five major regions: France, Italy, Spain/Portugal, the Pacific Northwest, and wines from Vashon itself. In addition, the store features a “guest country” every month; currently, Burke is showcasing wines from Austria. Seventy percent of her selections are priced under $20.

Julie Burke was raised in coastal Oregon, but her family has deep connections to Vashon. Her grandfather was born here in 1925, and her father grew up on the island. Ironically, she didn’t actually realize this until she herself moved to Vashon in 2016. Her father had talked a lot about his rural childhood, but she didn’t make the connection until she moved and he said, “Ah, my old stomping grounds!” She’d visited a lot since 2005: “The island always had a strong pull for me,” she said.

Burke is no stranger to hard work, and spent much of her childhood working as a farmhand; she took her first job at the age of 11. By 15, she was working in restaurants – glad, she says, “not to be covered in mud for once” – and inevitably she learned more about wine in that environment. Restaurant work continued through college, where she graduated with a psychology degree from the University of Washington. She found herself working in Human Resources for years, a natural fit for a woman who describes herself as “wired to nurture.”

But by last year she wanted to move on to something new. She sold a rental house in Seattle and decided to use the proceeds to start a business on the island.

“Making people happy makes me happy,” Burke said. “I love dining together, feeding people, and wine is a natural extension of that. So it’s very fun to work with customers to pick the right wine for them.”

The store does daily tastings; these are not conducted on a schedule — customers just have to come in and ask to sample whatever’s on offer that day. This, Burke said, is pretty random: “It depends on the season, the weather, the day of the week.”

When asked for her current favorites, she picks three. El Prat, a Bordeaux-style blend of Cabernet sauvignon and malbec from Wautoma Springs winery in the Columbia Valley. The red blend from Pollard here on Vashon. And an Amity pinot noir from Oregon. [Writer’s aside: the ability to detect the key violet taste in pinot noir is genetically determined, which is why this particular wine is wasted on some people, including this writer!]

“Wines have their own distinct personalities,” Burke said, and these complement certain foods, so it’s fun to advise customers on pairings. For example? “A good ham dish would go with a verdejo, a white wine exclusively produced in Spain. And,” she added, “bake some yams with it — the sweetness contrasts well with the acidity of the wine.”

Or perhaps you’re doing takeout tonight: a hamburger from Ruby Brink (“a Nebbiolo from Italy”), a pizza (“an Italian dolcetto”), or something Thai from May Kitchen (“pair with a pinot gris if the dish is spicy, or a Monastrell for a coconut-based curry”).

The store recently teamed up with well-known Vashon truffle-maker Azula Phillips to offer a tasting of wines and truffles.

“It was great fun,” Burke said. “We put together a dolcetto wine with Azula’s salted pecan truffles, a Cabernet-malbec blend with raspberry ones, and finally a great combination of gingerbread truffles with a sparkling Spanish cava.”

Wine Shop Vashon also runs a “World Wine Club,” where for $85 per month members receive Burke’s choice of four wines (at about $20 cheaper than if they were buying them individually).

As for the uncertainty of the present time, Burke is sanguine about things.

“I have to assume that things will get better soon, and I’ll stay the course till then,” she said.

She doesn’t question her risky decision to open the store. It’s about life choices, she noted, and needing to have creativity and a little bravery.

“We all have stories we want to be able to tell our kids as we look back on life,” Burke said. “For me, the question is always, Are you going to like the story that you get to tell?”

Wine Shop Vashon is in Vashon Village at 17205 Vashon Highway. Find out more at wineshopvashon.com or call 206 880-1011.