Lorie Hutson

The zig zag turns off Sprague Avenue seem like a mistake. And the last turn into the narrow parking lot confirms the wrong-turn feeling – until the Lone Canary sign comes into view. But push open the glass door and the fragrance-heavy air erases any doubt. Eyes closed, the bouquet of fruit and oak could be only one place. "We may look modest from the outside, but when you step inside there is no mistaking that we are a winery," says winemaker Mike Scott. By way of a tour, Scott waves a hand at a rack of barrels stacked to the ceiling. The winery he started with investor Steve Schaub isn't big. Its home is really nothing more than a couple of cement-floor spaces in a little-known industrial park just east of downtown Spokane. But winemaking is not about the bricks and mortar and the roof overhead – it's the fruit in the barrels at Scott's foot that matter.