Our Story.....

William Marie Wines is a husband and wife collaboration between Monique Marie and Edward William Lefferts. Ed and Mo met each other in 2008 while working together at T Cooks restaurant, within the Royal Palms Resort in Phoenix, Arizona. After meeting in the restaurant, the two quickly found they shared many passions, namely, great food and wine.  Shortly thereafter, the two were dating and making plans to turn their passion into a livelihood. 

It was a gamble, but Mo and Ed were able to find the courage to leave friends and family behind, bound for the Pacific Northwest, and have yet to look back. The two packed up their belongings, including family of dogs, and began a new journey together in May of 2010.

Upon arrival, both Ed and Mo worked a series of short jobs over the first year until landing worthy positions in two of Portland’s flagship restaurants. Monique began a position at Veritable Quandary, a place well known for its historic downtown presence. Ed meanwhile, made himself at home with the Ringside Hospitality Group, another one of Portland’s long-standing institutions. Both positions proved to be paramount in fostering the relationships needed to bring their dream to fruition. After Monique enjoyed 7 great years with VQ, she too is now with Ringside at their historical Portland Steakhouse. Update: After the Ringside FishHouse closed its doors following a great 7 year run, Ed is now down the road at El Gaucho Steakhouse Portland.

Three and half years of hard work and dedication in the restaurants led to numerous relationships, and a few attempts at acquiring fruit. But it was in March of 2014 that Ed was introduced to Bradford Cowin, winemaker of Script Cellars and Adega Northwest, and a friendship was born. Bradford was instrumental to the couple's entry into the world of wine-making. Bradford helped Ed source the 2014 fruit, along with some necessary equipment, and offered his trusted advice through the wine-making process. Cowin eventually orchestrated a monumental step in landing both parties into custom crush contracts for processing the grapes at Day Winery in Dundee for the 2015, and 2016 vintages. Then in 2017 we went urban, moving to Urban Crush, a custom-crush winery in SE Portland. Both Ed and Monique are extremely grateful to Bradford for his assistance from the beginning. None of this would have been made possible in such short time without his tutelage. 

The 2017 vintage at Urban Crush was short lived, but all good things must come to an end. Before any 2018 fruit was picked, WMW was on the move, joining Adega Northwest in their new facility, across from the Iron Fireman Collective. We are located at 4855 SE 18th Avenue. The entrance is off of Schiller St, between SE 17th and 18th in the back of the parking lot.