Cabin View Winery

Fox Glen Road, north of Sandpoint, is a single lane twelve to fourteen feet wide. It is privately owned and maintained, and there are widened places along it where cars pull aside to let each other pass. Cabin View Winery sits on ten acres off this road. The Idaho Wine Commission places it in the rolling foothills of the Cabinet Mountains at around 3,000 feet of elevation, and the winery says the property looks out on the Cabinet Mountain Range. It has a small tasting room open by appointment only, booked by phone or message at least 24 hours ahead. The winery gives its address as 487 Fox Glen Road. The Commission lists it at 483.

The Commission’s 2021 account says the place was named for the “cabin view” it gives visitors of the surrounding country. The Commission describes it as a family-owned winery focused on small-production, high-end wines, and its listing adds a line in the house’s own voice: “Cabin View wines are inspired by the scenic views that allow us to relax and unwind.”

Grapes from the Rattlesnake Hills

The fruit comes from the west, across the state line. The winery sources primarily from the Elephant Mountain and Sugarloaf vineyards in the Rattlesnake Hills AVA of Washington. Its own list names Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Syrah “and many more.” The Commission’s 2021 write-up adds Malbec and Dolcetto. Bottles ship to most states through Vinoshipper, and they can also be picked up at the winery.

The winemaker and the first vintages

Jim Mills owns the winery and makes the wine. The Bonner County Daily Bee reported in July 2023 that he had been the winemaker for both red and white wines at one of the largest wineries in Washington State, had worked in New Zealand, and had traveled the world exploring wine. In 2021 and 2023 the press gave his time in the industry as more than 20 years. The winery’s site now says over 25.

The sources disagree on when the first wine came out. The winery says it has been making wine since its first harvest in 2019. An Idaho Wine Commission blog post of April 21, 2021, says Cabin View “harvested and released their first wines last fall.” A Commission press release dated May 25, 2021, says the winery was releasing its first wines that summer.

By July 2023 the Daily Bee still called Mills a “Sandpoint newcomer.” That month he joined the Music Conservatory of Sandpoint’s Summer Serenade, a fundraiser for student scholarships held on July 23 at the Little Carnegie Concert Hall, 110 Main Street. Conservatory faculty played Hammerstein, Bach, Mozart, Debussy, and Schumann. At the no-host bar the Sandpoint Reader reported “local wines from Cabin View Winery selected by Mills,” and the audience could mingle with the performers afterward and keep sipping.

File CUP0001-24

On March 20, 2024, after a recess, Bonner County Hearing Examiner Jackie Rucker reopened her public hearing at 2:34 p.m. and called File CUP0001-24, a conditional use permit for Cabin View Winery. The land is zoned Agricultural/Forestry 10, where a winery “subordinate and accessory to farming” needs such a permit. Planner Alex Feyen summarized the staff report. Mills gave a brief history of his winemaking and described plans for expansion. One neighbor, Susanne Glascoe, spoke on the record. In rebuttal Mills addressed her concerns about growing grapes on the property and about limits on the number of people there. Rucker approved the permit with conditions.

The findings record the road. They quote the application: “Fox Glen Road does not currently meet the width standards for a business access road. It is a single lane road that varies between 12-14 feet in width. However, it would be extremely difficult to have this road widened due to the cost of doing so and that it would overlap onto existing private property of many of my neighbors.” The statement adds that “as the proposed winery operation will be by appointment only, there will be very little additional traffic on the road.” The county granted a deviation from the road standard. The North Side Fire District asked for emergency turnarounds on the site and for the road and driveway to be kept open year-round.

The permit allows two signs instead of one, each 32 square feet or smaller, one at the entrance and one on a proposed building. Hours are 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. and cover the production and sale of wine along with harvesting, crushing, pressing, and bottling. During the harvest season, September 1 to November 15, the operators may work longer.