My previously mentioned China friend and I spent a day tasting wines in Woodinville a couple of Saturdays ago. We mapped out a plan to visit our favorite wineries and some of the wineries that I hadn’t been to before. I know what you’re thinking. What?! The Wine Muse hasn’t been to every winery from here to Napa and back? It’s hard to believe, I know. But (there’s always a but, isn’t there?) at the rate wineries are opening in Washington state, I’d have to make it my full-time job to visit every winery that opens here and then I’d never have time to actually write about the wines, nor would I have the money from my day job to pay for all of the wine I buy, but that’s another story.
To give you an idea of how fast wineries are opening in Washington, when I first became a Washington Wine Ambassador two years ago, there were just over 300 wineries. Now there are just over 600! That’s a lot of grape growing, grape crushing, fermenting juice, and ultimately wine tasting, not to mention wine buying. But I digress.
Back to wine tasting day with China friend. We started out around noon and our first stop was JM Cellars. The Wine Gods were with us because the owner/winemaker was getting ready to give one of his famous free wine tours of his winery. We tasted through all of the wines they were pouring and we both decided that the Cabernet Sauvignon was the best of the bunch and so we each bought a bottle. Then onto the wine tour. John Bigelow (the J in JM – the M is his wife Margaret, who actually goes by Peggy), the owner and winemaker gives an awesome tour. His tour is free, he provides history of Woodinville, gives a tour of his barrel room where the lovely juice ages in barrel, and he gives barrel tastes of all of the wonderful wines he’ll eventually bottle. It was a great start to a day full of fun and lots of fantastic wine.
Next stop, the warehouse district! The warehouse district is my favorite wine tasting spot in Woodinville because there are around 25 – 30 wineries in this area. You can park your car and walk around and taste wine until your liver is ready to pack its bags and move to the Betty Ford Clinic.
We stopped at Darby Winery of my previous “The Dark Side” post fame. This winery had just announced they were starting their first wine club and I am a devoted worshiper of all of their wines so I signed up for their wine club. Exciting! Yeah for wine clubs!! And, of course, we tasted through all of their wines and I bought my favorite wine, The Dark Side Syrah, and also a bottle of Le Deuce, a very aromatic, beautiful white blend of Viognier and Roussanne. Across the way was Sparkman Cellars. Sparkman has really nice wines as well so we stumbled, I mean walked across the parking lot to sample their juices. We tasted through all of those and I bought a wonderful bottle of the Stella Mae, a delicious blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Petite Verdot, and Cabernet Franc.
Good Wine Gods you must be thinking! How do the Wine Muse and the China friend do it? Surely they couldn’t possibly be able to stand up at this point. Oh, we were just getting warmed up at this point, my wine friends!
There is a newish winery called Barrage Cellars next to Darby Winery that I hadn’t been to yet and it just so happened to be a few stumbles away from Sparkman so we stopped in there next. We tasted through all of their wines, about four, if I remember right, and the only thing I can say about them is - don’t bother. Their whites were watery and their reds were disappointing. Hopefully, someone will take the winemaker by the scruff of the neck and kick him in the butt. It’s a learning process.
I’ve been a member of the Alexandria Nicole Cellars wine club for a few months and their wine club wines had just been released and were ready for pickup so ANC was our next stop. We went through The Hidden Door, the “secret” back area where only wine club members are allowed to tread. That’s correct, no mere mortals are allowed through the bookcase/hidden door, unless you have to take a pee. Then it’s okay. We tasted a couple of wines, picked up my wine club wines, there were six, then moved on.
Next stop was Guardian Cellars, a very small tasting room in the back of the warehouse district. We tasting through their wines but nothing really knocked me out. I can’t even remember what we tasted. No, it’s not because I was potted at this point. That came later. They just didn’t stand out.
China friend pulled me into Red Sky Winery next. This was the real revelation of the day for me. China friend was already hip to this winery. I still have so much to learn. They were having a wine club release party and it was in full swing. Fortunately, at this point, so were we. We bellied up to the wine tasting bar and since China friend was already a wine club member, they immediately recognized him and we were in with the beautiful people, and the rest of the people who were there getting their buzz on. We tried all of the wines, a Semillon, a Syrah, two Bordeaux style blends, and cue the trumpets, they were ALL delicious. The 2004 Serendipity, a Bordeaux style blend was my favorite so the logical thing to do, of course, was to JOIN THEIR WINE CLUB. After joining their wine club, I was considered one of the beautiful people as well, not just a pseudo-beautiful person. We were then whisked off into the barrel room, where there were lots of chocolate truffles, fancy nuts, other assorted goodies to nibble, and even live music. I was introduced to the winemaker, Carol Parsons, who gave us barrel tastings. What fun! Do women winemakers make better wine? My vote is YES!
After the revelation at Red Sky, we crawled, I mean walked on Cloud 9, over to Gordon Brothers to say hello to my most devoted follower GW. After catching up with him for a bit, we went back over to Red Sky Winery and hung out some more to enjoy the beautiful people and ambiance (Hey! You can never have too much of a good thing!), and to pick up our wine club wines since I’d just joined their club, and since China friend was already a member.
The wine tasting day was over but we still had to endure a gourmet dinner at The Barking Frog with a bottle of a delicious bottle of the Dunham Cellars Cabernet.
Sadly, the day finally came to an end but we declared the day a success. It was now time to divvy up the wine. I had a lot of really good wine in my trunk now. Where was I going to store all of this wine? Stay tuned. That’s another story.
Location: 19495 144th Ave NE, Woodinville, WA
To give you an idea of how fast wineries are opening in Washington, when I first became a Washington Wine Ambassador two years ago, there were just over 300 wineries. Now there are just over 600! That’s a lot of grape growing, grape crushing, fermenting juice, and ultimately wine tasting, not to mention wine buying. But I digress.
Back to wine tasting day with China friend. We started out around noon and our first stop was JM Cellars. The Wine Gods were with us because the owner/winemaker was getting ready to give one of his famous free wine tours of his winery. We tasted through all of the wines they were pouring and we both decided that the Cabernet Sauvignon was the best of the bunch and so we each bought a bottle. Then onto the wine tour. John Bigelow (the J in JM – the M is his wife Margaret, who actually goes by Peggy), the owner and winemaker gives an awesome tour. His tour is free, he provides history of Woodinville, gives a tour of his barrel room where the lovely juice ages in barrel, and he gives barrel tastes of all of the wonderful wines he’ll eventually bottle. It was a great start to a day full of fun and lots of fantastic wine.
Next stop, the warehouse district! The warehouse district is my favorite wine tasting spot in Woodinville because there are around 25 – 30 wineries in this area. You can park your car and walk around and taste wine until your liver is ready to pack its bags and move to the Betty Ford Clinic.
We stopped at Darby Winery of my previous “The Dark Side” post fame. This winery had just announced they were starting their first wine club and I am a devoted worshiper of all of their wines so I signed up for their wine club. Exciting! Yeah for wine clubs!! And, of course, we tasted through all of their wines and I bought my favorite wine, The Dark Side Syrah, and also a bottle of Le Deuce, a very aromatic, beautiful white blend of Viognier and Roussanne. Across the way was Sparkman Cellars. Sparkman has really nice wines as well so we stumbled, I mean walked across the parking lot to sample their juices. We tasted through all of those and I bought a wonderful bottle of the Stella Mae, a delicious blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Petite Verdot, and Cabernet Franc.
Good Wine Gods you must be thinking! How do the Wine Muse and the China friend do it? Surely they couldn’t possibly be able to stand up at this point. Oh, we were just getting warmed up at this point, my wine friends!
There is a newish winery called Barrage Cellars next to Darby Winery that I hadn’t been to yet and it just so happened to be a few stumbles away from Sparkman so we stopped in there next. We tasted through all of their wines, about four, if I remember right, and the only thing I can say about them is - don’t bother. Their whites were watery and their reds were disappointing. Hopefully, someone will take the winemaker by the scruff of the neck and kick him in the butt. It’s a learning process.
I’ve been a member of the Alexandria Nicole Cellars wine club for a few months and their wine club wines had just been released and were ready for pickup so ANC was our next stop. We went through The Hidden Door, the “secret” back area where only wine club members are allowed to tread. That’s correct, no mere mortals are allowed through the bookcase/hidden door, unless you have to take a pee. Then it’s okay. We tasted a couple of wines, picked up my wine club wines, there were six, then moved on.
Next stop was Guardian Cellars, a very small tasting room in the back of the warehouse district. We tasting through their wines but nothing really knocked me out. I can’t even remember what we tasted. No, it’s not because I was potted at this point. That came later. They just didn’t stand out.
China friend pulled me into Red Sky Winery next. This was the real revelation of the day for me. China friend was already hip to this winery. I still have so much to learn. They were having a wine club release party and it was in full swing. Fortunately, at this point, so were we. We bellied up to the wine tasting bar and since China friend was already a wine club member, they immediately recognized him and we were in with the beautiful people, and the rest of the people who were there getting their buzz on. We tried all of the wines, a Semillon, a Syrah, two Bordeaux style blends, and cue the trumpets, they were ALL delicious. The 2004 Serendipity, a Bordeaux style blend was my favorite so the logical thing to do, of course, was to JOIN THEIR WINE CLUB. After joining their wine club, I was considered one of the beautiful people as well, not just a pseudo-beautiful person. We were then whisked off into the barrel room, where there were lots of chocolate truffles, fancy nuts, other assorted goodies to nibble, and even live music. I was introduced to the winemaker, Carol Parsons, who gave us barrel tastings. What fun! Do women winemakers make better wine? My vote is YES!
After the revelation at Red Sky, we crawled, I mean walked on Cloud 9, over to Gordon Brothers to say hello to my most devoted follower GW. After catching up with him for a bit, we went back over to Red Sky Winery and hung out some more to enjoy the beautiful people and ambiance (Hey! You can never have too much of a good thing!), and to pick up our wine club wines since I’d just joined their club, and since China friend was already a member.
The wine tasting day was over but we still had to endure a gourmet dinner at The Barking Frog with a bottle of a delicious bottle of the Dunham Cellars Cabernet.
Sadly, the day finally came to an end but we declared the day a success. It was now time to divvy up the wine. I had a lot of really good wine in my trunk now. Where was I going to store all of this wine? Stay tuned. That’s another story.
Location: 19495 144th Ave NE, Woodinville, WA
Posts
Wine goddess, we missed you. I read today an interesting AP article about the growth of WA wineries. We have gone from 190 to 602 in 10 years, that is a new one every 9 days. WA wines are basically 30 years old and we have become on the top wine areas in the world. Many of the European countries have taken 2000 years to get where we are now. On a yearly calendar, that is like us starting the day before Christmas.
ReplyDeleteWelcome back and remember, we worship the wine glass from which you drink.
GW
Dear GW,
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comment. You always have insightful information to share. Also, why wouldn't you worship the wine glass from which I drink? I'm a Wine Goddess. You must worship me and everything I touch.
Wine Muse
It was a magical day indeed thanks for being my charming stumble companion. Hope to do it all over again the next time I am in town.
ReplyDeleteOne little factual error though. I am not now nor have I ever been a member of the Gordon Brothers wine club. I may fix then when I come back to the states for good. :-)
Let me add my kudos to Carol at Red Sky. Her wine simply rules!
China Boy
Dear China Boy,
ReplyDeleteThanks for commenting (finally found the magic button to post a comment, eh?) and you're welcome. It was a magical day, indeed.
I think perhaps you read the part wrong about you being in the GB wine club. I wrote: "After catching up with him for a bit, we went back over to Red Sky Winery and hung out some more to enjoy the beautiful people and ambiance (Hey! You can never have too much of a good thing!), and to pick up our wine club wines since I’d just joined their club, and since China friend was already a member."
Jet lag can be a real bitch. :-)
Yes! Kudos to Carol at Red Sky!!
Looking foward to stumbling and drinking with you in the warehouse district when you come back in town next.
Wine Muse