Wine Rocks Seattle

Wine Rocks Seattle! I went to this event last Thursday night and it fracking ROCKED! The second annual Wine Rocks Seattle was at the chic venue, the Palace Ballroom under the Monorail. There were Washington winemakers, 20 wineries, Tom Douglas nibbles, and Beecher’s cheeses. Several of the winemakers jammed on the stage, singing, playing various instruments, and pouring wine for the crowd. As an added bonus, Chris Ballew (lead singer of “President of the United States”) was there singing fun sing-along songs to everyone’s delight.

Oh yes, my wine friends, this was an event that was worth every scheckle for admission. First of all, some of my favorite wineries were there. Here’s the list of the Washington wine stars that were at this amazing event:

Balboa Winery
Barrage Cellars
Boudreaux Cellars
Brian Carter Cellars
Chatter Creek Winery
Cuillin Hills Winery
Des Voigne Cellars
Donedei Wines
Dunham Cellars
El Chalán
Eliseo Silva
Efeste
Gamache Vintners
Ginkgo Forest Winery
Hightower Cellars
JM Cellars
McCrea Cellars
Sleight of Hand Cellars
Sparkman Cellars
Tagaris Winery

I have to give Rob Newsom of Boudreaux Cellars a special mention because his wines, although a bit spendy, are fracking delicious. Rob was there making music with “The Super Lucky Cats” and showing off his excellent sense of humor, as well as pouring his wine, when he wasn’t singing or playing guitar on stage. Some of the other winemakers/wine writers/musicians that were there:
Rusty Figgins of Heavy Petting Zoo
Gordy Rawson (Chatter Creek) of Gordy Rawson Group
Paul Gregutt (wine writer for the Seattle Times) of The Paul Gregutt Band

All of the wines were spectacular but the wineries that really stand out were Boudreaux Cellars (his Cabernet Sauvignon deserves a second mention), Brian Carter Cellars, Chatter Creek Winery, Dunham Cellars, Efeste, Gamache Vintners, and Hightower Cellars. They were all good!

Other celebrity sightings during the evening were the Wino Magazine guys (see link to their site and wine magazine at the bottom of the page.) I would’ve chatted them up but I was with a date so didn’t want to do or say anything that would spoil my chances of possibly getting dessert later – if ya know what I mean.

All of you wine fans know that I “calls ‘em like I sees ‘em” so I’m going to bitch for just a moment about the food, or the lack thereof. This event was advertised (in large letters) as a “Tom Douglas food event.” The food, apparently furnished/catered by Tom Douglas, was so paltry that even a starving child in Africa wouldn’t have been satisfied after feeding at this event. There were lots of desserts (Why? This event started at 7:00pm so this was dinner time for most of us working stiffs), but the only food was some pita-ish bread with some dips and the most microscopic meatballs (I think they were tasty but I would’ve had to put about 10 in my mouth to really tell) I’ve ever seen. There were 20 wineries at this event (most of the wineries were pouring at least 3 wines each) and the event lasted 3 hours so my only complaint was that there should have been more food.

Seattle has some AMAZING wine events and this ranks up there in the top events that I’ve been to in the past few years. So, get out there and taste, drink, mingle, and enjoy the fruits of our wonderful state. We are SO LUCKY to live here. I’ve probably said that before, but it doesn’t make it less true!