Woodinville Wine Visit

We will be visiting Seattle, and will have one day in the Woodinville area. I have a list of over 70 wineries, most of whose names I do not recognize. Any advice or recommendations you might give would be GREATLY appreciated. I know we'll be visiting Ch. Ste. Michele, but will have the whole day, and I hope we will find new wines to taste and ship home.
Thanks!

I neglected to say we will NOT be on a tour, just us and a car. We are unfamiliar with Washington State wines, but want to learn more. We did the same with the Finger Lakes, and found several which we have since purchased here at home.

PLEASE, those of you who have potential advice for us as to which wineries to visit... let me know. Short of stopping at every one on the Woodinville tourist map, I'm at a total loss!
Thanks!

Try sending a PM to Jenise who might have missed your post. Ch St M would be way down my list.

What would be way UP on your visiting list? We're clueless in Seattle, to paraphrase a well-known title. I'd appreciate all the help you might offer!

Patterson Cellars and Kestrel might be worth a visit. Check their websites and see if they have a tasting room open to the public or only by appointment, etc. Also are your mainly interested in red wines--Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah, Merlot or blends of those or are you interested in Riesling or white wines? Do you want to visit moderately priced wineries where you feel comfortable buying a few bottles or do you want to visit the better known but maybe more expensive wineries? And do try a private message to Jenise. She knows far more than most of us about Washington wineries.

[Jenise]

Marlyne, hi!

Thanks for the PM, I was mostly away from my computer this weekend so didn't see it until now, but it sure made sure I paid attention to your post as soon as I got back. I live about two hours north of Seattle/Woodinville so do visit the tasting rooms there on occasion. And it's mostly tasting rooms not whole wineries, as most of the wineries are where the grapes are grown--200 miles east.

First off, let me explain the layout there. Most of the tasting rooms are located within a short distance of each other--all are pretty much within one mile-wide circle, and there's a large concentration of tasting rooms in one area that puts a dozen or two within walking distance of each other. I would send you to a few of the outliers first since you mentioned you want to visit Chateau Ste Michelle--it's an outlier, and not far from Januik/Novelty Hill (two different wineries, same winemaker, excellent tasting room). Another outlier whose wines I think highly of is Matthews. From there I'd send you to the area where they're concentrated--it has a name, but I can't remember what it's called. Hollywood-something, I think, which is the name of both a prominent old red brick schoolhouse building that's right there as well as the hill behind it.

It's there you'll find DeLille, which tends to be the winery I direct people to most, it's the "if you only time to visit one" winery because their wines are so fine and they have two distinct and well-executed lines. The Delille line is Bordeaux inspired, and the Doyenne line is Rhone. Across the street from them is Long Shadows. Long Shadows was started by Allen Shoup after he sold Chateau Ste. Michelle to one of the big conglomerate wine companies--in 2003 he invited prominent winemakers from around the globe (John Duval who made Australia's top wine, Grange, for many years, Randy Dunn from Napa Valley, Michel Rolland from Bordeaux, etc) to each come to Washington and make a wine. Each wine was given a proprietary name, and each winemaker is still lending his name if not his hand to the wine he began.

TRUST is another in the neighborhood that I like quite a bit, ditto the idiosyncratic little winery named Hollywood Hill who will be the only one who pours you pinot noir or a wine whose grapes were actually grown in Seattle--(you can't see it but) the vineyard is right there, up the hill from the tasting room.

Other names come to me, but they're wineries I'd warn you away from--even though I don't know what you like. I've not been impressed with one named Dusty or Dusted something, it's right next store to TRUST. Ditto Brian Carter. Gorman's there--he has a lot of fans but I'm not one, the wines lean toward a monster style--sweeter/heavier/modern and I'm not a fan of that. I'll have to look at that list and jog my own memory about what's there. New tasting rooms are opening all the time.

[Jenise]

Oh, a question. Marlyne, which day of the week will you be visiting? I ask because many of the tasting rooms are only open Thurs thru Sunday.

BTW, I love your bottom quote; it's sounding a bit like my habits of late! The only thing slowing me down is the capacity of my closets.
We love both reds and whites (prefer dry Rieslings to the sweeter ones), love unoaked Chardonnay; enjoy both new and old world styles of reds (Ridge Geyserville comes to mind), and unless it's either totally tasteless or over-the-top, we'll probably like it. We do like to taste wines that are totally new to us, and hate it when we get home and find they are equally totally unavailable in our state! But such is life, and a taste is better than nothing.

I was there about 6 years ago and we had a very nice lunch at the Red Hook Brewery. They also make a very nice porter.

BTW, I love your bottom quote; it's sounding a bit like my habits of late! The only thing slowing me down is the capacity of my closets.

I am further along the road to hell paved with good intentions and an expensive palate! I've had to clamp down hard on wine clubs and purchases this summer. Some bills can't be delayed!

Thank you for all your help! We have collected the names, and will look up websites and make reservations as needed. If there are any special people we should look for or contact, we'd appreciate their names or titles, so we can e-mail or call them.
We are looking forward to our visit, and will post with our experiences at the wineries/tasting rooms.

[Jenise]

Marlyne, you'll find all the tasting rooms very helpful with well-informed personnel. No appointments are required, as they are expressly open for walk-ins and I don't know of any that aren't open on Sundays. If you plan on fitting in a meal, I highly recommend The Commons, but since you're tasting on a Sunday when tasting rooms usually have shorter hours (not that I've tested it in Woodinville, but that's been true in Oregon and elsewhere) you may want to simply start out the day well fed and power through.