Kevin and I arrived in Walla Walla on Thursday afternoon. We were excited to check out the local nightlife. We decided to start our night out at Sapolil Cellars, we didn’t realize that we would also end our night of fun there too! It was open guitar jam night and the place was filling up as we enjoyed a great salad, pizza and a bottle of wine. Every Thursday at Sapolil Cellars is Jam Night. Robin Barrett (of the Coyote Kings) hosts the Jam. We enjoyed meeting new friends, experienced great Blues guitar music and the people of Walla Walla who support the arts and music culture here. Everyone enjoyed themselves and the night was full of great music. What a great way to start out our stay here!
check out the video, our bartender got up there and joined in on this video clip with the band.
A great event tonight at Russells in Bothell, WA at 7pm. I think tickets are still available. I am looking forward to meeting all of the great women who support Woodinville Wine Country!
On the eve of International Women’s Day, we’re throwing a reunion party for Woodinville’s Wine Divas*. It’s a chance to catch up with friends, meet new ones and learn more about wine and the local wine community. This will be a new beginning for what we hope will be a regular get-together for women who love wine. The evening includes some of Woodinville’s finest wineries: Gorman Winery, Patterson Cellars, Lauren Ashton Cellars, Smasne Cellars, Flying Dreams Winery, Davenport Cellars, Pondera Winery and Auclair Winery.
NEW: Our special guests:
Madeline Puckette, co-founder of Wine Folly (winefolly.com). Madeline was awarded the 2013-14 Wine Blogger of the Year. In her words: I started Wine Folly on December 25, 2011 with my two best friends. The inspiration for Wine Folly was based on an observation I’d made while serving. Basically, people want to know more about wine but they don’t know where to start. The goal of Wine Folly is to share wine knowledge in a way to encourage and inspire new drinkers. Her infographic posters guide us through tasting and pairing. She will give a brief presentation on tasting wine!
The Woodinville Wine Divas are coming together again for an evening fun, amazing food, and a chance to learn about wine and the local wine community while making new friends with people who love wine.
The evening includes some of Woodinville’s finest wineries: Gorman Winery, Patterson Cellars, Lauren Ashton Cellars, Smasne Cellars, Flying Dreams Winery, Davenport Cellars, Pondera Winery and Auclair Winery. Renowned Russell’s Restaurant will provide the catering along with live music.
David LeClaire, top Seattle sommelier by Court of Master Sommeliers and founder of Seattle UnCorked. David will walk us through a vertical tasting through time. Learn and taste the aging of one of Woodinville Wine Country’s red wines through the last decade.
Jamie Peha of Table Talk will be video interviewing guests about their Woodinville Wine experiences and offering a drawing for tickets to a summer event called Wine Rocks. Plus a basket of wine goodies for anyone that signs up for their newsletter!
Looking for lodging suggestions? Explore Bothell has a list of Bothell hotels offering special weekend rates with shuttle service for guests attending the Woodinville Women and Wine event – Click here for details!
An evening with winemakers, 8 Woodinville wineries, catering by the renowned Russell’s Restaurant, live music and informative and entertaining learning with wine experts.
Tickets: $60 – BUY NOW at Brown Paper Tickets Date: Friday, March 7, 2014 Time: 7:00PM Place: The Loft at Russell’s Restaurant 3305 Monte Villa Pkwy Bothell, WA 98021
Menu:
Sliced Beef Tenderloin on Brioche with Chipotle Sauce
Pork Tenderloin on Toast Point with Stonefruit Chutney
Seasonal Grilled Vegetable & Chevre Strudel
Domestic Cheese Board with Crackers & Seasonal Fresh Fruit Accompaniment.
And for dessert – Eclat Chocolates and Assorted Petit Fours.
*Woodinville Women and Wine offers educational events to women in the areas of wine and culinary education while promoting Washington wines and branding Woodinville Wine Country. The organization is an ambassador for local merchants while encouraging networking and fun!
I just got our tickets for this event. This event is at Willows Lodge, where Kevin and I reunited after 20 yrs apart and where we married in July of 2012. Get a room at the lodge or have a designated driver, this will be a fun event!
As Good As It Gets – Woodinville Reserve Night at Willow’s Lodge
What better way to welcome in spring than by opening our reserve cellars? Reserve Night offers up what is arguably the richest feast of wine in the state. This is the best of the best: Woodinville’s highest-rated wines complemented by a toast to fine art. It’s an evening of nothing but award-winning, 90+ rated vintages.
For Northwest wine enthusiasts, it doesn’t get any better: the return of warmer weather, artworks to delight and challenge the eye, and Washington’s foremost offerings from the vineyard. You’ve been waiting all winter for this!
Participating wineries coming soon!
Date & Time: Friday, April 25th 7:00 PM – 10:00 PM
Date & Time:To experience even more rarified air, there’s an option for our exclusive North of 95 tasting, where only the peak vintages of 95+ rated wines will be poured…more information to come.
I’m so happy to have time to work on something that is fun and that I feel so passionate about. It’s especially fun to work on this with my husband, who knows so much about food and wines!
With over 100 tasting rooms and wineries here in Woodinville, if you haven’t already done so, break out the map and make it a point to come visit. Residents of Woodinville zip codes get a discount on wines and tastings.
Kevin and I went through the map this weekend, we found that we have visited about 90% of these wineries and tasting rooms already, another 10% to go!
Need a guide? we would love to show you around Woodinvilles’ best!
If you are local here, there are many volunteer opportunities to experience the wine making process first hand, working side by side with the winemaker on bottling, labeling or crush activities.
We had a “kid free” weekend at home in Woodinville for Valentines. This meant quiet time together and playing our Blues Radio on Pandora really loud and Kevin cooking up awesome dishes. We really enjoy seafood, and since the kiddos don’t, we went all out seafood feast weekend!
2/14/14 Friday Night Dinner1st Course: Seared Ahi Tuna, 2nd Course: Seared Scallop in hot chili pepper orange sauce, 3rd Course: Sturgeon in lemon caper sauce served with Gorman Big Sissy Chardonnay. (Seafood from Tim’s Seafood, Kirkland, WA)
2/15/14: Saturday Night Dinner (Featuring Patterson Cellars Wines)
1st Course: Lobster with saffron beurre blanc parpedelle pasta served with a Patterson Cellars Melange Blanc. 2nd Course: Sage Crusted Lamb chop with port reduction (Patterson Cellars Port) and roasted sweet squash, accompanied by Patterson Cellars Tempranillo. Dessert was angel food cake with Late Harvest Rousanne (Patterson Cellars) marinated strawberries and vanilla bean ice cream.
follow us as we discover and revisit the tastes of Woodinville, WA out and about and at our Woodinville home.
As Woodinville residents, we embrace all that Woodinville has to offer in local beer, wine, spirits and eateries. On the weekends, we spend our time exploring the local breweries, wineries and tasting rooms of Woodinville. We will be sharing our experiences and promote all that Woodinville has to offer!
Kevin has over 20 yrs. experience in the restaurant and wine industry in both Washington and California. He contributes his expertise on wine and food. He has created many wine lists for his restaurants and in 2011 was presented an award by the WA Wine Commission for his list, which featured Northwest wines. Kevin is also an amazing cook. He frequently “chefs it up” and I must admit, I am spoiled with awesome cuisine on a regular basis.
As we make our way through all of the 100+ tasting rooms and wineries (yes, there is a distinction) in the Woodinville area, we love to discover new and exciting wines and meet fantastic people! After a day of tasting, we return home and talk about the wines, the people we’ve met and what we liked and didn’t like.
In our opinion it’s not all about the wine, it’s about the experience. The more successful tasting rooms have great wine, ambiance, are visually appealing and have pleasant, knowledgeable staff. We’ve had the best tasting experiences at the rooms that have interesting artwork on the walls, music (live or streamed), and a great staff (and please, no Goldfish crackers!). When the winemakers present the tasting room visitor with a great tasting experience, guests are more likely to have a memorable experience, purchase wines and return with their friends. A few standout mentions for a great tasting experience and wines in Woodinville are; Guardian Cellars, Lauren Ashton Cellars, JM Cellars, Page Cellars, Patterson Cellars and Sparkman Cellars.
We look forward to writing all about our experiences and promoting our local businesses!
With over 100 tasting rooms and wineries here in Woodinville, if you haven’t already done so, break out the WWC map and make it a point to come visit Woodinville Wine Country.
Also, if you are local here, there are many volunteer opportunities to experience the wine making process first hand, working side by side with the winemaker on bottling, labeling or crush activities.
@tastingfoodwine 