Vine Pair
September 26, 2018

Burgundy, Napa, Mendoza, La Rioja, Tuscany. Surely these places are on your wine trip bucket list. Here’s one to add: Woodinville, Wash.

Twenty miles from Seattle, by highway or bike path, 118 of the state’s 950 wineries have tasting rooms here. Many are satellites of operations on the other side of the Cascade Mountains. That’s east, where the grapes are: 55,000 acres divided into 14 appellations across hundreds of miles. The people, the drinkers and distributors, are in the west.

Chateau Ste. Michelle Wine Estates is a great starting point, literally. Woodinville’s first winery, and the state’s largest, has a history that dates to the repeal of Prohibition. A free 30-minute tour introduces visitors to the Columbia Valley AVA where 99 percent of Washington’s wine grapes grow, and “liquid sunshine” (rain; they get that a lot). It ends with a taste of three wines. Continue with four more, $15, including Eroica Riesling, a collaboration with Dr. Loosen of Mosel, Germany.>>>Read the entire article on Vine Pair