Beer geeks and oenophiles find common ground in a Redmond strip mall.
Posted by: Jessica Voelker on Apr 22, 2010 at 12:11PM
The Place Malt and Vine
The Deal A low-key Redmond retailer that caters to beer geeks and oenophiles alike.
Manager’s Pick Store manager Clint Scriven is stoked about Terrasaurus, the new shitake mushroom-brewed stout from SoDo craft brewer Epic.
Our pick Firestone Walker Solace, an unfiltered summer ale
The scoop Beer tastings are held every Friday evening beginning at 5:30. There are also special cask pours. Malt and Vine ships by the bottle and also stocks kegs. See website for details or inquire within.
Seattle has great wines stores, and it has great beer stores. But Redmond has a great beer and wine store. It’s called Malt and Vine and it is not the sort of emporium that takes advantage of every bit of square footage. It is quite sparse, in fact. Clean and down to earth, Malt and Vine is the booze retail equivalent of a cold washcloth on your feverish forehead—soothing, relaxing, in possession of the ability to slow you down.
In the front half of Malt and Vine, where the beer is stored, there is a scattering of tables. Behind this is a bar with a line of taps and a chalkboard menu detailing the revolving selection on beers and wines by the glass. Do you see what I am saying here when I say there is a bar? I am saying that you can drink in the store. I love the idea of coming out to buy a few bottles and then pausing over a pint of German pilsner or a California cab before returning to the real world.
In the back is a small but well-curated wine section with an emphasis on Washington. I was sort of expecting a perfunctory selection—that’s usually what you get at beer shops—but I was instead impressed with the thoughtful choices at Malt and Vine. Lucky Redmond.
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Brews News
Get there this week and save on some of the world’s best beers.
Posted by: Jessica Voelker on Feb 24, 2010 at 10:01AM
Browsing through those many shelves of bottles yesterday, I had, not for the first time, this thought: Pike Street Beer and Wine is the happiest place on earth. I love it, I love it. Sometimes a type of beer just pops into my head: “maibock” or “oatmeal stout.” Then I go to Pike Street and I can get a single bottle from some amazing brewery in Germany of the UK or the Czech Republic or Delaware. It’s just a little bit of beer-loving paradise up in there.
So there I was having this thought when I noticed a sign on the counter: moving sale. Ten percent off everything storewide. Woah, and woah. It turns out that the store is moving just next door to itself, which was a relief. The 10 percent savings will go through Monday, March 1. On the 2nd, the store will close for a few days to move, then reopen in the second week of March. In the meantime—discounted beer! Lots and lots of it.
The wine selection is also quite nice. Have you tried the Estate Syrah from Cougar Crest yet? It’s pretty wonderful, and Pike Street stocks it.
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hops shops
Nine hundred varities of beer from around the world plus a few good wines.
Posted by: Jessica Voelker on Oct 13, 2009 at 04:00PM
Beer geeks flip for Pike Street’s collection of rare and limited brews.
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Beer geeks flip for Pike Street’s collection of rare and limited brews.
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The store is set up to help brewsky newbies find beers they like. Exhibit A: the shelf in the front that displays selections—McChouffe, St Bernardus Abt 12—from Michael Jackson’s Rare Beer Club. You can’t go wrong.
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Owner Tony Yap is always happy to share his beer expertise.
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Tony loves these baby beers from Kiuchi Brewing, a Japanese craft brewery. I love how cute their labels are ($5.99 each).
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Tony stocks specialty glassware for the connoisseur.
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Scuttlebutt from Everett. I just can’t get enough.
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Beware the St Bernardus monk. He’ll make you drunk.
The Place Pike Street Beer and Wine
The Deal A dizzing collection of global craft beers, plus a nice selection of wines, ports, and select glassware.
Owner’s Pick Dubuisson Scaldis Prestige Ale from Belgium ($44.99 for 750ml). “It’s aged in oak for at least six months and is more than 13 percent alcohol!” says owner Anthony Yap.
Our Picks Pliny the Elder from Russian River Brewing in California (limit three per customer). Dussek Cellars 2004 Cabernet Sauvignon ($37.99).
The Scoop There’s a free tasting featuring three to six beers every Friday from 5-7pm. This week’s brewery: Sierra Nevada.
Do I love beer? I love beer so much it makes me freak out! If you do too, you gotta get over to Pike Street Beer and Wine. Owner Anthony Yap traveled the world during his corporate days as a marketing exec, and when he got bored at night he’d head down to the local pub and try whatever was on tap.
Two years ago he decided to settle down and turn his beer passion into a way of life. Lucky us. Yap stocks his shop with his own favorite local and farflung beer, plus a small selection of wines. Since Yap isn’t much of a wine drinker, he decided to select bottles from small wineries that aren’t available at the supermarket, you’ll find everything from Famega vinho verde ($8.99)—one of my favorite cheap weekday wines—to the lovely 06 viognier from Cougar Crest and the inimitable Dussek Cellars 04 cab.
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Read about Pike and Western, another one of my happy places, here.
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Shoppity shops
Try something new from one of Seattle’s oldest wine shops.
Posted by: Jessica Voelker on Aug 13, 2009 at 03:00PM
A happy display case at a happy place.
The Place Pike and Western
The Deal A well-curated collection of bottles at all prices, specializes in wines form Washington, France, and Italy.
Owner’s Picks Nebbiolo Langhe 2007, $21.99; 2008 Beresan Cabernet Sauvigon, $29; 2007 Rôtie Cellars Northern Blend, $35.
Our Picks 2007 Chinook cabernet franc rosé, $14.99; 2006 Domaine de la Rouletiere Vouvray ($14.99)
The Scoop Wednesday afternoons, sample high-end wines for $5, on Fridays the staff pours complimentary sips of cheaper wines to sip while you shop.
The first time I walked into Pike and Western, I knew I’d found a friend. All around me were my favorite value wines: Here was a bottle of Poet’s Leap riesling, there was the cab franc rosé from Chinook, in the back I some stacked cases of Domaine de La Rouletiere, a favorite affordable vouvray from the Loire that I had discovered at Voila Bistro but had given up on finding in any of the local wine shops.
Owner Michael Teer says he is always fighting the perception that small wine stores are somehow high end only and have a huge mark up. He shows me bottle after bottle under $20, all of them, he says, selected and tasted by his staff—obsessive food and wine people who specialize in finding pairing wines for special meals. “And you don’t even have to tip us like you do the barista” says Teer.
Teer bought Pike and Western in 1991 after working there for 11 years, and is a great lover of the Italian wines from the Piemonte—he introduces novices by way of a reasonable priced nebbiolo or dolcetto. “People will drop $60 for a cab, but not a Barbaressco” he laments. For the initiated, there are a number of high-end piemontese in stock.
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