Sauced

Wine News for The Weekend

Covey Run 10k Happens, Rôtie Cellars Throws a Free Party, Twisted Cork Reopens.

Posted by: Jessica Voelker on Aug 20, 2010 at 10:37AM 2 Comments

Try free samples of Rôtie wines in SoDo this Saturday.

Oh, it’s a big wine weekend this, seeing as the Auction of Washington Wines began yesterday and continues through Saturday. All the players will be out at the winemakers dinners tonight. Those are all sold out but you can check out the Covey Run 10k tomorrow, which begins at 8am(!) at the Redhook Brewery in Woodinville.

Here’s some other wine news:

This Saturday, August 21 from 2 to 5pm, Rôtie Cellars, which makes some Rhone-style blends of which I am a big fan—they are an excellent value at $25 to $35—is hosting a party at the Full Pull wine warehouse in SoDo.

The party is free, though admittedly the idea is to get you to join the new wine club, and the deal there is that if you join now, you get 2010 prices on wine for life. Rôtie winemaker Sean Boyd is also assistant winemaker at Waters, one of our state’s more lauded wineries.

In other wine news, Bellevue’s Twisted Cork has reopened at 900 Bellevue Way East as Twisted Cork and Twisted Cork Wine Bar. Once part of the 0/8 Seafood Grill, Twisted Cork is now its own thing.

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Tags: Wine Tastings, Wine Clubs

Want to Learn Wine Blending?

…Or just taste a bunch of food and wine? Check out the Blend event on September 12.

Posted by: Jessica Voelker on Aug 10, 2010 at 10:06AM 0 Comments

Learn the art of the blend for the bargain price of $15.

Reps from 40 wineries will show up at the Bell Harbor Conference Center on Sunday, September 12. The occasion is Blend, a wine-and-food-pairing extravaganza. The food is provided by chefs at hotels and event spaces managed by Columbia Hospitality. Fortunately for you, one of those hotels is the Inn at Langley, and the chef there, Matt Costello, makes awesome food.

The munch and sip takes place from 4 to 7:30pm and costs $59.

But here’s the part that I find the most intriguing. (I’ve definitely buried the lede here): You can attend one of two, 90-minute wine blending seminars for the bargain price of $15. The seminars go from 2:30 to 4pm. Sign up to learn how Chateau Ste Michelle does its red blends or learn how Bordeaux-style blends are made from a Columbia Winery rep.

Either way, you get to taste what you create. Sounds like a great opportunity for wine nerds.

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Tags: Booze 101, Wine Tastings, Wine and Food Pairings

Kirkland Uncorked is Upon Us!

The annual outdoor festival at Marina Park begins in just seven days.

Posted by: Jessica Voelker on Jul 09, 2010 at 02:49PM 0 Comments

Marina Park, pretty summer setting for Kirkland Uncorked

Summer marches forward at an alarming pace. It’s already time for Kirkland Uncorked, the annual wine, food, and music festival that goes on at Kirkland’s Marina Park. Very, very pretty.

Entry to the tasting garden is $20 in advance, $25 at the event, and includes 10 tokens that you can exchange for samples. The tasting garden hours are from 5-10pm on July 16 and 17, and 1 to 6pm on the 18th.

Here is the list of participating wineries—don’t miss Airfield, Dusted Valley, or Maison Bleue—Airfield Estates, Dusted Valley / Boomtown, Five Star Cellars, Four Lakes Chelan Winery, Hollywood Hill Vineyards, Irlandés Limited Reserve Winery, Knipprath Cellars / La Bodega del Norte, Maison Bleue Winery, Naches Heights Vineyard, Northwest Cellars, Northwest Totem Cellars, O.S. Winery, Patterson Cellars, Plaza Winery, Vin du Lac, Whidbey Island Winery, Zerba Cellars.

See website for details on events (among them—no kidding—a dog modeling contest hosted by CityDog magazine) musical lineup, and chef demo schedule.

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Tags: Kirkland, Wine, Wine Tastings, Washington Wines, Wine and Food Pairings

Riedel Rep Leads Glassware Class at Purple Cafe

Attend the July 15 seminar and walk away for four vessels from the Vinum collection.

Posted by: Jessica Voelker on Jun 29, 2010 at 01:03PM 2 Comments

Those of us who love to geek out on libations also tend to find ourselves fascinated with the rituals that surround drinking cultures. Thus we like to attend seminars like this one: from 6:30 to 8pm on July 15 at Purple Cafe and Wine Bar in Bellevue, Joel Simon of Riedel Crystal will be teaching a glassware seminar that also includes a wine tasting and “light appetizers,” per the class description. (Guess they won’t be serving Purple’s baked brie, ain’t nothing light about that little plate of heaven.)

Here’s the stupid part (stupid awesome, I mean): The class costs $85, but it includes a set of Vinum glasses—one designed for Bordeaux, one for Burgundy, one for Montrachet and a fourth for Sauvignon Blanc. As an aspiring collector of Riedel and other glassware, I can tell you that this is less than these glasses would cost you retail, even without the class and wine tasting thrown in.

So I’m going to go ahead and recommend this seminar highly. Call 206-838-3853 to sign up.

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Tags: Tastings and Classes, Wine, Wine Tastings, Purple Cafe and Wine Bar, Reidel

Wine Tastings Tonight: L’Ecole and Amaurice pouring at 106 Pine; Winter’s Hill at 12th and Olive

A salmon pairing downtown, good values from Oregon on Capitol Hill.

Posted by: Jessica Voelker on Jun 22, 2010 at 11:00AM 0 Comments

Wine shop/bar 106 Pine will be pairing salmon appetizers with wines from L’Ecole No 41 and aMaurice tonight, Tuesday, June 22, from 6 to 8:30.

The event is a co-pro with Stewardship Partners, which helps private landowners conserve rivers and streams to keep them safe for salmon spawning. It’s $10; RSVP with kk@stewardshippartners.org.

From 5 to 8pm, Capitol Hill’s 12th and Olive showcases wines from Winter’s Hill, a winery in the Dundee Hills in Oregon. Winemaker Delphine Gladhart will pour pinots noirs, gris, and blanc and a rose of pinot noir.

Speaking of roses, I picked up a bottle of Dusted Valley’s 2009 Columbia Valley Ramblin Rose for $18 recently. Pretty great. Check out their Woodinville tasting room if you have a chance.

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Tags: Wine, Wine Tastings

All the Merlot You Can Drink and You Don’t Have to Drive Home? That’s Just Mad

Merlot Gone Mad happens May 2.

Posted by: Jessica Voelker on Apr 16, 2010 at 02:03PM 0 Comments

Mad!

Just to show it can be done, I’m going to write an entire blog post about merlot without mentioning a certain movie set in Northern California and starring Paul Giamatti. Don’t believe it can happen? Watch this.

Merlot is unquestionably the most celebrated of Washington wines, it even has its own tasting event: Merlot Gone Mad happens Sunday, May 2 at 3pm at Tulalip Resort Casino (aka “the number one place for fun”). Tickets are $45. For that you get to try way more merlot than you probably should (50 wineries participate, including greats like Fidelitas, Delille, Northstar, and Grand Reve), alongside sundry snackies prepared by the resort chef.

There are special room rates—call the casino—but there’s something else: Butler Transportation is offering round trip transportation from Seattle, in sweet 11-seater Mercedes tours buses no less, for an extra $25. I talked to the gregarious Stuart Butler, longtime Woodinville valet, who told me he’ll meet event-goers at a designated spot in Seattle and drop them off there after the event.

Butler also does a bunch of private wine tours and whatnot in Woodinville, check him out.

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Tags: Wine Tastings, Tulalip, Merlot

Free Port Party Tonight on the Hill, Virtual Merlot Tasting in Cyberspace.

Ports and Pairings at Barca. Poco and Local Vine get in on a twitter-based merlot event.

Posted by: Jessica Voelker on Mar 25, 2010 at 09:54AM 0 Comments

Barca

Capitol Hill’s Barca hosts a free port tasting from 6:30 to 9:30pm tonight, March 25. Elemental Importers will pour you free wine plus sips of a new line of artisanal ports from Quinta Santa Eufemia, a 100-year-old winemaker based in the Alto Douro in Portugal.

There will be free chocolate and cheese pairings, live music, and featured port cocktails. The cocktails intrigue me, thinking about Portugal makes me weepy, and the party sounds fun.

Also: tonight: two of my favorite wine bars, Poco Wine Room and The Local Vine, are participating in a massive virtual merlot tasting. The idea is that people all over the country drink Washington merlots and tweet about them.

So if you’re on the hill, you can get a glass of merlot at Poco, tweet about it, then head to Barca for free port. Meanwhile in Belltown, winemakers from Dusted Valley, creators of Boomtown merlot, will be at Local Vine (the tasting fee is $5). The wine bar also invited two of the best local wine bloggers to be onhand for the purposes of Twitter tutelage. Tweeters register here, the hash mark is #WAMerlot. If all this Twitter talk gives you hives, just ignore it and drink your wine.

The virtual tasting “happens” tonight, March 25, from 5 to 7pm.

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Tags: Belltown, Wine, Capitol Hill, Wine Tastings, Twitter

It’s Wednesday, It’s Half-Price Wine Night at Emmer and Rye

Here are some other Wednesday Wine Deals Around Town.

Posted by: Jessica Voelker on Mar 24, 2010 at 09:19AM 4 Comments

If you haven’t yet checked out Emmer and Rye, chef Seth Caswell’s Queen Anne restaurant, tonight’s the night to do it. Through March, Caswell is offering a 50 percent discount on all of his wines every Wednesday night.

In other Wednesday wine-related specials, Smash Wine Bar in Wallingford has a year-round Wednesday deal: buy one entree, get 50 percent off the second. (They’ve got some other good weekly specials: all-night happy hour on Sundays (5 to 10pm), and 20 percent off wines every Tuesday.)

And in Kirkland tonight, The Grape Choice wine shop, which offers free tastings every Wednesday from 5:30 to 7:30pm, will be sampling wines from Alexandria Nicole Cellars.

Speaking of wine, I hear there are still tickets available for Taste Washington’s Grand Tasting this weekend. Hope to see you there. h4.

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Tags: Kirkland, Wine, Queen Anne, Wine Tastings, Wallingford

Free Tasting Right Now! Sauvignons at 12th and Olive.

Stock up on some wine, watch this hilarious Youtube clip.

Posted by: Jessica Voelker on Mar 19, 2010 at 04:26PM 0 Comments

As I write this, 12th and Olive wine shop is pouring free samples of select sauvignons: cabernet sauvignon and sauvignon blanc. It goes on until 8pm tonight, March 19, and is free.

Thinking about this tasting reminded me of the video below from The Office—the original British version of course. “Hi. How are you? I poured you a glass of your favorite wine, cabernet sauvignon. I really know you.” I could watch that a million times and still find it funny.

Happy Friday!

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Tags: Wine, Capitol Hill, Wine Tastings, The Office

Free Tasting: the Wines of Georgetown at Wild Ginger Bellevue

A tasting that ends, serendipitously enough, when happy hour begins.

Posted by: Jessica Voelker on Mar 18, 2010 at 02:50PM 0 Comments

Wild Ginger Bellevue hosts a free tasting on the third Sunday of every month. This Sunday: the wines of Georgetown.

So you may have heard tell about a burgeoning community of winemakers in Georgetown, now here is your chance to try the wines. In Bellevue.

The South Seattle Artisan Wineries group will hold a free tasting at Wild Ginger’s Eastside outpost in the Bravern shopping center from 1 to 4pm this Sunday, March 21. (The restaurant hosts a free tasting on the third Sunday of every month.)

In a happy coincidence, Wild Ginger Bellevue’s seven-days-a-week happy hour starts at 4pm. And here is the thing about that: there are fragrant duck sliders on the HH menu, three of them for $4. If you’ve ever had the deconstructed version of those little babies at Seattle’s Wild Ginger, you know what you are in for. And you know it is good.

Wines to be tasted:
Cadence Winery
Fall Line Winery
Note Benne Cellars
O-S Winery
O’Shea Scarborough

You can also visit the Georgetown wineries themselves on the second Saturday of each month, now through August, for a sampling. Each tasting is $5, but the fee is waived if you buy a bottle. Find details here.

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Tags: Happy Hour, Bellevue, Wine, Wine Tastings, Locaboozers, Georgetown

March 27: Taste Washington Seminars

The once-a-year wine classes are not to be missed, but one is already sold out. Get your tickets now.

Posted by: Jessica Voelker on Mar 11, 2010 at 12:51PM 0 Comments

Taste Washington is just three weeks away and as I did last year, I’m going to heartily recommend you sign up for one of the seminars on Saturday.

Sunday’s Grand Tasting is great, but the seminars are fascinating and intimate, and will focus your tasting skills before you begin the sip-and-spit marathon at Qwest field. The food pairing seminar with Tom Douglas has already sold out, sadness, but there are a couple of others that sound good.

I like, in particular, the concept of Icons of Tomorrow: the Proving Grounds. The class explores which wines will be: “the next Cayuse Vineyards, Col Solare, Leonetti Cellar, or Woodward Canyon.” Grand Reve, a very fruitful collaboration of talented Washington growers and blenders (with a tasting room in Kirkland), will be there. And Efeste will be on hand to rock everyone out with its Big Papa Cab, as will Gramercy Cellars and its syrah knockout, the 2007 John Lewis.

Icons of Tomorrow is $40 and runs from 1:45 to 3pm on Saturday, March 27. All seminars are held at the Bell Harbor International Conference Center. Sign up here.

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Tags: Tastings and Classes, Wine Tastings, Taste Washington, Washington Wines

Legendary Swirl: Tuesday, March 9 at El Gaucho

A suprisingly social wine event in the basement of El Gaucho Belltown.

Posted by: Jessica Voelker on Mar 08, 2010 at 10:24AM 0 Comments

Legendary Swirl takes place March 9 from 5 to 7pm.

Legendary Swirl, the annual tasting party where a bunch of great Washington wineries set up shop in El Gaucho’s cavernous black basement, is a surprisingly social event. I remember last year I had only just bit into a wee slice of aged Angus—it had been draped, like some beefy beret, onto a tiny square toasty—when the first stranger approached.

She had no idea who I was or what I was doing there, she just came over to say hello.

If you’re the sort of wine drinker who likes to get to know the people behind your favorite bottles: this one’s for you. It’s almost like going to a cocktail party where half the guests make wine for a living.

This year’s Legendary Swirl takes place Tuesday, March 9 from 5 to 7pm. Tickets are $95 per person, call El Gaucho for details. Some of my favorite wineries attending this year: Andrew Will, Col Solare, Delille, Efeste, Gramercy Cellars, L’Ecole, Long Shadows, Pepper Bridge, and Woodward Canyon. Admission buys you a taste of any and all wines—you receive a ginormous sipping vessel upon your arrival—as well as access to an impressive buffet of succulent snackies like those aforementioned beef bites.

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Tags: Belltown, Wine, Wine Tastings, Drinking Events