Woodinville Washington Wine and Whiskey

True confession -

Most of my favorite activities involve drinking (or ARE drinking) so we are fortunate to live in an area that has oh, say about 70 tasting rooms within about 10 miles of where we live. So today, because it was a nice day (i.e., not raining) we drove into Seattle and went for a little walk around Ravenna, with the intent of ending up at the Crepe Cafe on 65th St NE. Oh yeah, eating is another big fave with me. After a fairly short wait for the brunchers to free up some space, we were escorted in and enjoyed a pleasant repast along with a couple of glasses of wine. We NEVER order a bottle, as Rosy only drinks white and I only drink red.

Afterward we made our way across the 520 floating bridge to the Eastside and went to the Novelty Hill / Janiuk Winery to pick up our regular club shipment and do a little free tasting (free is always good). Then we stopped at the Woodinville Whiskey Company, a new craft distillery that produces a nice vanilla-y vodka along with a couple of white bourbon-style smooth whiskeys. They are white because they haven't been barrel-aged yet, but they are very smooth and interesting. They are nice enough to give out free tastes and I intend to buy a bottle from them one of these times I go in, but they are not cheap (and I am.)

So anyway, who really cares, right? All of a sudden I'm a tour guide? OK, maybe I can pimp some of the local wineries and distilleries around here that I have visited and enjoy, and maybe somebody out there in the Midwest or somewhere will read this and say, "hey maybe we should go to Seattle and check out all these places we read about in Chucky's blog." You never know who's out there lurking, scanning the Internets, bored out of their gourd, that might stumble onto this. So here is my quick review of some of my favorite Woodinville wineries and/or tasting rooms:

Chateau Ste.Michelle - the grand-daddy of Washington wineries, this impressive chateau and grounds has to be visited, although it was never one of my faves for wine tasting until we joined their Vintage Reserve Club, which allowed us to skip their steep $10 tasting fee and go straight to our special "members only" room for free tastes. We also get early access to tickets for their Summer Concert Series, which are fantastic by the way - they rate an entire separate posting of their own.

Facelli Winery - a small family-owned and run operation, nice Tuscan-style wines, including Barbera, Sangiovese, Lemberger and a nice Pinot Grigio. Always friendly, Mr Facelli is happy to autograph any bottles you buy there.

Hollywood Hill Vineyard - another small boutique winery, the owners, Steve and Becky Snyder, recently moved their tasting room to larger quarters, a small house on the roundabout on Hwy 202. Very nice people, they have been growing Pinot Noir grapes on their 5 acre "estate" just up the hill from their tasting room, and will be releasing their 2009 vintage in February. We don't really have the weather in Washington for Pinot Noir, but 2009 was a nice long hot Summer, so I am interested in checking it out.

Soft Tail Spirits - cross the railroad tracks and turn right instead of left and go about a half mile. At their tasting room you can sample their craft vodka as well as three varieties of grappa. Then, if you are still standing at the end of this tour, you can pop into the DiStefano Winery next door and enjoy their fine selection. Suggest you bring a designated driver.

For a complete up-to-minute guide to the Woodinville Winery scene (which has been growing so fast it's impossible to keep up with) visit http://www.woodinvillewinecountry.com/

Cheers!

Wowee! I'm blogging now!

Welcome to the first chapter of Who Really Cares. I mean, who does, really care about the demented ramblings of a middle-aged man without much to say, but who isn't afraid to say it anyway? So here goes.

I got into this because my wife and now my daughter have started blogs, and I always end up putting long extended comments on their blogs, so it occurred to me that maybe I should have my own forum for expression, rather than try to hijack theirs. I know, I'm a nice guy. Whenever possible, I will link back to their blogs for interesting content now and again, as soon as I figure out how.

So expect the expected - maybe a little funny, ironic, ranting and obsessive - that is pretty much how I roll (as the kids say). Just an aging hipster trying to recapture his lost youth, which he never really outgrew in the first place.

So, just a little about the content - we'll make up more as we go along - I will probably be blogging about music (oh, boy, another music blog), travel (got a trip to Europe planned), dogs (I have 3 of them), politics (somewhat left-of-center), entertainment (TV, movies, plays, concerts) and life in general. And I plan to share my vast knowledge of all manner of esoteric things with you. That's OK, you're welcome.

I think of myself now as a sort of digital late night DJ. So, anybody out there on the net, without better things to do, I would love to hear from you. Anybody? Hello!! Yoo-hoo! (is this thing on?)