FEATURED WASHINGTON WINERY
WOODHOUSE FAMILY CELLARS
- WOODINVILLE, WA
For our inaugural Featured
Winery it only made sense for us to go local.
But how would we ever choose with so many
fine wineries in western Washington? So,
after some deliberation on this problem,
with no clear answer, we decided to hit
the bottle. In fact, it’s only appropriate
that we drink some wine right now while
typing this feature, but that’s beside
the point. We went to many tasting rooms,
tried many bottles, and researched many
wineries and there was one that stood out
to us not only for its superb wines, but
for its unique attitude and contributions
back to the Washington community.
 We
are speaking of Woodhouse Family Cellars
based out of Woodinville, Washington. For
this piece we were able to spend a comfortable
afternoon with owner Bijal Shah, who founded
Woodhouse with his wife Sinead, and Marketing
Director Abbey Baker. Sitting in their tasting
room, which also serves as a 1200 sq. ft.
banquet facility for private events, we
were able to talk about wine, the Woodhouse
labels, and their new winery/event center.
Here is what followed:
WC: How did you decide
to make the jump from wine collector to
wine owner?
BS: “A Pissed Off
Wife!”
In the mid 80’s Bijal, a long time
fashion industry executive, involved in
design and manufacturing, was traveling
around the world for work. During his travels
he would buy wine for his personal collection,
sometimes coming home with up to 300 bottles
a month.
At the time, wine wasn’t a well known
or appreciated beverage in the state of
Washington, as it is today. Often times
Bijal’s friends would come over, who
were beer drinkers and didn’t know
cheap wine from quality wine, and drink
up some of his most valuable bottles. Sinead,
Bijal’s wife, was having a hard enough
time coping with the quantity of wine he
was bringing home each month, but his friends
drinking all the good stuff was the last
straw.
It was this reason that Bijal spoke with
his uncle, winemaker Tom Campbell, about
making their own wine. Tom was already an
accomplished and respected winemaker in
the state of Washington, so along with being
family he was the obvious choice. Shah and
Campbell sat down and went over all the
things they wanted from this wine and Darighe,
a Bordeaux style blend, was born.
Initially, their goal was to make 100 cases
per year, 50 to drink and 50 to give away
to friends/family. “It was all about
having something good to drink and never
supposed to be a business.” That all
changed however, when a few cases of the
wine got out to some local restaurants and
the calls started coming in demanding to
get more of their fantastic blend.
WC: Besides Darighe you
currently have 3 other labels as well, why
do you use different labels for your wine?
BS: “It’s a
common mistake by consumers to choose the
wrong vintage or varietal with all the labels
being the same.”
“When you ask someone to grab a bottle
from your cellar, or pick you up a bottle
at the store, especially if they were inexperienced
with wines, they would have to sift through
a handful of years or varietals from the
same label potentially picking the wrong
one.” Instead Shah makes it easy by
creating four different varietals all with
different names and labels, and all housed
under the Woodhouse Family Cellars brand.
“This makes for easy recognition”
with each varietal falling under a different
label, all of which are named after the
Shah’s family and friends with the
exception of Darighe, their first label.
The name Darighe, which is Gaelic for “red”,
was inspired by Sinead, a United 777 pilot
of Irish-English descent. The Maghie and
Dussek labels are named after friends, while
the Kennedy Shah label is named for their
daughter.
WC: What’s next,
is there a fifth label coming out?
BS: “Hudson”
Named after a friend from Microsoft, it’s
going to be a small production (100 cases
at $45/bottle) run of high-end Chardonnay,
eventually leading into other white varietals.
WC: One of the things that
drew us to your winery was all the work
you do with charities, can you tell us how
you got into that?
BS: “I was tired
of all the rubber chicken dinners.”
“Posing as charity events, these dinners
were really just an excuse for 600 noisy
people to get together, eat shitty food
and get drunk off bad wine.” It was
at these dinners that Shah noticed most
people didn’t even care what the event
was for, and would just pay to attend for
the social gathering, but not donate past
filling their stomachs. “Something
has to really hit the heart to get people
to donate.” It’s from the heart
that the Shah’s created the Kennedy
Shah Foundation, which donates to a mixture
of women’s and children’s charities.
After the birth of their daughter Kennedy,
the Shah’s decided to combine their
passions for wine and charity by creating
a wine (and foundation) that gave back to
the community. So, the Kennedy Shah label
was created, with a collection of offerings
including a Chardonnay/Chenin Blanc blend,
a Syrah, a Merlot blend and a Cabernet,
from which 20% of the profits were donated
back to the charities of their choosing.
The Shah’s also hold events at their
winery to raise money for their charities
as well. Originally this space was intended
to only hold wine and a 200 square foot
tasting room, but with the exposure gained
from their charity work, a first class kitchen
and tasting bar was donated by Viking. The
end result became today’s 1200 square
foot tasting and event hall, known as Kennedy’s
Kitchen.
After costs, all money remaining from each
event is donated back to charity. An event
here won’t resemble the rubber chicken
dinners of Shah’s past; they have
Daniel’s catering chef Bradley Dickenson
to cook up food that pairs perfectly with
the Woodhouse Wines. Shah’s newest
charity project is based around providing
better, more balanced and nutritious school
lunches to children.
You can visit the Woodhouse Family cellars
tasting room in Woodinville, Washington,
on Tuesday through Friday: 12-4pm, Saturday
and Sunday: 12-5pm. A $5 fee will be charged
for each tasting and can be applied to any
purchase. If you are interested in booking
an event at the winery contact Abbey Baker
by phone at (425) 527-0608 or e-mail at
abbey@woodhouse-usa.com.
Woodhouse Family
Cellars
15500 Woodinville Redmond Road NE
Suite C600
Woodinville, Wa. 98072
Phone: (425)527-0608
Fax: (425)527-0609
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