04/30/06 (Sunday) - WineCOW Get's Down in Post Alley
The recent WineCOW Spring Party at The Tasting Room in downtown Seattle turned out to be our biggest and best party yet! We had a blast with over 80 people showing up to drink wine and have some fun in the famed Post Alley wine bar/co-op. Various wines were featured from Washington’s Harlequin Wine Cellars (04 Chardonnay, 03 Claret, 03 Sundance Vineyard Syrah) and Wilridge Winery (04 Semillon, 01 Mélange, 01 Cabernet). These two wineries and their winemakers/owners, Robert Goodfriend and Paul Beveridge, were the original founders of The Tasting Room. We were lucky enough to have Paul and his wife Lysle on hand, along with manager Jen Doak, to help poor and tell us about the wines. Throughout the night we had a steady flow of great wine & food, rockin’ music, and plenty of Polaroid’s with the famous COW. After the party was over many WineCOW faithful paid a visit to Kells Irish Pub next door to cleanse our pallets with a little “Black Gold”. We look forward to another great party coming early this summer! -JC
04/26/06
(Wednesday) - Congratulations to Quilceda Creek on a Perfect Score!
 On April 24th Quilceda Creek made history by becoming the first Washington wine to ever receive a perfect score of 100 points--an achievement only a handful of wineries in the world can claim. But what's even more remarkable is that they did it twice! Both the 2002 and 2003 vintages of the winery’s Cabernet Sauvignon received 100 points in the April 24th issue of Parker’s Wine Advocate. The Wine Advocate has given 100 points to consecutive vintages of the same wine only five other times since it began publishing in 1978. "Now Quilceda Creek has produced two wines that are second to none," writes the Wine Advocate in its latest issue. Now, there aren't too many wines $100 and up that I would recommend buying...or that I would even buy myself, but it's not too often that a 100 point wine comes around either. And obviously never for the state of Washington. So if you were to ever break the bank, bite the bullet or take the plunge now's the time. Of course finding one of these bottles can be next to impossible. I would recommend looking on the online wine auction site WineCommune.com. It's basically like eBay but for wine. It’s very reliable and easy to use. -MP
04/08/06
(Saturday) - A
Taste Washington Experience
WineCOW headed out to Taste Washington on
Saturday excited to see what this year would
bring. With all the recent debate on changes
to the Taste format including higher ticket
prices, fewer restaurants, new venue, etc.
we were anxious to see if the value would
still be there. So, with taste buds rested
and ready to go we entered the event at
2pm, for the trade tasting, prepared for
an afternoon of wine gluttony. After gaining
some orientation to the new format, we began
making our way around from booth to booth
tasting, talking, and mingling.
With close to 200 wineries attending and
approximately 700+ wines being poured we
had to pace ourselves. One thing that made
it easy was that all wineries were placed
in alphabetical order, but the placement
of the tables did create a fair amount of
wasted space. After tasting several wines
one of the first things that jumped out
at us was the growing quality of wine produced
across Washington. Several standouts (of
wines that we tasted) included Barrister,
Cadence, Robert Karl, James Leigh, K Vintners,
OS Winery, Owen Roe and Willis Hall, just
to name a few. We also had the opportunity
to speak to many of the winemakers and representatives
who attended the event, of which Barrister,
Boudreaux, Mark Ryan, Precept Brands, Robert
Karl, Saint Laurent, Stevens, Whitman and
Willis Hall, were very inviting and informative.
When the doors opened at 4pm for the general
public the venue became crowded fast! What
was fun though was to see the hundreds of
people of every type, age and look imaginable
all gathered for one common purpose…great
wine! In the end was it worth the $125 ticket
price? If you can afford it, yes! Taste
Washington is a great opportunity to taste
so many of Washington’s great wines
in one location. But, if the high price
tag is a stretch then hosting your own wine
tasting party is a great alternative. Invite
a bunch of friends have them all bring different
Washington wines, and taste away. For a
more information on this event and for a
listing of all participating wineries CLICK
HERE. Or, for information on other local
wine events coming soon CHECK
HERE. -MP &
JC
04/02/06 (Sunday)
- Passport
to Woodinville Day 2
I was very excited about day 2, one because
after drinking wine all afternoon and night
the day before I was not hung-over, and
two because we got a babysitter so I could
go with my wife. We stared at Mark Ryan
Winery where the spinning disco ball got
us immediately in the mood for wine. From
there we visited Edmonds Winery, Page Cellars
and Red Sky. We probably had the most fun
of the day at Cullin Hills Winery and DesVoigne
Cellars where we met up with the winemaker/brother
duo who were roaming the crowd making sure
no one went thirsty. From there we went
over to Baer Winery which was very lively!
I guess a bus full of women and a bluegrass
band will do that for a party. We made our
way back from there to our last stop of
the day at Januik and Novelty Hill who had
a wood fire pizza going which was welcome
after a day of wine drinking. I would say
Day 2 was just as successful and none of
the places were that busy, no lines all
day unlike some of the line nightmare stories
we heard about from day 1. Good job Woodinville
Wine Association for pulling off another
successful Passport; my liver is floating.
;) -JC
04/01/06 (Saturday)
- Passport
to Woodinville Day 1
We made it out to Passport on Day 1 ready
to pack in as much as possible before the
4pm closing time. Starting at Stevens Winery,
their new red wine “424” was
still great but the long line to get in
was not. I did enjoy listening to all the
conversations as people tasted and waited
in line. From there we walked up to Covington
Cellars and then on to Chatter Creek, who
weren’t officially part of Passport,
but with no line and plenty of wine to taste
it was a welcome stop. We proceeded across
the street to Saintpaulia Vintners who also
weren’t part of Passport, but again
their tasting room was open and they had
no line (Are you seeing a theme?). We talked
awhile with winemaker and owner Paul Y.
Shinoda, Jr. who sent me home with a bottle
of his 2000 Red Mountain Cab, thanks! From
there we headed over to Woodinville Wine
Cellars, which was busy but had a nice traffic
flow so you didn’t really notice.
The wines were great, and they had live
music and food, which came in handy at this
point in the day. We headed from there over
to Facelli Winery, but with a couple minutes
to spare they were already closed. We weren’t
done tasting however…guess they didn’t
get the memo…so It only made sense
to head over to the Horseshoe for some cold
refreshing PBR to close out a successful
day. -JC
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