Washington wine vacation - advice needed

My wife and I are planning a Washington wine vacation next year with another couple and could use some Berserker assistance in properly planning this out.

Currently we are looking at spending 9 - 10 days, including travel from South Florida, in Washington. We are considering departing on the 10th or
11th of August. First question, is August a good time of year to visit? Is there a significantly better time to visit?

The general thought right now is to spend a few days in the Seattle area seeing the sites and heading over to Woodinville to experience the many, many tasting rooms there. Would you plan to lodge in the Seattle area, Woodinville, or somewhere in between?

After that we would drive to the Walla Walla and Columbia Valley areas, set up some appointments for tastings and tours and then return to South Florida via Seattle. Maybe Portland.

I will certainly be asking for tasting and dining recommendations but those will come later as we fine tune the travel details.

August is a great month to visit. Although it being the Pacific NW, you may experience some rain in the Seattle area but Walls Walla should be dry and hot. Unless you prefer cooler temps or more rain, only July may be better.

Although Woodinville has more to offer now than it did even a few years ago, I’d recommend staying in Seattle if you want better dining and non-winery options. If you prefer a more tranquil night away from the city, Willows Lodge in Woodinville is nice and right next to two good restaurants - The Herb Farm (upscale) and Barking Frog (casual).

I’d also consider visiting the burgeoning tasting room area south of the stadiums/downtown Seattle where you can find Kerloo Cellars, Rotie Cellars and Sleight of Hand.

I would second the suggestion to base in Seattle. The Woodinville area is pretty sleepy and has limited food options. Also note that a majority of the Woodinville tasting rooms are only open on weekends.

Be aware that Seafair will be going on in early August. If you enjoy hydroplane races and fighter plane performances, that is a plus.
Otherwise, it means more traffic and crowds.
There are a lot more tasting options in Seattle than Scott mentioned. Cadence, Charles Smith, Nota Bene are a few.
With nine or more days to spend, I’d plan on swinging through the Columbia Gorge either on the way or back from Walla Walla. The wines from the gorge area are distinctly different from the rest of Washington, and the scenery is spectacular. Syncline and Memaloose are recommended stops, and there are more wineries around Hood River than I can list. One warning, motel and B&B lodging is in high demand in that area in the summer. Book as early as possible.

P Hickner

August/September are the months with the consistently best weather, it should be beautiful here at that time, even in Seattle.

To second Peter’s recommendation about checking out what’s in Seattle, the newly opened SoDo Urban Works winery complex has Rotie, Sleight of Hand, Waters, Kerloo and Structure all in the same building and they’re all worth checking out, plus you can get lunch and a beer at Schooner Exact. I like Rotie a lot, people seem to like Kerloo, especially for the price, and I think Structure is a good value; Brian and Brandee are really nice and have adorable pups.

Cadence is excellent, Ben is super nice and forthcoming, he’s really great to nerd out with if you want to pick his brain about winemaking, but make sure to email them since I’m not sure they keep regular tasting hours.

Charles Smith makes better wine every year, he’s recently switched to a more restrained style which is much to the better IMHO since he gets great fruit, and Jet City is a beautiful facility, and close to Cadence. His tasting list is a mile long and it’s almost all worth trying though I’m not sure how affordable I consider a lot of his wine.

There’s TONS of tasting rooms in Woodinville, Lauren and I have been going for years and still haven’t been everywhere yet. If you are going to the east side of the state, maybe plan out where you want to taste in Woodinville vs Red Mountain or Walla Walla so you don’t duplicate your efforts. There’s plenty of great wineries in Walla Walla that don’t have tasting rooms on the west side of the state.

Walla Walla and Red Mountain are both amazing and worth visiting, the food in Walla Walla is incredible.

Also seconding stopping in the Gorge for a day if you can, Syncline, COR, and Memaloose are close together and I liked Domaine Pouillon well enough at the end of a tasting day to buy some Syrah.

This is largely true of the Warehouse District tasting rooms, of which there are many, but the Hollywood District tasting rooms are mostly open 7 days a week (Mark Ryan, Fidelitas, Novelty Hill/Januik, Brian Carter, Matthews/Tenor, Gorman, DeLille, etc.) so if you’re in Woodinville during the week you can pick your area and still be ok.

Is this a PURELY wine focused trip?

if so i’d do 2 days in Woodinville (on a weekend), 1 day in Seattle, and then 4 days in Walla Walla, with a day in Yakima area.

If you want to hang out and chill in Seattle and see the city, spend a day or two more…

Lots of gorgeous sightseeing options too.

Volcanoes! Ranier / St Helens
Olympic National Park
Puget Sound
Columbia River Gorge

Partial to Oregon, of course but:

+1 on Willows, Barking Frog and Herbfarm in Woodinville.

Spending time in the East (Walla Walla, etc.) is really worth it - that’s where the fruit comes from. There are great Lodging/Dining options in WW as well.

If you fly from Portland, and if you are into technology at all, the drive from Walla Walla to Portland is fascinating both due to the change in climate/topography as well as the miles of Wind Farms.

Thank you all for the comments and advice, please keep the comments coming.

I don’t think this is purely a wine focused trip but it is certainly the main event. Since we will be traveling completely across the country we want to take in the sites of Seattle for a few days. My thinking was to do that on the front end along with the Woodinville area, especially since I’ve learned from this thread that the weekends are the best time.

I’m not into the plane thing so the Seafair event is making me rethink the dates. I’ll need to confirm the dates we want to visit along with when that event is taking place.

The other sightseeing options mentioned are intriguing so I’ll need to also investigate the potential of working that in one day. I want to keep everything as fresh as possible for the four of us so we limit the potential for cabin fever.

Keep the ideas flowing, this has been extremely helpful for me.

We heading to Walla Walla at the end of July. Any additional or new recommendations?