@David_Hay Happened to stop at Seattle Wine Company In Bellevue- not too far from woodinville. If you are looking for retail bottles they had some Rocks syrahs at relatively reasonable retail pricing (say that 3 times fast) including a couple bottles of reynvaan (80’s pricing IIRC).
Might call ahead to reserve them if you want to lock them in.
I can’t recommend Rotie Cellars enough. In the event you stop by their SoDo tasting room, see if Tioni can host you…she poured so many wonderful wines when I visited back in July. For the Rocks funk, their Northern Blend and Big G are all excellent at the price, and ask if they’ll pour Proper Estate Syrah.
Not Rocks but swing by Kevin White if you are there on a weekend. Making excellent Rhone wines and the prices are amazing.
@Shay_A mentioned the Proper syrah made by Rotie and I’ll second that recommendation. I think I prefer the Proper to the other reds made by Rotie although their whole line up is very good.
Based on your original question my number one recommendation has already been mentioned so I’ll reiterate it here: W.T. Vintners.
WT and Savage Grace are my two favorites. If you stop y Savage Grace Robert Ramsay is worth a visit.
If you need a break from wine, visit Woodinville Whiskey for some beautiful and well priced Bourbons and Rye.
With regard to restaurants - Lisa Baer and I just did a wine dinner at Heritage and I was thoroughly impressed. Straightforward and delicious, not too fancy. Woman chef/owner too.
Good to know about heritage. It has a very interesting and well curated wine list.
Thank you for this info. We’re in Olympic National Park now and figuring out restaurants for next weekend, this is very helpful for informing our decisions.
Thank you all for the information and recommendations! This is going to be super helpful as we put the finishing touches on our visits and reservations.
I’ll definitely report back with notes and our impressions.
As a side note, @Jorge_Henriquez mentioned Woodinville Whiskey, the one place in Seattle that is a must see that we’ll get to Thursday is Westlands Distillery. They are making a very nice American Single Malt Whiskey. From what I’ve tasted so far, I feel they give Stranahan’s a strong run for their money.
We did the guided tour of Westlands a while back with the adult kids and it was fun and we got some kind of coupon for purchasing after the tour. Good decision to go there.
Don’t dislike Rotie but for me hardly up their on my list. Kevin White makes a better Rhone wine/wines in my opinion for less money.
FYI - this is made at and by Rotie.
Rotie is my go to for QPR and just all around outstanding Rhône wines.
FYI, I just put up a note regarding a pretty significant shift in style for Rotie towards way more WW rocks character in the Washington wines thread (ironic because the grapes are from Oregon rather than Washington I know). Rotie has been reliably very good but I liked what I tasted in the 2020s even more.
I’ve tried Kevin White’s wines over several vintages and while they are balanced and without flaws, I find them uninteresting and disappointing. My drinking companions agreed every time we’ve tried them. I would never have become a fan of Rhone style wines if they were all like that.
That is fine as then the demand will be less and prices will not go up. Personally if I could afford to drink just Reynvaan I would not buy kevin white either.
I’d check out any wines by Todd Alexander. I feel like he’s one of the most talented winemakers in that region.