You’re the one who brought up hiking trails with “more people than the trails can support” that are “spread with trash and human waste” and “gridlock…out to North Bend and beyond in every direction.”
If you’re touchy when someone proffers their own facts on an issue you brought up in a public wine forum with no provocation to speak of, you probably shouldn’t start throwing out your own in the first place.
I’ll throw another nice little, still unheralded, spot out there: Nell’s Restaurant in the Greenlake neighborhood of N Seattle. Good food, quiet, and a nice wine list. I recommend it.
Also, University Wines just outside the U District near Laurelhurst is a great spot to go for Burgundy and Champagne. The owner does an annual trek to France and buys wines direct from some wineries I’ve never heard of outside of that shop. He’s great to talk with and has a deep knowledge of both regions. They have other wines to buy, but specialize in the aforementioned two. IIRC, he’s been doing the annual buying trip for decades.
Nell’s is great. Besides the wonderful food and wine, it is quiet so you can actually have a conversation.
I am particularly fond of two wine merchants in Seattle proper. As mentioned before Michael Teer at Pike and Western and add Dan McCarthy of McCarthy & Schiering at the Queen Anne location. They have been the wine go to for decades. and they taste everything that comes into their shops.
To any and all Berserkers, I’d like to apologize for my negative and unconstructive posts in this thread (I’ve already had a good PM exchange with the OP). I have gained a tremendous amount of useful information on this sight, and I am grateful for that. Yes, I am an old crank and unwelcoming about change. Yes, change and growth are inevitable, but that doesn’t necessarily equate to progress or improvement per se. It has been argued that without change and growth, a region will die. It could also be argued that if change and growth destroys the character and attractive uniqueness of a region, it is simply a different kind of “death.” So, please accept that I am in a state of mourning “Paradise Lost” and that advising that I “get over it” is not a good antidote for loss of something I love (And does that advice ever work for anything you feel strongly about socially, politically, or otherwise?). However, it was inappropriate of me to discourage the OP not to move to Seattle. The point I had originally intended to make was that the area is under significant population pressures. That’s not new news. For those who are interested, here are a few personal examples that will solidify my crank credentials.
I live two miles away from a beautiful track of forested DNR land. It is accessible off a residential street and some of us locals made a bunch of horse riding trails. My wife and I would ride out there about once a week and we would see one or two other people. About five years ago, someone posted on social media about a “hidden gem” of hiking trails. Since then, every weekend brings at least two hundred cars each day to the neighborhood. Since C-19, it has become every day. I personally know two people who each came there from 40 miles away. There is no parking lot, so people have to park wherever they can up and down the street for up to a half mile away. They have blocked driveways and impacted stop signs and fire hydrants. The county sheriff comes out about once a week to ticket cars, sometimes even tow them. While the county has put up some no parking signs, it has not changed much. The neighbors who live near there have had to contend with hikers trespassing through their property. They have had to put “No Trespassing” “No Parking” “No Trail Access” “No Turn Around” signs along the street side of their properties and “No Trespassing” signs where their backyards face the DNR (How’s that for “You kids stay off my lawn”). This has become the bane of the community as that road is the in/out access point. The speed limit is 35 mph, but people carelessly wander down the middle of the street with small children and loose dogs. Garbage is scattered along the road. I feel sorry for anyone living right there who might want to sell their property as the negative impact is obvious. Along the trail itself, there is also garbage, dog crap, and yes, human crap (dogs don’t use toilet paper). No one rides horses there anymore. For both safety and enjoyment reasons, it wouldn’t work for anybody. I don’t think that these are bad people, but they certainly don’t seem to be considering their impact on the locals who live there. You can call this a free-access issue vs. a NIMBY issue. But either way, it is a population pressure issue that negatively impacts me and my neighbors every day, and I have a hard time seeing this growth as progress.
My brother lives in Woodinville, not far from the Wine Mall, and his backyard adjoins the Tolt Watershed Pipeline trail. He and his wife loved to eat out on their patio and enjoy the view. The trail got light traffic, mostly by neighbors or regulars that they knew by sight. Over the last few years, trail traffic has exploded. On numerous occasions they have found people wandering about their property, looking at their house, garden, and chicken coop. They found one person trying to open the coop so they could get a picture with a chicken. The people always seem so surprised (!) that they are trespassing and need to leave. How about you adults get off my lawn? My brother has stopped eating out on his patio as he doesn’t enjoying being part of the walkers’ sightseeing tour. He could invest in a privacy fence (that he never needed), thus changing his country home into a suburban home. It is a population pressure issue that has changed the quality of his life.
Lastly, I stopped hiking years ago as I found it increasingly difficult to get away from other people (yes, claustrophobia and OCD issues). However, in February, my brother went to hike the very beautiful 18 mile Aasgard Pass to Snow Lake trail. At 6am, he found the parking lot filled to capacity with hundreds of cars. He had to park down the road. Even though the outhouse was clearly overflowing, there was a line of 25 people waiting to use it. The parking lot was scattered with garbage and feces. On the trail itself, he estimates that he saw 1000 people over 18 miles and that he was often stuck hiking in a line of multiple people. He never was able to reach a place where he was alone. That sounds like a population problem to me. There actually are posts related to this online.
So there is my tale of woe and sour grapes. Thanks if you read this far. Sorry if I wasted your time or otherwise rubbed you wrong.
Thanks for posting, Chris. I agree that the greater Seattle area has change a whole lot in the last ten years. No doubt about it. I’ve only been here since 1997. There are times, without a doubt, that my wife and I ask ourselves why we live here what with the crowds, cost, and all. So, in some ways, I share your woes. That said, most major metropolitan areas have experienced the exact same thing. Fewer and fewer people are living in the rural parts of our country.
I think the reaction I/we had was more to your blatant un-answering of the OP. I immediately brought my the oft-used parental directive: if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say it at all.
SO…thanks or the post, and cheers to you.
You should move to Kitsap, Chris.
Thanks for the post Chris… you don’t really owe anyone an apology or explanation… i mean it’s a wine board, have you SEEN some of the other posts? 
But appreciate the context… and definitely understand/agree that the population growth has been detrimental to the area.
I still believe a lot of it has to do with a lack of foresight / planning / proper investment by the city/county governments. I also believe it’s no worse than any other beautiful city with lots of well paying job opportunities… population growth outpaces infrastructure growth.
None the less, cheers!
That’s not an apology, it’s a re-justification of your original rant. An apology would have stopped after your first paragraph.
Sorry if I wasted your time or otherwise rubbed you wrong.
Bar Ferdinand is forever closed, it’s a new joint opening soon
James,
Interesting suggestion. My sister lives in Poulsbo which has seen huge growth too, so I’m not sure if you mean this or you are jesting. Either way, we’ve considered moving, but Montana, Idaho, and other places really all have the same issue and we would just add to their problem. It is where we are at on the planet.
Now I think you are just a troll, Chris. Poulsbo has a population of barely over 10,000. If you really want to live somewhere with no people, forget Montana, Idaho or anywhere else people actually want to live. Move to one of the small, dying towns in Indiana, Iowa or Ohio. Or there’s always Alaska. Plenty of space there where you can be all by your lonesome.
Wine shops:
Restaurants and Bars (based on wine alone, for… someday):
Wine Tasting rooms:
Political hot takes and back-in-my-days:
Sorry I gave you that impression. I have not been to Poulsbo in a long time and was going off what my sister said, who has lived there for almost 30 years.
As others have mentioned, McCarthy and Schiering in Ravenna is a great spot. I’d also throw out Seattle Wine Co in Bellevue. The owner is a grinder and has had some fantastic deals over the years. Esquin is a fun place to look around.
Unfortunately my tastes have steadily moved away from most Washington wines over the last couple of years, but if you like the Rhone varietals I have enjoyed Kevin White, Rotie Cellars, K Vintners, and Latta.
Agreed. I love driving to the wineries in Walla Walla or the Willamette Valley for a picturesque bucolic experience. But you can’t beat the 30 minute drive to Woodinville from Seattle.
My favorite shops in Seattle are McCarthy and Schering and Pike and Western. Join the wine clubs at both so you get 15% off. Prices then are reasonable competitive. The service and selection at both is top notch.
My favorite tasting rooms around Seattle are Kevin White, Lobo Hills and Januik.
I thought I remember hearing that. That is too bad. I never went there as much as I would have liked.