Sips on the Road: Bier Thirty, Part One

Karl and Ally at Stone

Celebrating the end of the day has long been accomplished with a nice cold beer, but for my very handsome boyfriend Karl’s 30^th birthday, he wanted to celebrate the end of a decade with beer, and so we did.  Twenty real life humans and one cardboard cutout gathered the morning of January 19^th and climbed our way in to our party bus to attempt a visit to five different San Diego breweries in seven hours.  Aside from that we were given only one other goal of not racking up a bill for Karl with the bus driver by keeping ourselves “together,” a goal I’m happy to report we accomplished.  In all the day was a complete success and the breweries were welcoming, the great part for me was I had only ever been to one in person having tried beers from only a few as well, so it was a day of firsts for me.

The breweries visited in order were Stone World Bistro and Gardens, Lost Abbey, Green Flash, Rough Draft and the original San Diego brewery, Mission Brewery.  Each is deserving of their own post so over the course of a few weeks I’ll post about each going in order of those visited.

Andrew Will Winemaker's Dinner - Purple Cafe & Wine Bar - Seattle

I have always wanted to try out a winemaker's dinner and what better than to try one of the various events that Purple Cafe & Wine Bar (@heavyrestaurant) hosts. Purple has had a few of these dinners recently and they always look amazing. At Purple Seattle, there is a beautiful back room behind the bar area with windows all around and a beautiful wood table that can sit the entire group in attendance. The dinner on this night was for Andrew Will Winery (@andrewwill), a winery located on Vashon Island. I had never had a chance to try Andrew Will wines before so I was even more excited about the dinner.

We (I attended along with @jenkmiller) arrived and were immediately handed a yummy glass of prosecco. We took our seats at one end of the big table and got to chatting with all the great people in attendance at the dinner. It was so great to learn about the winery and how it got started. Their grapes are grown in eastern WA, and while they don't currently have a tasting room on Vashon Island, there was talk that one may open up sometime in the future near their vineyards.


The meal started with Gorgonzola stuffed dates which were simply amazing. They were topped with pine nuts and the perfect start to the meal. We moved from there to a dungeness crab salad with avocado. This was paired with Andrew Will's 2008 Cuvee Lucia Pinot Gris. This was a light refreshing wine that was an excellent match for the crab and avocado combination. This was a great spring and summer wine that would likely pair well with any type of salad or BBQ fare.



Next we moved on to a seared Alaskan halibut fillet served with a tomato-fennel sauce. This paired nicely with Andrew Will's 2007 Cuvee Lucia Sangiovese, a red mountain wine. Growing up in Alaska, I have had a lot of halibut cooked in various different ways. The cut and preparation of the fish by Purple at this dinner was incredible. It was perfectly flaky to the fork and so amazing with the sauce. The sangiovese was by far one of my favorites of the evening. I need to go find a bottle of this to add to my collection and enjoy it with some of the halibut from my freezer! It was such an amazing pairing I look forward to trying again.


Our "intermezzo" of the evening came with a small bite of papaya sorbet along with a shot of potato vodka. This was to cleanse the pallet before moving on to our next course. It definitely did the trick and my mouth was free of all of the other wines we had already tasted. It was a great way to ready myself for our next amazing course.


Our next course was roasted mustard-herb crusted lamb tenderloin served with asparagus. This course was paired along with Andrew Will's 2007 Two Blonds Vineyard blend from the Yakima Valley. This wine was a blend of 40% Cabernet Sauvignon, 34% Cabernet Franc, 19% Merlot, and 7% Malbec. The combination of the tenderness of the lamb and the softness of the wine was such a treat.


Our dessert of a Delice cheese and chocolate paired with Andrew Will's 2007 Champoux blend from Horse Heaven Hills was the perfect finish to this amazing meal. This blend is 19% Cab Sauv, 52% Cab Franc, 21% Merlot, and 8% Petit Verdot. The large percentage of Cab Franc in this wine really stood out in an amazing way. I had never had the variety of cheese served with this and I must say I have a new favorite!


At the end of the meal I was full but not overly, as the portions served with the meal were absolutely perfect. It was interesting to learn about how the chef creates the food pairings to work with the wine, not the other way around. Both the food prepared by the chef at Purple and the Andrew Will wines tasted were so fantastic and I can now say I'm hooked to the concept of food and wine pairings. I will be in attendance at more winemaker's dinners in the future for sure.

Woodinville Wine Tasting - 3/13/10

I have tasted in Woodinville once before and we hit some great wineries. On this somewhat sunny afternoon, @seattlewinegal and I decided to hit a few tasting rooms together. Our first stop was Woodinville Wine Cellars, who was having their spring release party. I needed to stop in here to pick up my wine, as I'm a wine club member. As part of the spring release party, there were several cheeses to try along with the wine releases. There are few things I love more in this world than wine and cheese. Yum. The release I picked up here included two excellent wines: an '07 Cab Franc from Conner Lee and Chandler Reach vineyards, as well as an '07 Chandler Reach Syrah, which is Woodinville Wine Cellars first ever single vineyard Syrah. Both were excellent wines, and I look forward to opening my wine club shipment bottles in the future. We had a chance to chat a bit with the wine maker, Sean Boyd, who was very excited about both releases this spring. Another wine of theirs that I stock up on at each visit is their Sauv Blanc, it's just a great Columbia Valley white that goes great with any occasion. I have a great time at each visit to the tasting room here, I am so glad I joined this wine club last fall.





After leaving Woodinville Wine Cellars we headed over to the warehouse district. I have never tasted in the warehouse district before, and it's amazing just how many wineries are in this small area! It was great to see the signs all lined up side by side as we turned the corner into the area. Our first stop was Barrage Cellars, which is a favorite of @seattlewinegal. I was excited to meet winemaker Kevin Correll and his wife Rebecca. It was hilarious to see Rebecca trying some pilates right as we walked through the door. Both were so inviting and full of such enthusiasm. The tasting room filled immediately after we arrived, I couldn't believe the crowd! I had been able to try their Trifecta Merlot at a recent event and was very excited to try additional varietals. Look for a full blog post on their '07 Outcast Cab Franc coming soon. They were kind enough to send a bottle with me to review!







We headed out of Barrage (it was hard to leave, they are just so fun!) and wandered over to Smasne (not a far walk, one of the great things about the warehouse district!). I was able to try several Smasne wines, which were all fantastic. I left with bottles of the '06 Malbec, '06 Konner Ray Red, and the '07 Rosella Rose. Had a chance to chat with Bart Fawbush of Bartholomew Winery, who was pouring in the tasting room. His new tasting room in Seattle is set to open in May 2010, can't wait to visit!








Our afternoon went faster than we hoped and most tasting rooms close at 5pm so we headed out of the warehouse district and over to Russell's to get some food and wine. As always, Rob Williamson (GM at Russell's) took such AMAZING care of us. This is now one of my favorite restaurants in the area, and worth the drive to Bothell to check it out. Seriously. Amazing. Everything that came out of the kitchen was fantastic and the company was just as wonderful. Met up with Max and Jen Jensen of Sojen Cellars, who are such great people! They brought a few bottles of their wine (some of which I had tried previously), and I was able to learn more about their winery, name (stemmed from a nickname of Jen), and location (they are in Everett). Looking forward to visiting their tasting room sometime in the near future.
It was a nice Saturday afternoon and evening in Woodinville, looking forward to many more to come!

Woodinville Wine Cellars

Barrage Cellars
@barragecellars

Smasne Cellars

Sojen Cellars
@sojencellars
@sojengirl

Russell's
@russellsdining

Sip Wine Bar - Seattle, WA

I have now visited Sip Wine Bar (@sipwinebar) in downtown Seattle four times, and every time has been very enjoyable. My favorite night to visit is Thursday, where it's "ladies night" all evening long and all wine flights are 1/2 off. I must say, their wine flights are one of my favorite things about Sip. The come in the most adorable little wine tree looking things with a great little description of each wine in the order they are placed on the tree. A go-to flight for me has been the "Call me a Cab" flight because it contains some very tasty WA Cab Sauvs. On my most recent visit, I branched out (how fitting a reference to the "wine trees") and tried the "Bubbly" flight as well as the "Word of Whites" flight. I was impressed with the wine choices for each of these flights. I'm a huge fan of using the words "yummy" and "tasty" when describing wines and both flights were indeed that.

And the food.. since I always go for happy hour time, I have always ordered from the appetizer menu. I am a HUGE fan of the sliders at Sip. The sauce on them and Hawaiian sweet roles used for the bread is such an excellent combination. I highly recommend these! The crab cakes are also quite good. I need to try new things the next time I'm in, I always seem to get the same thing every time I visit!

Overall, Sip Wine Bar is a great place to check out for happy hour, and (I'm assuming, can't really judge since I haven't tried yet) dinner. Looking forward to warmer weather when I can try out their patio. Great views of the downtown area and the beautiful Seattle Public Library from there.

Sip Wine Bar
909 5th Avenue
Seattle, WA 98104
http://www.siprestaurant.com
http://www.twitter.com/sipwinebar