© Courtesy of Avennia
PASSPORT TO WOODINVILLE WINE COUNTRY Your guaranteed ticket to events like the Celebrate Woodinville Concert series, Taste & Tunes Warehouse Party Summer Kick-Off, Hollywood Block Party, St. Nick’s Open House, VIP tasting tours, and more. Purchase a 2016 Passport to Woodinville Wine Country when they go on sale in December. It’s the perfect gift for local wine connoisseurs up for the challenge of visiting more than 60 wineries in 2016. Because most tastings range in price from $10-15, an official Passport will save you more than $800 throughout the year. Make it to all 60 wineries? Attend a celebration party in January 2017 for everyone who completed their passport books.
NEW-WORLD MEETS OLD-WORLD It was a match made in the heart of Washington winemaking country when Marty Taucher, a retired Microsoft executive turned wine industry student, accepted an internship with Chris Peterson, then the co-winemaker at DeLille Cellars. Marty, who was enrolled at South Seattle Community College, assisted Chris with the 2009 harvest, working as a crush intern and tank washer. After the harvest, they discovered they shared an ambition of building their own label. After several months of planning, they produced and released their first vintage in 2010. Since then, Avennia—named for a city in France’s Rhône Valley and the region’s old-world style of winemaking—has earned praise from critics and consumers alike and launched Avennia on a meteoric rise to the top of Washington wine labels. Marty attributes much of Avennia’s success to Chris’s clarity of vision as a winemaker. “We worked hard to identify our mission, what would differentiate our brand,” Marty said. “Chris wrote a powerful, compelling message about what wines we would produce and how he was going to make them. That’s what we built Avennia around and we executed on our strategy flawlessly.” Their laser-focus precision, strong sense of identity and purpose, and award-winning wines have led to sold-out vintages and a devoted mailing list. In July, to coincide with Bastille Day, the duo launched a new label Les Trouvés, to celebrate the spirit of Provence in Washington. This is one mailing list that you won’t want to unsubscribe from.
woodinvillewinecountry.com
QUINCY TO WOODINVILLE
Woodinville tasting rooms include winemakers from the broader Pacific Northwest region. Zerba Cellars, for example, is one of three Oregon wineries with tasting rooms in Woodinville.
In 2000, the Washington wine industry received a boost when a state law allowed for wineries to create satellite tasting rooms, which meant wineries could open additional locations and serve food. The Cave B tasting room in Woodinville brings wines from one of our favorite Washington wine escapes, the Cave B Estate Winery & Resort in Quincy, Washington, closer to home. Its stunning accommodations 900 feet above the Columbia River are matched only by the quality of its 30 vineyards, where 18 varieties and 120 acres worth of grapes are grown, as well as its wines, which number 26 varietals and blends and include several Double Gold Seattle Wine Award recipients and the Wine Spectator 91-point 2011 Tempranillo.
zerbacellars.com
caveb.com
avennia.com, lesvinstrouves.com
OREGON WINEMAKERS
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