Hang on Tight, SpiderMonkeys! Thirsty Thursday On the Road

Hello there, my parched pretties!
As you may know, Thursdays are Thirsty here at Cheaper Than Therapy, and last week we took a trip! TH and I (in more lucrative times) used to be wine club members at Chateau Ste Michelle Vineyards in Woodinville, WA. Their riesling is my favorite cheap white (generally $5-6 at Safeway or Fred Meyer), and my grandparents were members, and they talked us into it (while plying us with delicious wine) when we were engaged.
Being a member can be expensive, though, and when TH lost his job and was unable to find another, our little luxuries had to go, and wine club membership was among the first. Since we had already paid for our next installment at the time I cancelled, we sent my grandfolks (who live nearer the winery than we do) to pick up the last of our wine, and then we got it from them a few months later.

...Or so I thought.

Two weeks ago, I got a postcard from Chateau Ste Michelle letting me know that they had our last installment of wine from our membership, and would we like to have it shipped or come pick it up? Since TH and I were to be off simultaneously last week, I immediately decided: Road Trip!

Seattle is about three hours up I-5, and Woodinville is just North and slightly East, so hardly any farther. We decided to make a day of it (since that's too much of a drive to just grab my two bottles and go home), and we found some lovely new (for us, anyway) wineries in the process!

First stop, of course, the Chateau.

This is in the super-exclusive members-only tasting room, where we got our drink on at 11am.

We picked up our wine and the nice lady asked if we'd like to try the new wines. Was she kidding? I always want to try the new wines. The standout here was their Cold Creek Syrah, which reminded me of boysenberry pie. YUM.

We ducked into the gift shop, and chatted up an employee (it wasn't Spring Break in the great state of Washington, so the place was empty), who let us try the 2008 Eroica Riesling, which was EXCELLENT, ladies. It was so good. It was like a citrus-y pear explosion of smoothness. It was dee-LISH.

Heaven in a bottle

Oh, it was so good. We thought about buying some, and decided to come back later. How naive we were - we never went back, and now I wish I had a bottle. It's sold out online right now, so hopefully we'll either get back up there soon or they will find more to sell online somehow.

We went to 5 or 6 total wineries, but for lunch, we stopped at the Red Hook Brewery pub, and TH had a beer flight.
I'm not sure whether or not any of you enjoy beer, but I thought I would include it, just in case. From left to right in the picture above, we have LongHammer IPA, Slim Chance Light Ale, ESB original, Mudslinger Brown Ale, and Limited Release 8-4-1 Expedition Ale.

TH's thoughts:
LongHammer IPA - good, not as heavy as most IPA's, might be good with salmon
Slim Chance - good, subtle, light; not as much flavor compared to the IPA
ESB Original - good, less sweet than IPA
Mudslinger - good, but too bitter, not as good as Newcastle
8-4-1 Expedition - good, like a chimay [note: I don't know what this means], weird, sweet and bitter at the same time; on second thought, he doesn't like it.

So, there you have it. :)

Of the wineries we visited, I'm choosing to delve into only two today - the ones we liked best: Alexandria Nicole and Mark Ryan. We also visited J Bookwalther, Januik, and Novelty Hill - the latter two share space for their tasting room. Good wines were had in each place, some bad (or, rather, ones we didn't like as well), and overall, Alexandria Nicole and Mark Ryan were winners.

Alexandria Nicole
My favorite here was the 2008 Crawford Viognier, and TH's favorite was the 2007 Tempranillo.
The Viognier is a white (in case you're unfamiliar), and I have found it to vary greatly between wineries. Some, I really don't like. This one, though, was fantastic. I wrote down that it had a clean tang, which to me describes the way it was both refreshing and gave a bite, kind of like a green apple. I tasted pear and apricot flavors, and just thought it would be a lovely wine for summer. I could drink a great deal of it, that's for sure. ;) We bought some.

The Tempranillo was a super special red wine that they usually only let members drink. Luckily, while we were in the tasting room, so was this lovely older couple (who were members), and we were all having such a fun time together that they talked the tasting manager into letting us try some. Good GOD, it was delicious. Very fruity and clean, not as bitter as many reds, and with kind of a peppery spice to it at the end - mmm... my mouth is watering just remembering.

We also tried some of their red table wine, sauvignon blanc, and a roussane/marsanne/viognier blend that reminded me of caramel apples. Those three were good, too, but the stand-outs were definitely the above two.

Mark Ryan
First of all, this place had motorcycles, which made me think of New Moon.

This one says "Indian" on the side :)
I know literally nothing about motorcycles, so if that's a brand or style, or just something someone painted on it, I've got no idea. I just like it.

I was getting tipsy by this point in the day, so I am relying completely on my notes, which tell me we loved the Water Witch red - a cabernet and merlot blend. Also a stand-out: the Fancy Pants dessert wine. I kid you not, that is the name. It was delicious.


The Water Witch came home with us, and is a spicy, peppery, fruity wine. I look forward to having it with some steak or something.

The Fancy Pants stayed up North, but was a semillon and burst into your mouth like that gum you used to get that had the liquid inside - you could get Cherry 7-up flavor? (That was my favorite one, anyway.) It was sudden and sweet (this is the wine now, not the gum), and tasted like peaches with brown sugar. I don't think I could drink a lot of it at once, but a little with a dish of vanilla ice cream after dinner would be freakin' heavenly.


While driving around, we found this:
TH would like some credit here for pulling up to it (the tasting room was closed, so we couldn't go inside) and saying, "Look! It almost says Cullen!" So if everyone would please clap at TH, I would appreciate it. :p

That was our trip! We went to dinner, I bought some clothes in Bellevue (at my most favorite mall, Bellevue Square - Alice would totally shop there), and we drove home. On the drive, I came down with a horrific cold, which I am only just over. A sucky ending to an otherwise great day with my honey and some delicious wines!

This is what we went up for:
And this is what we came back with:
Success!!

Wine is sunlight, held together by water. ~Galileo