After a fantastic breakfast at the Village Café in downtown Redmond, we adventured through an outdoor mall until the crack of 11 am….when the tasting rooms were starting to open in Woodinville.  Then we hit the wineries with a vengeance!  Our focus was to target tasting rooms that we had never visited previously.  This is becoming quite challenging for us these days since – just like Johnny Cash – we’ve been everywhere!  Our experience with Pinot Noir is limited, however, two out of the first three tasting rooms focused on essentially nothing but Pinot Noir wines.  1^st stop was Torii Mor Winery.  Nichole Cruz was our host for this tasting and she provided us with lots of information about Pinot’s and the Oregon terroir.  While these wines didn’t particularly resonate with our palates, the 2016 Olson Estate Vineyard Pinot Noir was pretty approachable for me and we also really liked the 2013 Syrah-based Port.  We very much enjoyed our time with Nichole and ended up buying a stemmed and logo’d wineglass to add to our collection!

Next stop was Guardian Cellars.  As we walked in from the rain, Tori Quayle greeted us and made us feel right at home.  The tasting room was really comfortable, nicely furnished and very spacious with an urban/modern feel.  Tori told us the story of how husband met wife (Chemist turned Cop and Seattle Times reporter), and described the two labels (Guardian and Newsprint) as well as the style of wines we were about to taste.  This winery has a nice selection of both varietal wines and blends using both Rhône and Bordeaux varietals.  We had a great time tasting the wines and were happy to purchase yet another stemmed and logo’d wineglass for our collection!  Thank you Tori for the tasting!

Another Oregon Pinot Noir tasting room was the next stop – Panther Creek Cellars.  Our host was Madelaine Morford, the assistant general manager and tasting room manager.  This time, these Pinot’s were slightly fuller bodied and were more the “Pinot for Cab Lovers” type of wines.  Both my wife and I really enjoyed all three of the Pinot Noir’s we tasted – one from the Yamhill-Carlton AVA and two from Eola-Amity Hills AVA in Oregon.  As a bonus taste, Madelaine offered us a Pinot crafted from both 2013 and 2016 vintages from DePonte Vineyard.  As we left Panther Creek, we were able to purchase another stemmed and logo’d wineglass for our ever-growing collection.  Thanks Madelaine for showing us the ropes with Pinot Noir.

After leaving the Hollywood District, we headed for the Warehouse District where we ended up at Ambassador Wines of Washington.  Back in the day, we were fortunate enough to be able to taste Ambassador Wines in Benton City on Red Mountain, but once they opened up their Woodinville tasting room, the tastings on Red Mountain were discontinued, much to my dismay.  However, on this day, they were open and we were seated and about to taste!  Sue was our host for the tasting and she took us through 5 wines that included a 2017 Sauvignon Blanc, a 2016 Grenache, a 2016 Syrah, a 2015 Envoy (red blend) and a 2016 Diplomat (Cabernet Sauvignon dominant red blend).  As the rain began to pour with torrential intensity we waited out the surge and discovered yet another stemmed and logo’d wineglass that we walked away with.

Our final stop of the day was Pondera Winery.  As we entered the tasting room we were met by Dan Howard, one of the creators of winemaker Shane Howard (his dad).  Dan was fun, knowledgeable and engaging as he told us the story of the winery and described the amazing wines his son was crafting.  Of particular note were two wines that we really enjoyed during our tasting, and they included a 2015 Malbec from Stillwater Creek Vineyards and a 2014 Cabernet Sauvignon from Stillwater Creek and The Benches Vineyards.  I had to have a bottle of the Cab, which we purchased, but of equal importance was yet another stemmed and logo’d wineglass that we were able to buy and add to our collection!  This glass was very large and contoured to enhance the aromatics of the wine.  As a demonstration, Dan allowed us to re-taste the same wine in the large logo’d glass and a smaller regular tasting glass.  The difference was truly significant!  Not only were the aromas enhanced, but the flavor profile was more pronounced and intense with the large glass.  Thank you Dan!  Cheers!