The winery itself is located northeast of Seattle situated on large, rambling grounds. There's a long drive that leads past some vine rows up to the main house. Those cool double doors are the main lobby doors, with the tasting room and tour areas inside. There's also a special club room for frequent visitors. Out on the lawn, they have spaces for concerts. They also have a few outbuildings which can be rented out for various special events.
My brother Dan and I took the main winery tour, checking out their bottling procedure. I'm told they work 20 hours a day, bottling tens of thousands of cases per week. All their grapes are grown in eastern Washington, and only the white wines are bottled at this particular place - their reds are bottled in their Canoe Ridge facility in Walla Walla, WA. After the tour, my brother Dan and I then sat for a private, 45-minute wine and food pairing in their opulent wine library:
That's Susan, our knowledgeable wine guide for the day. Susan did a great job setting this up for us and had the answer to every question we had. The wine library had some vintage bottles going back 20 years. There's a big dining room table in the middle, where they already had special tasting setups provided for us.
Today we're going to be sampling 5 different wines, paired with 5 different snacks. Each pairing has been expertly matched for optimum flavors. There also was water crackers and water to cleanse our palettes. All in all a nice set up! Here's the tasting menu for today:
1. 2010 "Luxe" Columbia Valley - Chardonnay
2. 2014 Indian Wells - Chardonnay
3. 2012 "Austral" blend - Syrah, Grenache, Mourvedre
4. 2010 Cold Creek - Cabernet Sauvignon
5. 2013 "Ethos" Horse Heaven Late Harvest - Reisling
They were arranged so nicely! I'll talk a little more about each one, but first I need to explain how Susan, our guide for the afternoon, wanted us to taste:
The idea was for us to try each wine, in clockwise succession, and to enjoy each of them before moving on to the next one. They are laid out in a specific and intentional manner. And then, after each had been tried, we were supposed to drink the remainder in each glass, following the same succession as before, but trying each food item in succession. So by the end, you'll have tried each wine by itself AND each food item with each wine.
The food items were all wonderful - some cheese, including the truly sublime Rogue's Smoky Blue; some truffle salt popcorn, and a piece of Lindt pineapple dark chocolate. The pairings are all made from scratch by CSM experts, to best complement the wines they have.
We started with the "Luxe," which is a Chardonnay made in the methode champenoise, a French technique that requires sparkling wine to be fermented a second time in the bottle. This particular label is only available here at the winery, and not sold outside of the grounds. I enjoyed it - it was crisp, smooth, cool with apple and grape sugars. Nice effervescent pop. I'm not a huge fan of whites, but CSM has me warming up to them for sure!
Next up was 2014 Indian Wells chardonnay, a nice and smooth white with warm notes and peach flavors. Not a lot of sugar, but still had a tropical flavor.
Third was the "Austral," a local winery-only blend of Syrah, Grenache and Mourvedre. As you may recall, these grapes are some of my favorites, so I was particularly interested in that. It wasn't my favorite, but I respect the earthiness and spiciness of the wine.
The next wine is probably my favorite of all of them. It's a 2010 Cabernet Sauvignon, made in CSM's Cold Creek vineyard (which isn't cold, or near a creek, but an arid climate.) This climate produces some of the most aggressive wines they have. This wine shows its age - which is a great thing. The wine was mellow, approachable, and super lush with heavy mouthfeel and black fruit. I appreciated the age of it and the refined feeling. It pairs amazingly with the Rogue smoky blue cheese and the pineapple chocolate. Amazing stuff!
I was blown away by the last wine. It's their Late Harvest Riesling, with a really strong honey aroma in the glass. I mean, strong. But the awesome thing is, the flavor was much more muted and refined than the aroma would suggest. It was hazy, cool, deep and delicious with honey and apricot flavors all the way through. If it wasn't $40 a bottle, I would have grabbed a few.
We wrapped up and Susan took us to another tasting area, where she kindly brought us glasses of any wines we wanted. Dan and I tried their dry Gewurztraminer, their Syrah, their Cabernet, and a glass of their (fine!) port.
In all, what a great time we had. I really can't thank Chateau Ste Michelle, and Susan, enough for putting on such a great tasting for just the two of us. I also loved the selections in the gift shop, and bought three bottles of special, winery-only wine to have later. One of them, a 2011 "Impressive" blend, will be my Christmas day bottle of wine. More to come on that later - they have to be shipped especially to my DC apartment so I won't be able to try them until I get back in September. If you're ever in Woodinville or Seattle area, make it a point to go to Chateau Ste Michelle - it's not to be missed.
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