Tuesday & Friday Tastings

Every Tuesday ~ Noon - 6p

Try It, Before You Buy It

Tasting fee: Waived

This is a great opportunity for you to stop in anytime throughout the day to try a wine that we think makes the perfect “Tuesday Wine” -- a wine that you can open without guilt and enjoy Tuesday night or any other night of the week without breaking your budget. 

We keep these wines under $20 and many times under $10. 

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Every Friday ~ 5:00pm - 7:00pm

Wine & Beer Tasting

Tasting fee: $2.00 ~ Waived with any in-store purchase and

for all Wine Club Members.

 

Start your weekend with a Wine & Beer tasting every Friday evening from

5:00 - 7:00pm. 

Tastings feature at least 3 wines and 3 beers.  

Stop in on your way home or to start your evening on your way out. 

Either way, you’ll enjoy some nice wines and cold beer!

You always save 10% off our featured wines & beers at all of our tastings (mix or match)!!

Saturday & Special Tastings

Tasting fee: $2.00 Waived with purchase of any featured selection and for all Wine Club Members.*

Save 10% off all featured wines (mix or match)!!

* Unless otherwise noted.

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Private Wine Tasting For Wine Club Members Only

June 5th, 4:30p - 6:30p

This tasting is exclusively for our Monthly Wine Club Members.  This is their opportunity to sample all of The Wine Club selections, mingle with fellow members, enjoy samples of our cheeses, crackers, Italian salami and chocolates and pick-up their Wine Club selections.

Not yet a member of The Wine Alley Wine Club.  Click here to learn more about The Club and all of its benefits.

This Month’s Selections

TBD

Saturday, June 8th, Noon - 4:30p

Davenport Cellars (Woodinville, WA)

meet owner/winemaker

Sheila Jirka

While planning for retirement we discussed the possibility of owning a vineyard or winery. It is important to acknowledge the word "or" in the previous sentence. Its relevance will become clear later in our story. Although we enjoyed wine and knew about it from the consumer's perspective, we didn't really know what owning a vineyard or winery really meant. In 2002, we started doing our homework.

We found a wealth of knowledge on the Internet and read every book we could find on viticulture (growing grapes) and winemaking. Still eager to learn more, we came across South Seattle Community College which offered a number of classes we could attend to fill in the gaps in our book knowledge. The first classes we took were in the fall of 2004. Like a fish grabbing a lure, we were hooked.

In the fall of 2005, South Seattle Community College established a bonded winery on the campus and we were in the first production class at the school. We attended nine courses between September 2005 and June 2006. We learned about winemaking, and the chemistry and microbiology involved in the process.

In July of 2006 we established Davenport Cellars LLC and began acquiring the equipment we would need to start a commercial operation.

Continuing our quest for knowledge, in 2007 I enrolled in the U.C. Davis Winemaking for Distance Learners program and Sheila enrolled in the W.S.U. Online Viticulture program. We had decided to divide and conquer; I would focus on winemaking and she would focus on the vineyard. We both successfully completed the programs in 2008 and 2009 respectively.

Our 2007 vintage was made through a custom crush agreement with a local winery. Fruit was sourced from some of the best vineyards in the State and was made using our tenets of winemaking - source the highest quality grapes available, use a minimalist approach, pay attention to the details, handle the fruit and wine as gently as possible, and maintain traditional practices.

Although we found our own place in September of 2008, we would not be bonded and licensed before the 2008 crush so we again contracted for a custom crush for this vintage.

After completing our Federal bonding process in February we finalized Washington State licensing in March. The year has been non-stop ever since. To be ready for the 2009 crush we focused on getting our fruit sources lined up and our barrels ordered. Once that was done we began setting up the tasting room, allowing us to open our doors in July. We then put all of our energy into getting the winery production ready. With the year winding down we are catching up on all those little things we postponed since April, like getting the web site up and running.

Plans for the future? Remember the first paragraph when I said the relevance of the word "or" would become clear? In June of 2007 we purchased five acres of vineyard property on Red Mountain. So far the land is still bare except for the native grasses and brush. We hope to begin planting in 2011.

As far as retirement, it looks like it will be a while, quite a while!

Cheers!

Jeff and Sheila Jirka

Saturday, July 27th, Noon - 4:30p

Cedar River Cellars (Renton, WA)

w/ Micah Nasarow

Cedar River Cellars is a small, but growing, award winning winery. Started on the foundation of over 20 years experience with fermentation and food processing by the winemaker. Cedar River's mission is to produce high quality, hand crafted, sensorially pleasing wines from Washington State.

 

We strive to only use products and vendors from the Pacific Northwest, thus keeping our local economy strong.

Our Mission

Cedar River Cellars mission is to produce high quality, hand-crafted, sensorially pleasing wines from Washington State vinifera.  Using quality winemaking techniques and good manufacturing practices, our wines will mature and naturally settle, thus reducing the need of excessive clarifying additives or filtering.

Saturday, May 25th, Noon - 3:00p

Wines for Memorial Day

Kick off summer with a great selection of wines perfect for your Memorial Day Weekend celebrations.

Saturday, June 1st, Noon - 4:30p

NHV Wines (WA)

meet owner Phil Cline

At Naches Heights Vineyard, we produce our grapes with love. Wherever possible, the grapes at Naches Heights Vineyards are grown using organic or biodynamic practices and follow the guidelines of programs like Salmon Safe. Naches Heights is our home. Nourish your happiness in the natural beauty of Naches Heights Vineyards knowing that we'll do our part so we can all enjoy it for years to come.

We are preserving our vineyards for the next generation because we want to leave the world a better place than it was when we got here. We hope you'll help us reach that goal. We love it here and want to invite you to share it with us.

Saturday, June 15th, Noon - 4:30p

Cloudlift Cellars

w/owner-winemaker Tom Stangeland

Why make wine? It’s risky. It’s sticky. It’s a lot of hard work. But it tastes so good. And when it’s finally in the bottle, when it’s finally poured into your glass and that first sip tells you, “Yes, this is good…”

Tom Stangeland didn’t set out to start a winery.

Tom’s introduction to good wine began in Avignon, where he learned how to taste–really taste–wine. Oh, to be young and in France and open a bottle and discover a world inside. His education began with Chateau Neuf-du Papes. “I had to pay $7 a bottle, which seemed really expensive.”

After he lucked into an old-wine tasting in 2001, Tom decided to start collecting Washington wines–to lay them down and taste them at different stages in their aging. But to understand how wines age, he needed to know how wine is made.

Tom’s been making things since he was a kid, when he made and flew model airplanes. During college, he turned his skills to cuisine while working as a dinner chef in a popular Seattle restaurant. From there, he applied his craftsman skills to developing a line of fine furniture. Then, there was that night in 2001…

When he graduated from the Northwest Wine Academy, he quickly realized that to fully explore his new craft, he needed to make more wine. And he already had a shop space. So Tom started Cloudlift Cellars.

Cloudlift wines are made to go with food. After all, Tom used to work as a chef–and he builds dining room tables and chairs designed to stay comfortable for long, leisurely dinners. And with that meal you’ve spent so much time making, you want a wine that’s going to complement all your efforts.

Why do Cloudlift Cellars wines enhance the flavors from your plate on your palate? Their structures feature enough acid so that they complement a meal instead of overshadowing it. And they tend to be lower in alcohol, so that your night can last a lot longer.

Tom’s committed to doing everything well–so when he’s making wine, he wants to make the best wine possible. That’s why he likes to create blends–to take the characteristics and subtleties of different varietals and produce a sum that’s more than its parts. And that’s why Cloudlift Cellars wines have names like Updraft and Ascent.

Now, when it’s harvest time, the whole family stops by to help with crushing and pressing. Everyone’s invited to gather amid the table saws and the drill press and the barrels of last year’s wine aging, heft the new fruit, and then enjoy a delicious lunch. And a glass of wine, because Cloudlift Cellars wines are made to go with a good meal.

Saturday, June 29th, Noon - 4:30p

Wines for Independence Day

Kick off summer with a great selection of wines perfect for your Independence Day Weekend celebrations.

Saturday, December 14th, Noon - 4:30p

Auclair Winery (Woodinville, WA)

w/ Charlie Auclair

Charlie Auclair was first touched by the wine bug when he took a trip to Napa in 1988. He moved to Washington State in 1992 and settled down in western Washington a few hours from one of the best grape growing and wine making regions of the world.

He spent years traveling and tasting with stops in the Barossa and Yarra Valleys in Australia, Paarl, Franschhoek, Stellenbasch and Constantia in South Africa, France, Spain and of course closer to home: Oregon’s Willamette valley and Washington’s many local stars.

The first wine was a 2000 Merlot that was shared with a few friends who all praised the effort. After a few years and a few more trials, the Auclair winery was born in 2008.

Friday, May 24th, 4p - 7:00p

Wines & Beer for Maggie

In honor of Maggie's life we are doing a Dog Themed Wine & Beer Tasting Friday, the 24th. We would love to celebrate her life with all of you.