Welcome to Wonderful Woodinville

This is the first of two posts that will review and document our weekend in Woodinville... so grab a glass of wine and join me!

The idea of a "staycation" to celebrate our 3rd anniversary was one Andrew and I totally dug.  We've been wanting to do more local exploration in the Pacific Northwest and Woodinville's Wine Country has been on our short list.  (We've both visited a number of times but never for long enough to really enjoy it.)  So when we finally had a free weekend to celebrate our anniversary (from July), I jumped at the chance to spend the whole weekend amidst food and wine mecca.

We selected Willows Lodge as our home base.  Years ago, when we were first looking for places to live together, we drove through the lodge parking lot and I asked "can we live HERE?" not knowing it was a hotel!  So I've wanted to stay at the lodge for years.

After leaving the house two hours after our planned departure (my fault: work), a drive through rainy rush-hour traffic, just to get to Bellevue where I realized I forgot my ID; we then turned around and did it all again.  (I thought my husband was going to turn our "staycation" into a singles retreat!)  We were ready for a drink when we finally arrived.  Thankfully, we were greeted with a glass of Merlot and a gorgeous room to relax in. 

We moved down to Fireside Cellars to enjoy the live music, taste some wine and wait for our dinner reservation.  We sampled several wines including Brian Carter L’Etalon Red Wine (2005) and Sparkman Lumière Chardonnay (2006).  We ordered an appetizer that was so sinful, I probably should only eat it once in my life: Popcorn Lobster.  OMG.  See for yourself...

From there, we moved across the street to the Barking Frog restaurant.  A couple more glasses of wine and a double White Russian (Andrew's homage to "The Dude") later.... we headed to our table.  Much more relaxed and excited for our first culinary pit-stop, we ordered.  The waiter recommended (and we eagerly accepted) a bottle of Oregon-based Boedecker Cellars Pinot Noir (2006).  The wine, the bread, the salad, all great!  Andrew ordered Beef Tenderloin topped with an egg yolk ravioli set in Gorgonzola cream sauce.  Stop it.  No, I'll keep going... I ordered the Alaskan Halibut with clams, chorizo sausage and white wine broth good enough to sip with a spoon (or an entire loaf of bread, in my case). 

We went to bed with a full belly, a bit of a buzz, and the fireplace crackling.

Culinary Rendezvous at Barking Frog:

Day 2

If you are following with me, I advise you to pour yourself a second glass of wine.... 

After coffee and a hot bath in the room, I was ready for round two at Barking Frog.  I stretched, took a warm up lap and went in for breakfast.  I won't go into much detail here... but just envision a big 'ol Croque Madame sitting in front of me and a matching big 'ol smile on my face.  Now double that, and you'd be thinking about Andrew's chorizo egg tortilla wrap that would make many grown men whimper.  Happy customers once again.

We then treated ourselves to the Spa at Willows Lodge.  I had the most wonderful massage (really, it was gooood) and Andrew had a reflexology service.  We sat outside in the hot tub and admired the hotel and beautiful landscape.  It was SO nice to experience the spa together for the first time, to be pampered, and to be surrounded by so much beauty!  We certainly were ready for a wine-tastin' day in Woodinville after such a wonderful morning.





We headed to Red Hook Brewery next door for lunch with our friends Rob and Kara.  A couple of cold ones, a bite and we were off to the wineries.  I had a bunch of recommendations from friends for great spots and our concierge gave us a short list.  We started with William Church Winery in the "Warehouse District" (also affectionately called the "wine slums").  From there, we stumbled into Del Sol where the winemaker was literally making wine right in front of us!  He let us taste fresh-pressed juice right from the machine.  We also stopped at Barrage Cellars, who had an awesome "Nuclear Blonde" Chardonnay.  Running out of time, we headed to a highly-recommended JM Cellars.  It was wonderful!  Beautiful, yummy snacks and a selection of 7 wines to taste! 

A winemaker at Del Sol pressing grapes

Tasting at JM Cellers

Woodinville is full of so many wonderful places and sights.  I'm bummed we only got to see a small part of it.  But it's moved to the top of my short list and I know we'll be back often.  Cheers to a wonderful weekend in Woodinville!

This concludes the end of part one.  Join me later in the week where I review the life-changing visit to The Herbfarm.  9 courses, 5 wines and one hell of an experience.  Stay tuned for part deux...