Sunday, October 13, 2013

Fall Trip to Woodinville in the Sammamish River Valley

Somehow I ended up in the Warehouse District of Woodinville. How did I get here? It happened to be a Saturday that found me with nothing urgent on the calendar for the next two weeks. My curiosity about some Woodinville wines I've been hearing about sucked me like a magnet up to the Woodinville area, which lies in the northern reaches of the Sammamish River Valley on the far northeast side of Lake Washington. The vast majority of the wineries in the area are found either in the Warehouse District or the Hollywood Hill District. The number of wineries in the Warehouse District is almost overwhelming, but I was on a mission to find Matthews Winery. It was easy because it was just a few doors down from William Church Winery, where I needed to stop to pick up another bottle of their Viognier and some other favorites. I could barely get in the door because they were about to start a winery tour and there were many revelers milling around waiting for the tour. But it thinned out quickly and I moved into position to prepare for a tasting of the Viognier and their delicious reds.


My Stash From Woodinville ©Jill J. Smith 2013

Being fully satisfied, I slithered a few doors to the west to land at Matthews. I had long been curious about this winery, and to my knowledge, have never tasted any of their wines. I'll just say right out of the chute that my favorite of the wines available for tasting that day was the 2010 Reserve, a red blend of Columbia Valley cabernet, merlot, and just a bit of cabernet franc. They do a spectacular job of blending because this is one of the most balanced blends I have tasted in a long time. This is a 15.2% ABV wine, but I wasn't overwhelmed by the higher alcohol content. The merlot gave it a smoothness from start to finish. I was also stunned by their 2010 claret, and learned that they are able to use the word "Claret" on the label because they were using the term before the law changed in March 2006, when the US and EU signed an agreement prohibiting the use of the term on the label unless a winery's use of the term was grandfathered in under the agreement.

I always go in person to Woodinville to pick up my wine club releases instead of having them shipped to me. I typically learn bushels of information from the tasting room staff wherever I go. Matthews' tasting room is tiny, but the wines available for tasting are anything but that. They also have another tasting room on the road up to Hollywood Hill which I have yet to visit. Having just tapped the tip of the iceberg about Matthews Winery wines, both red and white, there is much more to know, as they have a premium line known as Tenor, which I didn't taste, but I'll be back!

Saturday, October 5, 2013

Belltown, 1st Avenue, Exit Strategy

As I emerged through my escape hatch, which takes me down 1st Avenue in Belltown, I decided to decompress at one of my favorite classic Seattle hideouts. The court proceeding at the King County courthouse was exhausting, so I made a beeline down 4th Avenue and dropped down Seneca to 1st. I was just in time for happy hour at Queen City Grill, where I could collect myself and gird my loins for the next battle. This has long been one of my favorite spots in the city, and it remains so. Perfect for decompression after a harrowing court appearance.

Queen City Grill makes some of the drop-dead best salmon and mussels in the city, and that's saying a lot because there is quite a bit of competition, especially in the Pike Place Market area. They almost always have some wild mushrooms on the menu, which are locally sourced because there is no shortage of wild mushrooms around these parts, especially on the Olympic Peninsula. And now it's chanterelles. Could there be a better tonic with which to decompress? That and the amazing northern Italian wines they offer. They have some amazing Barolos and Barbarescos (not by the glass), which is the perfect complement to those chanterelles.

Once, about 26 years ago, I camped out on Slumgullion Pass in the San Juan National Forest in Colorado, elevation 11,530 ft. My campsite was in a spruce-fir grove just off the summit of the pass, which straddles the Continental Divide. It was October so the campgrounds in the area were already closed, so I was off in the woods in my tent. I woke up in the morning and there was a heavy frost on my tent and everywhere else in the vicinity. The sun was coming up but it hadn't hit the forest yet, and even when it did, there wasn't much sunlight to warm things up because of the heavy forest cover. I clambered out of the tent and started piling up tinder and kindling to get a fire going. As I was walking around the woods looking on the forest floor for the perfect sticks, I stumbled upon a small patch of chanterelles. I couldn't believe it. There was a delicious breakfast staring me in the face. And I thought I was going to just make some dense coffee and pack up and go. No, I was afforded the luxury of having sauteéd chanterelles for breakfast at 11,530 ft., 35ºF, in a spruce-fir campsite in October, while the aspens were still golden. This is my fond chanterelle experience, and I've revered them as a religion ever since.

So with my fondness for chanterelles, I was drawn like a magnet to the dark den that is Queen City Grill in search of the Holy Chanterelles. And I was not disappointed. The ones in Washington are much larger and a paler orange color than the ones on Slumgullion Pass, which were smaller and bright orange. But the flavor remains the same - savory and tender. After finding my religion, the court hearing that day was almost a distant memory. If you can't be eating chanterelles in October on the Continental Divide, eating them with an Italian wine at Queen City Grill in Seattle is the next best thing.