Jen and I were delighted when the Woodinville Wine Country association invited us to come cover the After Hours Woodinville event earlier this month. This wine tasting event takes place every second and fourth Thursdays. After Hours Woodinville alternates between the Hollywood District tasting rooms and the Warehouse District tasting rooms.
The week we went, twelve warehouse district tasting rooms were pouring wine. They were open from 4pm to 8pm, much later hours than normal, giving people a great opportunity to check out tasting rooms they haven’t been to before. Many of these tasting rooms are only open on weekends.
Jen and I are usually busy doing family things on weekends instead of wine tasting, so we jumped at the chance to explore some new-to-us tasting rooms on a Thursday evening!
We checked in at the Hampton Inn & Suites Woodinville in the Gateway District to pick up our wristbands and drink tickets. (You get 14 tasting tickets for $25, which is more than plenty – we couldn’t possibly have used all our tickets!) Next, we headed across the parking lot to check out the wines at Skylite Cellars. We’d popped in before to say hi but hadn’t had the pleasure of tasting their wines before!
We tried their 2017 Rosé, Vera – perfect for this warm summer evening.
The 2017 Vera is a 100% Grenache Rosé.
We were fascinated by their vintage wine press on display in the tasting room!
Next, Jen tried the 2013 Soiree, their red blend. She said it tasted like cherries and chocolate. I wanted to taste it, but I was our driver, so I was trying to taste just two wines at every place we stopped, sigh!
We admired this clever display of Skylite Cellars wine corks.
Skylite proudly displays some of their wines from Walla Walla Valley.
We also tried their 2014 Malbec, which we found delicious and a bit “creamy,” in a good way.
I knew I needed to buy a bottle of the Malbec to take home for my upcoming Malbec vertical tasting party. If I can restrain myself from opening it before then!
Skylite Cellars Woodinville wine tasting room is located at 19255 Woodinville Snohomish Rd, Woodinville, WA 98072.
After we left Skylite Cellars, we stopped next door to visit our friend Taylor at Tsillan Cellars. When she saw us coming, drink tickets in hand, she immediately poured us their Rosé, knowing it’s both Jen’s and my favorite! We each, naturally, bought another bottle apiece to replenish our sadly depleted Tsillan Rosé wine stores at our houses.
Read our next post to see where else we tasted wine at After Hours Woodinville!
The next After Hours Woodinville event is Thursday, August 9, in the Hollywood District.
-Carrie
