I am excited to share with you last weekend's wine adventure to SODO Urbanworks. Among the industrial buildings of the SODO (South of Downtown) district of Seattle, sits a beautiful strip center of wine and pizza. It is the perfectly unexpected place to find amazing wines and great company. The location is ideal for the public transportation fanatic ... cough, cough...dad. From car to ferry, to Lime Bike, it is an adventure worth traveling. Word to the wise, do not ride on the back of a Lime Bike - I have been bruised.
Engaging in the thrill of the season, the wineries participated in a block party style Holiday Tasting. While we wanted to hit all of them, Blake and I only made it to four of the ten tasting rooms that exist in this compound. I could not have had more fun sipping wine while enjoying Santa, The Grinch, Carolers, and a phenomenal Mariachi Band.
When planning to attend the festivities, I made it a goal to taste wine at Sleight of Hand Cellars. This winery has an amazing story of how they came into fruition, involving obviously successful business men and the love of Pearl Jam.
The vibe of this tasting room is so cool. I felt like we were racking up cool points just by hanging out. You know the wine bottle that has Neil Patrick Harris on the label, this is where it is from.
The gentleman pouring wines was knowledgeable and shared meal pairing ideas for the wines we were tasting. I am regretting that we did not take home a bottle of their crisp Riesling to attempt to make his recommended Wok style pairing.
This winery/tasting room is full of fun facts that create a colorful story with a natural through-line. There is clear synchronicity in their evolution as a business and in their wines. I mean come on, wine and Pearl Jam...do you need anything else Seattle?
After tasting here our plans on where to go to next were pretty loose. But a potty break was certainly in order. As I waited outside of the restrooms, I could hear my boisterous husband making friends at the urinal. Blake is a man who can make friends in any situation. When he and his new friend exited, I was told we would be going to taste at Waters Winery.
We clearly will follow anyone for wine, so on we went to the tasting room. I was surprised when his new friend walked behind the counter and set us up with a tasting. Blake let me know his recent relief buddy was the winemaker, Jamie Brown.
I am so thankful for my outgoing husband, because I am not sure if we would of had this experience otherwise. The wines from this winery are amazing and incredibly unique. Jamie Brown's wines are different than what I am used to tasting from Washington. He shared that he plays with the grapes to influence his wines in lieu of relying on barrels to do that for him.
I loved tasting here, not only were the wines amazing, but the employees were too. Jamie was so cool and down to earth. Which is fortunate, considering he was not put off by the chatty Blake in the bathroom...It is so awesome to meet passionate winemakers and hear their incredible wine stories.
Going to this tasting room will give you a taste bud euphoria. The wines are expensive, but they are aptly priced. Some people say you cannot taste the difference between a $10 and a $70 bottle of wine, those people obviously have not had wine from Waters Winery.
This amazing tasting was followed by a must have pizza from Nine Pies! This pizza place is attached to Nine Hats, the winery in which Blake and I consider to have produced our gateway wine. When we first moved out to the Peninsula we only bought Nine Hats wine from QFC. The price was right and paired well with bonfires and salty air.
We have tasted here before and know the wines are all delicious, so we decided to just grab a specific wine to pair with our pizza. We paired their perfect Sangiovese with our goat cheese, artichoke and salami topped pizza. Just looking at this picture is making my mouth water!
I love this tasting room and pizza place conjunction. The separation of the tasting room and restaurant allows you to bring your dogs into the tasting side. This is a business plan that I can get behind. Maybe we should bring one into Allyn/Belfair...any investors?
We finished our adventure at The House of Pagne, the other tasting room I set out to experience. It is a Champagne and Sparkling Wine bar with delicious bubbly. They served sparking wine from Alsace and California for the holiday festivities. It was quite busy while we visited, so we did not get an opportunity to chat with the tasting room employees or try a tasting flight. I would love to go back and try out more bubbly.
I typically do not go for sparkling wines, but for the upcoming New Year things may change. If you are in Seattle this would be the perfect place to pick up some bubbly for your holiday festivities.
This was such a fun wine adventure and it gave me all of the holiday feels. It is in the perfect location, easily accessible to all Seattle goers. We will definitely be going back to try out the tasting rooms we did not get to last weekend.
If you are in the PNW you definitely need to take time to explore SODO Urbanworks. There are plenty of ways to utilize public transportation to get to this wine tasting hub. I hope you get a chance to visit these amazing tasting rooms soon. Cheers!
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