Woodinville Gets a New Tasting Hub

Already home to over 130 wineries and tasting rooms, Woodinville is about to get a new destination. Four wineries announced they will be opening tasting rooms in 2022 in a newly constructed building by the old Red Hook Brewery. These wineries are Mark Ryan, Long Shadows, Fidélitas, and Latta.

The Hollywood District has flourished since its redevelopment over a decade ago, but parking at many of the tasting rooms has become increasingly hard to come by. Long Shadows currently has a tasting room in this area, which it will give up when it moves. Dane Narbaitz, president and partner at Long Shadows, agrees the new facility’s abundant parking was part of the appeal.

“We have club members that show up and want to pick up wines, but of course they want to come in and taste the new releases as well,” Narbaitz says. “They’ll call and say ‘I can't find parking within half a mile of here. Can you just bring my wines out and put them in my trunk?’ That’s really sad to miss out on those opportunities.”

The new building was originally designed for Teatro Zinzanni, a long-running dinner circus theater. However, when Teatro abandoned plans to occupy the space last year due to the pandemic, the facility owners decided to turn it into tasting rooms. The building will use the original structural plans, but the space will now be divided between four wineries.

“The structure itself is really cool,” says Narbaitz. “It kind of has a modern industrial feel to it. Very upscale, but it's got steel beams and exposed concrete and wood finishes.”

Each winery is designing its own space, which will include outdoor patios and upstairs decks. The Long Shadows tasting room will also have private rooms as well as club rooms that can be combined for larger groups.

“We’ll have the ability to offer something a little more special, a little more memorable,” Narbaitz says. In addition to bountiful parking, for wineries already in the Hollywood Schoolhouse area, the new site will offer considerably more space.

In addition to more parking and space, the exceptionally high quality of the other producers in the area only adds to the appeal, for the wineries and consumers alike. DeLille Cellars opened a stunning facility in this area in late 2019. Sparkman Cellars followed suit in 2020. It will be a formidable half dozen tasting rooms.

In addition to the four new tasting rooms, DeLille, and Sparkman, the area also offers top notch food. The Lounge at DeLille Cellars is on-site, and Barking Frog restaurant is within a (very) short walk, with Willows Lodge providing a place to stay. Altogether, it guarantees an experience few in the area can match.

Read the full Washington Wine Report article here.