An after work diversion with Wine World Warehouse

In February I mentioned the cornucopia of wine that is Wine World Warehouse in Seattle, you may recall that I ride by the establishment on the good old King County Metro 44 to and from work every day.  Since that time, I'd been to the warehouse a few times to pick up a specific bottle, however, I had yet to take full advantage of one very critical feature: they offer free tastings and lots of them.

Perhaps I'm under emphasizing the fact that they have free tastings, and lots of them.  I'm talking every single day of the week, with wine being poured from 6:00 - 8:00 PM Monday - Friday and 2:00 - 5:00 PM on Saturday and Sunday.  On any given night, you may find offerings from between 1 and 10 different wineries, sometimes local, sometimes international.  For instance, this week you'll find:

• Monday:  Argentina Festival
• Tuesday:  Tour de France
• Wednesday:  Shramsberg Napa Valley
• Thursday:  Gonzalez Byass Spanish Wines
• Friday:  Naches Heights Vineyard
• Saturday:  Open Road Wine Company

See the variety I'm talking about?  Alright, back to my story.

A few weeks ago on a Wednesday it had been a particularly long first half of the week at work and I was looking to unwind a bit.  I was on the bus cruising down NE 45th Ave in the U-District and I saw the Wine World sign ahead, and it hit me.  Free tasting.  Every night.  Must stop.  I quickly consulted the Intertubes and was quite pleased to learn that Blog favorite Woodward Canyon was pouring that particular evening.  Rick, Alyssa, and I had downed a bottle of their Artist Series Cabernet the weekend before after the epic Ludacris show in Pullman and I was thirsty for some more.

I hopped off the bus, sashayed in, and was pleased to see that the tasting bar was empty of tasters as it was just 6:00 PM.  Woodward Canyon owner Rick Small was waiting at the counter with four wines ready to go, and after signing in with Wine World staff I was ready to go.  I enjoyed a lovely conversation with Rick, it was nice to hear his perspectives on the wine as well as learn more about the origin of the Nelms Road label, Woodward's declassified line.  As expected, the Artist Series was the star of the show but boy do I also love the Washington Chardonnay.  After an hour or so, I realized I better head home before the bus clientele got too shady, so off I went very pleased with the decision to stop.

Moral of the story?  If you are in the Seattle area any given night of the week and want to relax at the end of the work day, Wine World is a great place to do it.  They'll be tasting something, and does it really matter what?