Woodinville is Washington State's wine country in miniature, tucked into a valley just 30 minutes northeast of Seattle. Over a hundred wineries and tasting rooms cluster along two main strips — the Warehouse District and the Hollywood Hill corridor — most of them pouring wines made from grapes grown in the dry eastern half of the state.
The appeal is the concentration: you can walk between tasting rooms in the Warehouse District and sample Walla Walla Cabernet, Yakima Valley Riesling, and Columbia Valley Syrah without ever getting in a car. Anchoring the Hollywood Hill end is Chateau Ste. Michelle, Washington's oldest winery, with its Olmsted-designed grounds and outdoor summer concert series. The boutique end of the spectrum is represented by DeLille Cellars, one of the state's most respected Bordeaux-style producers. For a break from wine, the Sammamish River Trail passes through town on its way from Bothell to Redmond, offering a car-free corridor through the valley. And for the full Pacific Northwest experience, dinner at The Herbfarm — a nine-course feast built entirely on seasonal local ingredients — is as good as it gets in the region. The town itself is small and suburban, but the wine scene gives it a weekend-trip energy that belies its strip-mall surroundings.