A Southern Man Runs & Drinks in Washington Wine Country

It's fall, and that means I've got a summer's worth of posts to share.  Although it's pretty much always summer here in South Louisiana, my official season got started with a trip to Washington for the Seattle Rock-n-Roll Marathon and some wine tasting.

While I have run several half marathons, this was my first "full", so I wanted to run it in a fun location that, of course, offered some wine country.  As always, my lovely wife came along, and we were also joined by some good friends who decided to parlay the trip into their birthday celebrations.

We stayed at the historic Sorrento Hotel in  the First Hill neighborhood just off of the downtown.  Opened in 1909, the Sorrento is Seattle's oldest and longest-running boutique, and we couldn't have been happier with it.  The suites were spacious, the staff was very helpful (the hotel has a car service that will take you anywhere within a 2-mile radius), the location was great, and the architecture and ambiance were charming.

The Sorrento Hotel

Upon checking in the afternoon before the race and hitting the pre-race expo, we hitched a ride to Crow, one of our favorite Seattle restaurants.  Crow is located in the Queen Anne neighborhood near the space needle, and offers a cool, neighborhood-restaurant-kind-of-vibe.  True to form, someone walked by us as we entered the restaurant openly smoking weed, the cloud following us inside.  This provoked the hostess to comment:  "someone's having a good time!".  We all had a laugh and the incident became the premier topic for small talk with cab drivers for the remainder of the trip.

The menu at Crow is small and simple, and focuses on fresh and local ingredients.  I enjoyed my traditional pre-race pale ale - American Breakaway IPA - and their incredible lasagna.  The girls raved about a simple roasted chicken dish that each of them ordered.  Jet-lagged and bellies full, we retired early in preparation for race day

The freakin' sun comes up at 4:40 a.m. in June in Seattle!  After the fact, we discovered the hotel windows had shades but, needless to say, I was awake and ready early to head to the starting line.  My friend Bryan decided the day before to run the half marathon, so we trekked from the hotel to the monorail station to catch a ride to the Space Needle, where our races would begin.  The crisp 58 degree morning temp made up for the early sunrise, and after checking gear and eating bananas, we were ready to go and headed to the starting line.

Space Needle at dawn.  It's like 5:00am in this picture.

Now, I've run my fair share of races, but never one this big - 24,000 runners.  We were warmed up and psyched up for the starting gun, only to wait 45 MINUTES until we actually crossed the starting line and began our respective races.

Crowded starting line of Seattle Rock-n-Roll Marathon & Half

The first six miles flew by.  Bryan and I were engaged in conversation, enjoying the views of downtown and some quirky older neighborhoods, and I was right on my goal pace of 9'33".  At about 6  miles, our routes split and I began an absolutely scenic 7-mile leg along Lake Washington and through Seward Park.  I joined back up with the half marathoners around mile 13 and was still on pace, stopping to eat a bite quickly.  At mile 15, we scaled a short but steep uphill trail to jump on Interstate 90 (yes, I-90), where the half runners broke left and the marathoners took a right.  This took me across Lake Washington and through two tunnels on a 6-mile jaunt.  About halfway back across the lake, I crossed the 20-mile marker and hit the wall.  Fully-exposed on a steeply-banked, interstate highway bridge, I saw my pace drop pretty drastically off of my goal.

Through another tunnel, back on to I-90, past Safeco Field and CenturyLink Field, and then skirting downtown along the waterfront, the last 5+ miles were painful but beautiful.  I hobbled up the last hill and crossed the finish line by the Space Needle in 4 hours and 33 minutes.  Not quite what I had hoped, but I finished.  Let the festivities begin!  (Note: unless you are an experienced marathoner, I would not recommend a day of boozing post race.  While we did some pretty cool stuff, I was catatonic for most of the day.  A nap and more (non-alcoholic) fluids probably would have made more sense.  Oh well.)

Some kids at the post-race festival offered us bracelets to the VIP tent, so after a quick lunch, some chocolate milk, and a celebratory beer, we headed back to the Sorrento to shower before the next activity, a lake cruise.  

We boarded our "cruise ship" at Lake Union and secured a window table where we settled in for our cruise, sipping local wines and microbrews as we took in the sights, including the University of Washington campus and the home of Bill Gates.  Literally, everywhere you look in Seattle you see either mountains or water or both.  We moved above-deck and soaked in some sun (and more drink) as we cruised back to the dock.

After a pseudo-nap and a stop at the hotel bar (still celebrating), we went to dinner at RN74.  This highly-acclaimed restaurant by Chef Michael Mina was excellent...from what I can remember.  Evashem Wood Pinot Noir and the tomato basil soup fondue with grilled cheese dippers were fantastic.  After that, I think I ordered duck but the run and subsequent festivities had fully caught up with me.  The sun did not wake us up at 4:30 the next morning.

On the third and final full day of our visit, we scarfed down a hearty breakfast at Lowell's in Pike Place Market, and then hired a town car to take us to the nearby Woodinville wine country.  Our driver was a Ukrainian man named Uri who hated life.  While trying to make some initial small talk, I asked if he liked being a driver.  He said, "No".  Small talk over.

Seafood for breakfast:  the view from Lowell's at Pike Place Market.  Bryan ordered an omelet so full of crabmeat he squealed like a little girl.

Notwithstanding our less-than-enthusiastic driver, this was the way to go.  It is much less expensive than car services in Napa, and allowed us to dictate our own schedule, as opposed to a group tour.

Woodinville is a suburban community about 30 minutes outside of Seattle.  Spearheaded by Chateau Ste. Michelle, several wineries moved to the the area decades ago, hoping to capitalize on the critical mass of nearby Seattle.  While there are no sweeping views of vineyards, Woodinville makes for a great day trip destinations and the wines are very good.

We started out with brunch at the Purple Cafe and Wine Bar in Woodinville.  Like its big sister in Seattle, this restaurant had a casual, lounge-y atmosphere with an interesting menu and expansive wine and beer offerings.  I had an artisanal pizza, and we all shared a bottle of fresh and nervy Quail's Gate Chenin Blanc from British Columbia.  A great start to the day.

Canadian wine, eh.  Quail's Gate Chenin Blanc.

Our first wine stop was the combined winery of Novelty Hill and Januik.  Mike Januik used to be the head wine maker at Chateau Ste. Michelle, and set out on his own several years ago.  Novelty Hill makes affordable, largely approachable wines while Januik is a little more high-end.  The winery is a contemporary concrete facility with a lounge-style tasting room, restaurant, and some cool outdoor spaces.  We sampled a range of Novelty Hill wines including Sauvignon Blanc (a favorite), a Rhone-style white, and several reds including a Malbec.  All were very good.  Our tasting was capped off with some sort of late harvest dessert wine.  Our friend Bryan is not a wine drinker, but took to this sweet stuff and it quickly became his theme for the day.

The stark exterior of Novelty Hill/Januik Winery.  The wines are quite inviting.

Next, we visited the stately chateaus and pastoral grounds of the esteemed Chateau Ste. Michelle, Washington's oldest and largest winery.  CSM has the role of visitor destination down.  Large tasting rooms, wine and souvenir shops, picnic areas, concert series and more are scattered throughout their sprawling complex, but it somehow remains pretty personable.  Our pourer was a sweet lady from Texas who walked us through an array of somewhat obscure wines not normally found in the grocery store.  They also had a late harvest, which Bryan requested for all five of his tastings.  We especially liked a new, lightly-oaked Chardonnay called "Mimi" and left with some.

The palatial grounds of Chateau Ste. Michelle

Our next stop was to the Airfield tasting room, located off of the main highway in a quaint strip center.  I had read about Airfield, but never sampled their wines, so I was especially interested in this tasting.  In addition to quality wines at reasonable prices, they have one of the most generous tastings I have ever experienced.  For some nominal fee ($10 I think, waived with a bottle purchase), you got something like 11 tastings.  I started with an excellent off-dry Riesling and worked my way through the Syrah-based blends.  The "Mustang" red blend and, oddly enough, the Yakima Valley Pinot Noir stood out to me.  The Pinot was particularly interesting as that is not a varietal widely grown in Washington.  Airfield grows it on their estate vineyard (a reclaimed air strip), in a cool microclimate that slopes down to a reservoir.  This tiny vineyard pocket produces a soft and subtle Pinot with red fruit and spice.  I purchased some.  Oh yeah, they also had a late harvest wine and even Bryan couldn't drink 11 samples of the sweet stuff.  He tried, though.

Like Sasquatch, Washington Pinot Noir is not just some urban legend.

I was pumped for our last stop, Distefano Winery.  We discovered this little operation a few years back on a trip to Woodinville.  At that time, I think they had family working the tasting room, which was little more than a glorified storage unit.  They have a new winery now, but kept the little tasting room, which we happened to visit during their 30th anniversary.  Mark Newton, the owner and winemaker, was there personally pouring his wines.  We arrived late in the day and were basically the only customers there, so it turned from tasting to a casual visit with Mark, the wine flowing freely.  I am a member of Distefano's wine club and familiar with most of the wines, but it was great to hear Mark talk us through many of them, how he selects the grapes and makes the wine.  One of my favorites, Sigaro, was made to pair with cigar smoking.  While I am not a big cigar smoker, I really like the Grenache-Syrah-Mourvedre blend, and it was fascinating to hear Mark describe his trial-and-error process for getting the blend to pair with his favorite cigars.  Good times.

Friends greeting us at Distefano Winery

 Uri grumpily drove us back to Seattle and  we readied ourselves for an excellent waterfront dinner at Aqua (formerly Waterfront Grill).  I know I had some incredible halibut cheeks and some kind of gooey-cookie-thing for dessert.  They also had grappa, which was bad.

With puffy eyes and throbbing heads, we returned home the next morning.