A day of wine.

Last weekend was a weekend of tea tasting, and this weekend, we went wine tasting! A lot of my busy season this year was front loaded into January/February which meant that I was in hell for two straight months but then as a result of several clients that got pushed or moved, my March really started to lighten up (THANK YOU GOD). I was still working most weekends, but was off work by early afternoon on Saturdays and wasn't working 7 days a week. Again THANK GOD. After January/February, I am pretty sure that I would have died with a vice grip on my ten key if I didn't get some sort of reprieve... or someone would have killed me because working so much was actually making me retarded. I swear, towards the end of February I'm pretty sure I was starting to lose track of what 2+2 equaled or hell, I probably wouldn't have been able to tell you my own name. Maybe I'm exaggerating a little bit but not much. Sleep deprivation plus way too much work really makes you start to feel, well, a little insane and completely loopy... it's like living in a drunken state permanently but you aren't really drunk. Perhaps that's why so many CPAs drink??

ANYWAY. I'll stop now.

Onto our wine tasting: It was awesome! Pictures, as follows:

First we went to one of our favorite wineries- Woodhouse Wine Estates. We haven't had a bad wine yet from them and again, we were not disappointed. They make really amazing wines and some of them are totally reasonable. LOVE it. We actually loved it so much we became wine club members. We toyed with this before when we've tasted there but this time, it was time to just do it. And this was only our first stop...

We eventually made it to the Mark Ryan winery/tasting room, another winemaker that we absolutely love. His wines are more on the high end but they are still phenomenal. We didn't love ALL of them so luckily that curtailed us from becoming members here but we did buy a bottle of the dissident, a red blend that we loved.

A picture of the different wines that we tasted that day at Mark Ryan.

A magnum of the long haul, another red blend by Mark Ryan that is just outstanding (we almost bought this over the dissident, actually).

Another stop: the new Woodinville whiskey company distillery. We tried vodka and bourbon, just because it seemed entertaining and Justin loves bourbon. Thanks to him, I also have a fond spot in my heart for bourbon as well. HOWEVER. I did NOT like this bourbon. The vodka was ok but still, not a huge fan. It was all clear too as it's so new it hasn't been aged. Weird. I think I'm mostly a wine person but it was fun to go, anyway, to see what it was all about. I'll stick with my wine and my Knob Creek/Bookers bourbons when I'm having a weak moment (or just want a wild night)....

Justin tasting the Woodinville Whiskey company's vodka... I did like the cute little glasses!

And Justin tasting wine... mmm... so good. I think this was at Mark Ryan still but I'm too lazy to move it in the correct order. We also stopped at Novelty Hill-Januik winery to taste. I've been there a few times now and have had their wines a handful and am just not a fan.

After Mark Ryan, we decided to go to Dusted Valley winery on a total and complete whim. It was nearing closing time for the tasting rooms but we still had about 40 minutes, so Justin suggested we go. I had never heard of it so I was skeptical but he said he'd heard good things. I said, sure, why not? After an afternoon tasting wines, he probably could have dragged me to a place that doled out shitty boxed wine and I would have been happy as a clam. So we meandered to Dusted Valley and OH MY GOODNESS. I was BLOWN AWAY. I could not BELIEVE how good it was. AND, it all comes from the midwest (well, it started in the midwest in Wisconsin but now their vineyards are in Washington). AND, they are the only winery who does SOLELY screw tops. AND their wine is REALLY GOOD. Like so good, Justin and I kept looking at each other like, WHOA. Wine after wine, our socks were knocked off. So guess what? We became members of that winery too (seriously, it was that good). Their wine club is called the stained tooth society so they give you tooth brushes along with the membership- love it! AND, a few days after we went there? They sent us a personalized note thanking us for becoming members and stopping by... major points, I am a HUGE fan of this winery. 

And.... when we got home? A shot of our loot. Our Mark Ryan purchase, a reserve cab franc (LOVED IT) and Dussek merlot (which I loved, Justin did not) from Woodhouse which were the newest wine club releases, a tempernillo from Woodhouse that is the wine from this winery that initially made Justin and I fall in love with the winery, and 3 dusted valley purchases, a syrah, an amazing grenache we had, and their original stained tooth syrah that put them on the map of wineries after it won several awards- we liked it but liked the other syrah we bought better and the grenache was still our favorite from this winery.  All in all, a GREAT day. You can't really go wrong with good wine... we are lucky to live so close to so many good wineries. Life is pretty good. On that note, I feel that I now must go drink a glass of wine...