I throw parties quite often, and love to serve cocktails to my guests along with Woodinville wines I bring home from my wine tastings. I frequent Proper & Ernest, a well curated specialty liquor store in a Woodinville strip mall, to resupply my liquor cabinet. I come in and ask Jeff’s advice. He won’t let us photograph him, but cheerily puts up with our pestering him and running around the store on a weekday morning taking photographs!
I always find an intriguing bottle or two and ask Jeff what drinks I could make with it. He’s never failed to immediately come up with a perfect answer right off the top of his head. My party guests have loved the cocktails I’ve made from his recommendations!
We love how knowledgeable Jeff is about the liquors he carries. He always has a lot of helpful information for me when I ask how to use an exotic liqueur or an alcohol I’m not familiar with. If he has a bottle of something open behind, he’ll let us take a whiff or pour a small sip so we can try it.
He treated us to a taste of Michter’s bourbon while we browsed the shop. No wonder this is my favorite specialty liquor store!
We always linger before the displays of bourbon, whiskey, Scotch and rye.
It’s like a little magical wonderland of alcohol waiting for you to explore it!
There is a beer growler refill station in the back, chilled drinks, and specialty liqueurs in the middle. Towards the back is a giant display of carefully chosen vodka selections. Love that they reliably carry Effen Vodka, which I can’t usually find at Total Wine & More.
Everything is well organized and labeled with handwritten notes and thoughtful recommendations.
We asked why they carry so little wine from Woodinville tasting rooms – we saw just a bottle from Trust and one from Patterson. Jeff’s answer made sense – You can’t carry everyone’s wine, there’s limited shelf space, and Woodinville’s tasting rooms are nearby in case someone wanted to dash in and grab a bottle. Plus, the nearby grocery store Haggen has a good selection of Woodinville wines, freeing up Proper & Ernest to source harder-to-find European wines.
We spent a long time admiring their new bourbon display, especially these top shelf offerings.
One of my favorite Washington wines to serve at parties is L’Ecole No. 41, so I snapped up this bottle of Chenin Blanc.
Visit Proper & Ernest at 13317 NE 175th St K, Woodinville, WA 98072, near Taco Bell and The Pizza Coop!
-Carrie
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