Last week, the Woodinville Wine Country association invited Jen and me to come out to the After Hours Woodinville event. This fun wine tasting event takes place every second and fourth Thursdays throughout summertime.
After Hours Woodinville alternates between the Hollywood District tasting rooms and the Warehouse District tasting rooms. This particular week, it was in the Warehouse District. We were so excited to visit all those tasting rooms we can’t seem to manage to make it to on weekends.
We were curious to explore Keira Cellars, a family winery owned by Steve and Keira Rowell. It’s located in the Artisan Hill part of the warehouse district.
We got to meet Keira herself! We so enjoyed listening to her tell us the story behind the winery, which began with her husband making wine in barrels in their garage. She told us about her friend’s horse ranch, and pointed out that while she owns half the winery, she doesn’t make the wine and so isn’t a female winemaker.
Steve was really passionate about winemaking, and Keira encouraged him to expand from a hobbyist to a professional family winery. They began in 2014.
The tasting room offers gift sets of Keira Cellars wine you can purchase. Some of their wines have won Gold awards and Double Gold awards, she showed us proudly.
Jen took a moment to sit and enjoy her wine (a really good red blend), while Keira told us about the tasting room’s fun Friday night events. While most warehouse district wine tasting rooms close early on Fridays (5 or 6pm is common,) Keira Cellars features Happy Hour from 7pm to 8pm and live music from 8pm until 10pm. It’s really good to know that’s an option for wine tasting and entertainment on a Friday night!
You can rent out the Keira Cellars tasting room and barrel room for events. They can seat 49, or if people are standing, they can accomodate up to 100 guests. The tasting room is dog friendly.
Here’s where you could sit enjoying your wine on a Friday night, and enjoy some live music at Keira Cellars!
Next, we ran into nearby neighbor Three of Cups Winery to visit winemaker Lisa Swei and taste more of her incredible, impressive wines.
We had met Lisa before at Sisters of the Vinifera Revolution and were so glad to be able to chat with her again.
Le Bateleur is a 2014 Cabernet Sauvignon from Red Mountain; L’Astre is a 2015 Syrah from Les Collines Vineyard, and Le Croyant is a 2014 Petit Sirah from Red Mountain.
I tasted the 2016 Malbec (not pictured) and sadly, as Jen’s designated driver, I had to stop tasting for the evening at this point!
We got a behind-the-scenes tour of the Three of Cups tasting room and production facility.
The current wine tasting lineup at Three of Cups. Which would be your #1 choice to taste, if you could only pick one? I would have a difficult time choosing between the Syrah and Petit Sirah next time.
Lisa kindly let me (Carrie) pose for a photo with her in the Three of Cups Barrel Room. We were honored to get to spend some time with this fabulous female winemaker before other wine walk attendees came in for a tasting. Thanks Lisa!
The next After Hours Woodinville wine walk event is August 9 in the Hollywood District. If you prefer to explore Artisan Hill and the Warehouse District, the next After Hours Woodinville event there will be on Thursday, August 23.
We highly recommend this event if you can sneak away from work a bit early on one of the second or fourth Thursday evenings of the month sometime!
-Carrie
