Steven and I spent a lovely Saturday afternoon/evening with the Raney's this weekend. Our Saturday plans had been evolving all week long through various text messages and disjointed phone conversations and we finally decided to create a little tasting tour of the Eastside for ourselves. I think we tasted a little of everything that Woodinville has to offer with the exception of the two honey mead places we drove by and didn't have time to stop at.
We started our day at Mac & Jack's. Gotta love a free tour and tasting that gives you a free pint glass to take home! Steven and I are now up to half a dozen. He has suggested swapping our other glasses out for them. I don't think so.
We had a slight lull in our schedule between Redmond and Woodinville so we picked up a little snack at the grocery store and made an impromptu stop at this cider place in Woodinville. I've been driving by it my entire life and have always been curious -- we were so glad we stopped! It smelled amazing in there. We got to taste 4 different kinds of fresh cider (pressed earlier that day!) and their hot spiced cider. They also sell apple cider vinegar, local honey, all kinds of fruit butters and jams, fruit leather, and, of course, apples, at only 80 cents per pound! I'll be stopping by again soon I think. The people who worked there were really sweet and so excited to tell us about and share their cider with us.
After the cider we went over to Redhook but just barely missed the 3 o'clock tour as it sold out right when we walked in. Definitely for the best that it worked out that way though because we didn't realize how long that tour was and would've missed the tour we had planned for 4 o'clock. We decided to go over to Silverlake Winery and visit Papa in the tasting room there for a little bit. We tasted a couple of wines there and chatted with Papa until a bunch of customers came in and we decided we should actually let him get back to work.
Next stop: The Woodinville Whiskey Company. Best part of the day! It was a hit with everyone. We thought this was the most interesting tour and, the Bourbon whiskey and the vodka were pretty tasty. Can't say that I was a fan of the rye whiskey though. I choked every time I took a sip but somehow managed to finish my sample without making too much noise.
The guy doing the tour had some really cool information to share with us. We learned all about whiskey and how it's made in different places and the difference between scotch and Irish whiskey and Canadian whiskey and about how Bourbon is only allowed to be made in the U.S. and on and on.
I also really like the little glasses. I want some.
And then there's this crazy cool thing that they use to distill the whiskey and vodka. I can't quite remember exactly how it works but he explained all of the steps and it's a pretty interesting process of evaporating and condensing and and moving up the pipes and getting rid of the bad stuff that you don't want (like acetone, which is nail polish remover) and all kinds of things that I would need to hear a few more times before I could accurately relay them.
Post whiskey company, we finished off our day with a very long tour/tasting at Redhook. I kind of thought the tour was unnecessarily long especially because I was done drinking (just wasn't interested anymore) and the tour guide wasn't my fav but I'm still glad we did it. It's only $1 and since it's Redhook and it's a huge brewery and it's in Woodinville, it just seemed like one of the places that I should stop at at some point in time as long as we're bothering to do these tastings.
We had a quick dinner at La Corona (very quick!), then spent about 20 minutes trying to decide what kind of candy to take to the Crest, and then we were off for the 8pm showing of The Dark Knight Rises. I had almost forgotten that we still hadn't seen that movie! I'm glad we saw the third one but it wasn't my favorite. The first one I love and can watch over and over again. The other two were entertaining but don't have a lot of rewatch value for me. Well, especially The Dark Knight. I have enough stress in my life thank you very much.
By the time we got home (close to midnight) were were exhausted but, lucky me, I got to sleep in this morning :) Thanks Lena and Aaron for a super fun day!
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