We have been VERY remiss in welcoming a lovely new tasting room and event facility to the Pike Place Market neighborhood: Patterson Cellars.

Grand-0pening events took place the last week in January, when we finally marched ourselves down the hill to sip some wine and sample some apps from Volterra Restaurant.

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Folks in our ‘hood, lucky locals and travelers to the Puget-Sound region no longer have to venture to Woodinville, where Patterson Cellars is based and still operates a second tasting room. For now the winery is bringing its value-priced, award-winning wines to Seattle!

With wines such as 2010 Rosé and Chardonnay, 2008 Forbidden Red, 2008 Cabernet Sauvignon, and 2007 Syrah, there’s plenty of good stuff to choose from!

Cheers, Patterson Cellars, and welcome to the ‘hood!

Coordinates:

Patterson Cellars Seattle Tasting Room

1427 Western Avenue, Seattle (on Western Avenue below Pike Place Market adjacent to the Pike Street Hill Climb)

More about the winery: Patterson Cellars offers two exciting places to try their wines, an urban tasting room located near the Pike Street Hill Climb, on Western Avenue, below the famous Pike Place Market in Seattle, and at the Woodinville tasting room and winery in the wine warehouse district. Both venues offer a unique space and experience for tasting their approachable new world style wines, and for parties and events. Crafting wines for over 12 years, from crush to cork, Patterson Cellars focuses on producing wines as unique as the grapes themselves sourcing grapes from Washington State’s Columbia Valley, Red Mountain, Lake Chelan, and Horse Heaven Hills AVAs.

My latest Seattle Times article for Pacific Northwest magazine features a love story about local cocktail king A.J. Rathbun.

He and wife Natalie, and their two 80-pound dogs, Sookie and Rory, set out for Italy last fall, and will be back stateside in April.

Meanwhile, they’re enjoying la dolce vita in a rented villa in Italy.

Here’s their story and a recipe for a Spanish-Cava-based cocktail called “The Very Vernalagnia.”

Cin cin to lovers everywhere!

My good buddy Rhonda May, founder and publisher of the long-running CityFood magazine and Web site in Vancouver, BC, sent me word that she’s helped organize the first-ever Hot Chocolate Festival in that wonderful town.

Touted as 7 chocolatiers, 30 days, 50+ crazy flavors, it started on January 15 and runs until February 13.

So if you are headin’ north, please stop in for a cuppa chocolate! Here’s a complete listing of participating venues and crazy flavors.

Organic French Lavender-infused Grand Marnier, Orange Blossom & Cinnamon, or White Chocolate with Mango and Coconut Hot Chocolate, anybody?

Public-relations pros take note: Can’t we start a Hot Chocolate Festival in Seattle in 2012?!?!

Our friends at Woodinville-based winery DeLille Cellars got some welcome news back in December when WineMatch named its top U.S. wineries and wines of 2010.

And DeLille was named Top Winery of the Year!

According to an e-news release, here’s how the wineries and wines were judged:

“At WineMatch, there are only winners. We had a tough time putting together a list of some of the best the United States has to offer. I am proud of these wineries, the quality people behind them, and their contributions to both wine and core values, which all of these folks exhibited.

“We chose a format that we think makes sense as the wineries and the wines truly go hand in hand. So we present the wineries with their offerings that make them truly stand apart.

“The ones with the numbers are our special selections, true standouts in their class and were all profiled this calendar year. The number in parentheses indicates how many of their wines shine, in our humble estimation!

“DeLille Cellars (6) of Woodinville, WA. Top Winery of the Year. A truly amazing winery, with a portfolio of Bordeaux blends we have found to be unequalled. A perfect storm of the people, the soil, the vineyards, with grower Jim Holmes of Red Mountain AVA. The winemaker, Chris Upchurch, is well-focused on the end product. Read the entire story here.

I loved this press release I received about a column written by Washington State University writer Richard Miller. They invited writers to republish it on their Web sites, so I share it with you below. Happy Holidays/daze!

<<Uncle Patrick gargles his wine. “I taste blackberries and cherry and oak,” he says, “and a lot of tannins.”

The only thing you know about wine is that it comes in different colors. But, with holiday meals approaching, here’s how to puncture wine windbags, thanks to Washington State University Professor Kathleen Williams:

*Precipitate saliva. When Patrick says he tastes tannins, you say: “Tannins don’t have a taste. They create a sensation as they precipitate the proteins out of your saliva.” Tip: Stroke your chin sagely as you pronounce “precipitate.”

*Throw in a German word. Patrick swirls the glass. “Good legs,” he observes. You say, “The French call them tears. The Germans call them Kirchenfenster or church windows, because they form an arch.” Want more? Try this: “Water has more surface tension than alcohol. The evaporating alcohol pulls the water up with it. When the alcohol breaks through, the water runs down.”

*Hit him with Brix. Patrick looks at the label. “Oh my,” he says, “14.9 percent alcohol.” You’re ready for him. “Did you know that wines from hot areas tend to have more alcohol? That’s because the grapes have more sugar. As a rule of thumb, every 2 percent of sugar will produce about 1 percent alcohol. So this wine was originally almost a third sugar. Of course, wine makers don’t call them sugars. They call them Brix.” Tip: Refill his glass. Keep refilling his glass. This becomes important later.

*Diamonds are your best friend. He holds the glass up to the light. Tiny crystals stick to the sides. “It’s going bad,” he says. “Not really,” you say. “Those are potassium tartrate crystals, same thing as cream of tartar. They’re a naturally occurring acid in grapes.” Smile tolerantly, and add, “In Canada, they call them wine diamonds.”

*Herbal harmony. Patrick says, “A red wine would overwhelm the turkey.” You say, “It’s not really about the turkey. It’s about the herbs with the turkey, such as onion, celery, and sage. What works well is to contrast the herbs with a fruity wine, such as a Beaujolais Nouveau or a Gewürztraminer.”

*Make something up. By now, Uncle Patrick should be a bit toasted, so hit him with something ludicrous, but difficult to disprove: “Gewürztraminer has an umlaut,” you say. “The word umlaut is derived from the word omelet and Gewürztraminer pairs well with omelets. As a matter of fact, most umlaut wines go well with egg-based dishes, such as quiche. It’s called a bio-linguistic reaction.”

*Fancy footwork. As he sputters to object, quickly change the subject: “Do you know what the best pairing is? Scientists in England proved that it is milk and chocolate chip cookies. Speaking of dessert, how about some pie?”

WSU’s viticulture and enology program offers both undergraduate and graduate degrees, and certificates. For more information go to http://wine.wsu.edu/education.

With the holiday season firmly upon us, many of us are turning our thoughts to what to cook for holiday dinner. Equally important is what to drink, so I’d like to offer up some of my recent favorite wines–wines that are drinking exceptionally well right now (and also are great for holiday gift-giving).

Two wines from Walla Walla-based Cadaretta are high up on my list. The winery’s 2009 SBS (a Sauvignon Blanc/Semillon blend) has bright fruitiness and just enough herbaceousness to make it interesting without veering into cat-pee territory. A great wine for many types of food (even the sous-vide cucumber salad I sipped it with!).

Cadaretta’s 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon is also an extremely well-crafted wine, with dark fruit flavors and restrained use of oak. A wonderful wine with Cheddar- or Gruyère-style cheeses, or with Beecher’s Flagship, which is kind of a Cheddar/Parmesan hybrid.

Radicchio, Cuttlefish, and Spring Onion Salad with a grand schmear of Kalamata Caramel at Quinn’s gastropub on Capitol Hill

Last month, just before we headed to a movie at the venerable Egyptian Theater on Capitol Hill, we stopped in for dinner at Quinn’s gastropub. It was still (relatively) sun-shine-y then, so we scored a window seat beside the busy bar and settled in.

We enjoyed lots of good dishes that evening–Baby Greens and Roasted Beet salads; Roasted Idaho Trout with Radish, Mizuna, and Romesco Sauce; and Mussels with Saffron, Grain Mustard, and White Wine–but perhaps the most memorable dish was the Radicchio, Cuttlefish, and Spring Onion Salad with a grand schmear of Kalamata Caramel.

The Rosé flight at Quinn’s

A Rosé wine flight called, “Everything’s Coming up Roses: Select 2009 Rosés by the Glass,” featured French and Portguese offerings along with Gilbert Cellars 2009 Rosé from Washington’s Wahluke Slope. All three paired well with everything we ordered.

Yesterday, my latest article for The Seattle Times Pacific Northwest magazine ran. Entitled, “In the Spirit of Tradition,” it chronicled the career of Berle, a.k.a. Rusty, Figgins, a successful winemaker turned craft distiller.

Here is Rusty pictured at The Ellensburg Distillery in (you guessed it!) Ellensburg, Washington.

And here are his award-winning products–El Chalán Peruvian-Style Grape Brandy, Gold Buckle Club Frontier-Style Malt Whisky, and Wildcat White Moonshine.

The spirits pick up color and flavor as they age in oak barrels (just as wine does). Rusty’s Gold Buckle Whisky rests in new American Oak for one year!

Photos by Spencer Johnson

A well-crafted Pinot Noir or Off-Dry Riesling come to mind whenever anybody asks me what to pair with the foods we associate at Thanksgiving–roasted turkey, stuffing, creamed oysters, pumpkin pie.

But sometimes we don’t feel like drinking alcohol. Or perhaps there’s someone around your holiday table who’s pregnant or nursing or taking medication that precludes alcohol consumption.

DRY Soda to the rescue! This sophisticated beverage, like wine, pairs well with fine food.

“DRY Soda is made of only four all-natural ingredients, is less sweet, and makes a great alternative to alcohol beverages during the holidays,” Sharelle Klaus, founder and CEO of DRY, told me.

Klaus has long been on my radar screen, from the moment I tasted the products when the company launched in 2005 with four flavors (Lemongrass, Lavender, Kumquat, and Rhubarb) to the recent addition of new flavors such as Juniper Berry, Vanilla Bean, and Blood Orange.

Two years ago, right around this time of the year, I even wrote a Taste column entitled, For a Sophisticated Alternative to Alcohol, Go DRY, for The Seattle Times Pacific Northwest magazine charting the company’s fascinating beginnings and its meteoric rise in the super-competitive world of soft drinks and sodas.

Lucky for us, Klaus has put together her ideal pairings of traditional holiday meal cuisine with hand-selected flavors of DRY.

Klaus’s suggestions for holiday food and wine pairing?

*For turkey and cranberry, try Rhubarb DRY. Enhance the flavor by using rhubarb in the cranberry sauce recipe.

*If duck is your bird of choice, sip Kumquat DRY, and use kumquat in the duck marinade.

*Prefer red meat? Pair your prime rib with Juniper Berry DRY.

*To satisfy that sweet tooth, enjoy Vanilla Bean DRY with pumpkin pie, pecan pie, and sweet potatoes.