DeLille Cellars, September 12, 2014

Tasting Room - 4 / Wines - 5
Range:  1 to 9 (9 is best, 5 is average)
Ideal outdoor tasting for good weather.  Rhone and Bordeaux style wines.
www.delillecellars.com

My first stop today was supposed to be DeLille Cellars.  According to my research on the web, the tasting room was at the northern end of “winery row” in Woodinville, and the satellite photos suggested the operations were in a warehouse building.  When I arrived, I had to hunt a little for the winery’s office, which had not yet opened.  (It was 10:50am.)  I peeked in through a window and saw a disappointing tasting bar set up inside.  So, I decided to go on to the second stop and come back later in the day.  While trying to park at lunchtime, I made a wrong turn and ended up in the parking lot of the actual DeLille tasting room, which was much nicer than the shabby warehouse office.  So, after lunch, I knew precisely where to go.  After all, I had been told good things about this place and was reluctant to omit it from my trip, so I was happy to have found it.

The entrance to DeLille Cellars' tasting room

The DeLille tasting room is modest, both from the street and from within.  The outside resembles a tidy ranch home that has been well kept, with nice landscaping surrounding the butter-yellow exterior of the home.  A double door welcomes visitors inside, where a long, narrow salon has been set up for tasting and sales.  The floor is done in a darker hardwood with rich variations in color, while the walls carry the exterior butter color inside.  A small tasting bar on the left of the room serves customers during disagreeable weather.  In contrast to the simple tasting room is the ample patio area where they pour wine in the good weather.  This being Seattle, I don’t image the patio gets used nearly as much as it would in Northern California.  But, we were in luck because some of the season’s best weather was taking place during our visit.  There are some covers for the patio area, suggesting it can continue to be used during light rain.

Inside the DeLille tasting room

Visiting DeLille during mid-September means we missed out on some of their wines which have already sold out and the next vintages were not yet available.  Because of this, our tasting flight was limited to three wines.  We started our tasting with the 2012 Doyenne Métier (a Rhone-style blend).  This was followed by the 2011 DeLille Four Flags (a Meritage blend).  The flight ended with the 2013 DeLille Chaleur Estate Blanc.  Of these three wines, I enjoyed the 2012 Métier better than the other two, but I found the style of all the wines to be fruit-restrained and very dry.  I wonder if the wines that were sold out tasted better than these three.

Based on this experience, I would rate the winery a 4 and the wines poured a 5.