Leavenworth is closer to the
main grape growing parts of Washington state than is Seattle,
and also has some local wineries in the immediate vicinity.
That, and the town's successful
focus on tourism, has created a locus of opportunity for
wineries, with the result being there are a number of excellent
wine sampling opportunities, both in the local township itself
and in the wineries near by.
If you're visiting Leavenworth
(and you should - see our related series about
visiting Leavenworth) then
a day or afternoon of wine tasting is a great way to add to the
range of experiences in this lovely part of Washington.
Wineries and/or Tasting Rooms
If you're wanting to visit wineries on their estates, then
you'll want to travel outside of downtown Leavenworth, obviously
enough. Click the link for
information on the estate
based wineries around Leavenworth.
But if you'd prefer to just stroll around beautiful downtown
Leavenworth, visiting primarily wine tasting rooms (plus one
in-town winery too) then this article provides information on
the range of tasting
rooms in downtown Leavenworth. These are generally owned
by a winery located somewhere else that wishes to introduce the
public to its wines.
One of the benefits of visiting a series of tasting rooms in
downtown Leavenworth is that you could do this without needing
to drive. Walk downtown from your hotel accommodation,
then walk between tasting rooms, perhaps stay for some food at
one of the many restaurants
in Leavenworth, then walk back to your room at the end of a
lovely day.
Note that there is also one winery that is actually located in
downtown Leavenworth (Bergdorf Cellars), with what looks like a
nice tasting room but it is actually the public front to their
winery, which is out the back and below the wine tasting room.
So you can tour both a winery and tasting rooms, all in an easy
stroll along Leavenworth's main street (called Front St).
Self Touring Strategies
There is no need for guided tours complete with transport if
you're simply walking around the town, visiting tasting rooms.
There are currently five 'unique' tasting rooms, two tasting
rooms that have their wineries nearby, and one winery, all in
the downtown area. One more tasting room is currently
(June 09) in the process of getting its permissions and
approvals and is due to open shortly.
The chances are you won't wish to visit all eight (soon to be
nine) venues (update, Sept 2010 - there are now 11 tasting rooms
in Leavenworth). We suggest you avoid Bavarian Cellars, and
we suggest you do visit both Bergdorf Cellars (which is actually
a winery) and the tasting room immediately adjacent which
showcases wines from both Pasek Cellars and Willow Crest.
If you wanted to add another tasting room or two (and, after
all, you are walking, right?) then Okanogan Estate would
probably be our third choice. And then, if you're at
Okanogan Estate, well, Ryan Patrick is almost directly opposite,
so you may as well try and visit there too.
If four visits (with potentially as many as 33 different wines
being offered to you!) aren't enough, well, by all means stroll
or stagger some more to visit the other tasting outlets detailed
below, too.
Wineries and Tasting Rooms in Leavenworth Township
There are two tasting rooms in Leavenworth which are outlets
from the wineries close by : D'Vinery is the tasting room for
Eagle Creek, and, more obviously, the Icicle Ridge Winery
tasting room is for that winery. If you're planning on
visiting the wineries themselves, there's no need to visit their
tasting rooms too.
This leaves six other tasting rooms in downtown Leavenworth.
Here is information on all of them, in alphabetical order :
Bavarian
Cellars
208 9th Street
First alphabetically, but probably last by most other measures
is Bavarian Cellars, the Leavenworth outlet for Maison de
Padgett Winery, located in Zillah, WA.
A rather untidy small room down a side street offered tastings
for $2, which gave us the chance to taste six or more different
wines.
The wines were disappointing, and the red wines distinctively
brown, even though the man pouring them told us the bottles were
recently opened, and the vintages reasonably recent. We
didn't like any of the wines, and found their distinctive labels
unappealing as well.
However, it was interesting to taste one of their ports.
They have both a coffee and a vanilla infused port - we tried
the coffee port infusion. This was very light in color,
and had predominantly coffee notes layered on top of a more
traditional port base. It was an interesting flavor, but
as my brother commented, he thought a sip was great, but a whole
glass might be too much.
This is our last choice of wine tasting room in Leavenworth.
More information about the winery on
their website.
Baroness Cellars
939 Front Street
This is located upstairs on a mezzanine floor in the same
building as Bergdorf Cellars. We've not yet visited so
can't comment.
More details on
their website (which currently seems to be
down - or perhaps not yet published and up).
Bella Terrazza Vineyards
837 Front Street
Located in the main block of Leavenworth's main street, and
between Taste of Icicle Ridge Winery and Kestrel Vintners.
We've not yet visited so can't comment.
More details on
their website.
Bergdorf
Cellars
939 Front Street
This is both an attractive and spacious wine tasting room and
also (behind/below) the actual winery too, right in the downtown
heart of Leavenworth.
Bergdorf is a friendly place that offers tastings for $2.50.
You will probably be offered six or seven wines to taste, and on
the two times we visited, they were doing barrel tastings as
well as from regular bottles. Trying a wine direct from
the barrel is always fun (but not always a wonderful taste treat
- it is more an insight into the evolution of a wine's flavor
than it is an opportunity to taste it at its best).
Even though the winery made 3760 cases of wine in 2008 and plans
to make 4800 cases in 2009, the Assistant wine maker, Robert,
proudly told us that every single bottle of wine passes through
his hands almost twelve times during the total production
process.
They delight in challenging the conventional, such as putting
red wine in clear bottles, and using non-traditional bottle
shapes. Definitely a fun place to visit.
More details on
their
website.
Kestrel
Vintners
843 Front Street
This tasting room offers wines from the winery of the same name,
located in Prosser, WA.
Looking from outside like just another touristy souvenir shop,
inside you find a large wine bar area, plus space where you can
sit and drink wine by the glass or bottle. Of course, you
pay for this, but if you simply want to taste, the friendly
staff invite you to sample away, completely free of charge.
They have up to as many as 15 wines available for tasting,
including a lightly oaked Chardonnay that is made from the
oldest vines in Washington (they are 38 years old in 2009).
A less familiar wine for many might be their Viognier, an
intense flavored wine, strong on acid, but with some sweetness
too.
More details on
their website.
Leavenworth
Tasting Room
(Pasek Cellars and Willow Crest)
939-B Front Street
Located immediately next to Bergdorf Cellars is another of our
favorite tasting rooms. This one offers wines from two
independent but allied wineries, Pasek Cellars, in Mt Vernon in
the western part of Washington, and Willow Crest Winery, located
in Prosser, WA. Willow Crest grows the grapes for both
itself and also for Pasek.
They have an attractive tasting room (yes, that is a giant
wooden bear you see directly outside on the sidewalk) with
friendly staff inside. Tastings are free, and you can look
forward to enjoying perhaps seven different wines, being a mix
of wines from both wineries.
Pasek seems to concentrate more on fruit wines, although they
have a few regular wines as well. Willow Crest have a more
traditional range of wines, and both companies have very fair
pricing if you choose to buy any of their product.
More details on the websites for
Pasek and
Willow Crest.
Monaco's Corner Store
703 Front Street
This is a store full of junky sort of souvenirs and other
tourist kitsch, but if you make your way to the back of the
store, they sell some wines and beers and on the weekends will
sometimes have a wine or two that they are featuring with
tastings.
If you're walking past, you may as well walk on in to see if
there is anything on offer.
Okanogan
Estate and Vineyards
633 Front Street
Located down a steep flight of stairs, and opposite Ryan Patrick
is this tasting room, which is a form of cooperative of several
wine makers in Oroville, WA, located in the Okanogan Valley just
south of the Canadian border.
Their tasting room is worth going down the stairs to reach, and
offers two different types of tasting. $3 buys you the
chance to taste a selection of five wines, and if you're willing
to pay $5, you not only get to taste potentially as many as 12
different wines, but many of them are paired with recommended
cheeses or salamis or chocolate.
The wine and food pairings were inspired, and the food item
definitely brought out new aspects of each wine. For this
reason rather than the chance to get 12 wine tastes, we urge you
to choose this option - and if you're like us, you'll probably
trim down the range of wines you try to just those that interest
you.
One wine of note was an unusually dry and very pleasant 2007
Riesling, quite distinctively different from most other
Rieslings commonly encountered.
More details on
their website.
Ryan
Patrick Vineyards
636 Front Street
This tasting room represents the winery of the same name, based
in Quincy WA, and is named after the winemaker's son.
The smallish tasting room is however clean and neat, and
tastings are offered for $2. You'll get about seven
tastings in return for your $2.
Most of their wines are reds, including an unusual wine not
commonly found in the US - a Barbera, which is an Italian grape.
An interesting flavor and distinctively different from the usual
orbit of Cab/Merlot/Syrah type flavors.
More details on
their
website.
Stemilt Creek
220 9th St, Suite K (Obertal Mall)
Another new wine tasting room, just off the main street, and in
the Obertal Mall on 9th St. This is an outlet for a small
winery in the Wenatchee area, but which doesn't have on-site
tasting at the winery.
We've yet to visit, so can't comment further.
More details on
their website.
Swakane Winery Tasting Room
725 Front Street
This is another recently opened tasting room. The winery
it supports is over in the Wenatchee area (a few miles north of
the city), so if you like the experience in the tasting room, it
is only a short drive to the winery itself.
We've yet to visit either the tasting room or the winery.
More details on
their
website.
Food Too
If you'd like to eat during your day of wine tasting (and who
doesn't), please refer to our page about
Leavenworth restaurants.
Part
eight of a series on wine trail touring in WA, see
also
1.
About the US wine industry in general
2. Wine making in Washington state
3.
Wine touring in Washington state
4. Wine costs, pricing, and quality
5.
Wine trail
tours and tasting around Seattle - the large wineries
6.
Touring the
boutique wineries in the Woodinville area
near Seattle
7. Wine trail tours
around Leavenworth
8. Wine tasting in
downtown Leavenworth
Related Articles, etc
|
If so, please donate to keep the website free and fund the addition of more articles like this. Any help is most appreciated - simply click below to securely send a contribution through a credit card and Paypal.
|
Originally published
19 Jun 2009, last update
30 May 2021
You may freely reproduce or distribute this article for noncommercial purposes as long as you give credit to me as original writer.
|