Barking Frog at Willows Lodge Wine Dine Experience

Barking Frog at Willows Lodge Wine Dine Experience


Our final culinary dining experience during our Seattle Culinary and Washington Wine Tour was dinner at the Barking Frog restaurant in the Willows Lodge resort.

Barking Frog is the fine dining establishment in the Seattle wine country suburb of Woodinville, home to, reportedly, over a hundred wine tasting venues.

Once again, it was a delight to have son Ryan along with us for the trip to share the experience.

We scored a dinner reservation from local Somm and wine room manager at one of the premier tasting rooms.

Barking Frog have an excellent wine list but we took one bottle BYOB, that son Ryan obtained from the Library collection at Long Shadows cellars, a 2004 Pirouette Bordeaux Blend.  This label was one of the wines we tasted and acquired at Long Shadows, one of their Vintners Collection Winemaker Series featuring world class winemakers collaborating to showcase the best art of the possible from Washington State vineyards.

Pirouette Bordeaux Blend is crafted by Augustin Hunneeus, Sr and Philippe Melka, noted for Napa Valley leading wine labels. We hold this wine in our cellar back at home but had not yet tasted this vintage. We also hold many other Philppe Melka labels from his own Melka brand as well as many others for which he is consulting winemaker.

Like we did for our other culinary ventures this week, we chose the Price Fixe tasting menu to follow the chef's suggestion for the pairings and courses.

Here were our course selections:

• Seared Hudson Valley Foie Gras
• Heirloom tomatoes with basil, urfa biber, cherries/buratta and noble xo
• Asparagus with farro fries, parmesan tuile, spring herbs and lemon tarragon aioli
• Atlantic Sea Scallops with artichoke, fava beans, cipollini onions, onion soubise and porcini nage
• Beef  ribeye  w/ whipped potatoes,  asparagus and sauce chasseur
•  For the final course, Linda had the Vanilla Bean Creme' Brulee and I had the Trio of Sorbets

From the winelist we ordered a sparkling wine starter and a dessert wine for the finale.

What a treat, our second Inniskillin Ice Wine in as many weeks!  Ryan had the Sauterne which, while wonderful, was not a match for the Inniskillin. 

Inniskillin Niagara Estate Riesling Icewine 2015

Château Roûmieu-Lacoste Sémillon-Sauvignon Blanc Blend 2015

Our Dinner Plates:

Hudon Valley Foie Gras

Heirloom tomatoes with basil

Asparagus with farro fries

Beef Ribeye

https://www.willowslodge.com/barking_frog/

Seattle Wine and Dine - Washington State Wines Tasting in Woodinville

Seattle Wine and Dine - Washington State Wines Tasting in Woodinville

We traveled to Seattle for a multipurpose trip including exploring the Seattle Culinary scene and to visit the Washington wine (tasting) area of Woodinville. We had several superb dinners and then ventured to the wine country where we targeted a select group of producers that we know to produce or that were recommended to us for their premium high quality labels. All in all it was a spectacular trip having several outstanding culinary dinners including extraordinary wine and food pairings. 

Washington State wines are coming of their own achieving new heights in quality and recognition. The number of  Washington wineries has increased 400% in the last decade and has grown proportionally as a tourism industry. It is the nation's second largest wine producer. Interestingly, the area is geographically located on approximately the same latitude (46ºN) as some of the great French wine regions of Bordeaux and Burgundy. Washington State wine growing areas are now officially recognized in 14 federally recognized American Viticultural Areas (AVAs), also commonly known as appellations.  The vineyards producing wine grapes in the fourteen different appellations lie in the Columbia Valley river basin that cuts through the center of the state from North to South and then turns west separating Oregon from Washington as it heads to the Pacific.

American Viticultural Areas, or AVAs, are geographical wine grape growing regions in the United States. Their boundaries are defined by the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) and established at the request of wineries or other petitioners. Washington State currently has 14 AVAs.

Since the vineyards and their producer wineries are several hours from any population centers, producers have created a wine tasting mecca in the Seattle outer suburb of Woodinville, north and east of the city. Several dozen producers have tasting rooms in freestanding venues and in several commercial centers that in any other locale across the country could be mistaken for neighborhood strip malls or regional outlet malls.

According to the Willows Lodge website, where they promote their wine tasting and tour weekend packages, there are 115 wineries or tasting rooms representing every Washington State appellation in the Woodinville Wine Country. 


Wineries visited and wines tasted:

Den Hoed Andreas Walula Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon
Fidelitas Winery

Guardian Winery

Long Shadows Wine Cellars

Mark Ryan Winery, Tasting Room, Woodinville

Chateau St Michelle, Woodinville

Fine dining restaurants where we dined during the trip:

Canlis Restaurant, Seattle

Barking Frog Restaurant at the Willows Lodge in Woodinville

RN74 Restaurant in Seattle

 

Long Shadows Cellars feature world class winemakers and Columbia Valley fruit

Long Shadows Cellars feature world class winemakers and Columbia Valley fruit

A major highlight of our Seattle Culinary and Washington Wine Tour was a visit to the Long Shadows Wine Cellars tasting room. Long Shadows is an extraordinarily and unique concept in collaboration between world class distinguished wine makers and grape growers in the Washington Columbia Valley. 

Long Shadows was the creation of Allan Shoup, leader of Chateau St Michelle from 1983 to 2000. There he introduced Washington State grapes to winemakers from around the world in collaboration to produce quality wines. 

After retirement from Chateau St Michelle he founded Long Shadows to produce world class ultra-premium wines in Washington. He built a state of the art winery in Walla Walla and recruited a team of legendary producers to craft signature wines from the best vineyards' fruit from the Washington Columbia Valley. Three years into the new venture Long Shadows was awarded the Winery of the Year by Food and Wine Magazine. 

Shoup recruited a top winemaker with expertise and a track record producing best in class wine in each category or type of wine based on varietal grape. Marketed under the Vintners Collection, each of the Long Shadows labels in a testament to the legend of the winemaker for each label based on each varietal. The winemakers and their wine labels are:

Randy Dunn and Feather Cabernet Sauvignon - Randy has been producing Dunn Family Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon in the Napa Valley for three decades. 

Philip Melka and Augustin Huneeus - Noted for Napa Valley leading wine labels, they produce a Washington State Bordeaux Blend under the label Pirouette. 

Philip was named by Robert Parker as one of the Top Ten Winemaker Consultants in the World. He earned his handicraft at legendary Chateau Haut Brion and has consulted for notable Napa labels including Gemstone, Hundred Acre, Lail, Seavey, Vineyard 29, Bryant Family Vineyards, Caldwell, Cliff Lede, Dalla Valle, and with Augustin at his well known Quintessa.

 

This is the Syrah varietal member of collection and was crafted by legendary John Duval who was winemaker for Australia’s iconic Penfolds Grange for 16 years. John Duval came to Washington State's Columbia Valley in 2003 as the “sequel” to his life’s work with Syrah. 

Saggi is a Super Tuscan style blend produced by Ambrogio and Giovanni Folonari, producers from one of Tuscany's leading wine families dating back to the 1700's. 

Pedestal Merlot is a Merlot produced by Michael Rolland, PhD and winemaker for or advisor to some of the world's most exclusive wineries across Bordeaux including top producers Clinet, l'Evangile, and Ausone in St Emilion and Pomerol.

Rolland's has been involved in notable projects outside of Bordeaux including some of the highly regarded Napa Valley wineries including Dalla Valle Vineyards, Jericho Canyon Vineyard, Harlan Estate, Staglin Family Vineyard, and Bryant Estate. 

Lastly, Chester Kidder, a new world blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah and other Bordeaux varietals. Named after Allan Shoup's grandparents, Charles Chester and Maggie Kidder, this wine is crafted by Long Shadow's director of winemaking Gilles Nicault. Gilles is also the winemaker for the Den Hoed wine label that we tasted during this trip with one of our culinary gourmet meals.

We've known the Long Shadows brand and have collected the Pirouette and Feather labels since the earliest vintages. We're long time fans of both Randy Dunn and Phillip Melka, producer of those labels. We hold more than a dozen vintages of Randy Dunn's Napa Valley and Howell Mountain Cabernets dating back to the early 1980's. We hold nearly a dozen vintages of Philip Melka wines marketed under numerous labels. 

The tasting at Long Shadows of the most recent releases prompted us to join their highest participating level club to ensure allocation of each vintage of each of these labels going forward. 

Long Shadows Vintners Collection

Julia’s Dazzle Rose’ 2017

Long Shadows Wineries Riesling Poet's Leap 2017

Pedestal Columbia Valley Merlot 2015 by Michel Rolland
Blended w/ Cabernet sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot

Feather Columbia Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 2015 by Randy Dunn

Pirouette Bordeaux Blend 2015 by Augustin Hunneeus, Sr and Philippe Melka
Cabernet Sauvignon 65%, Merlot 21%, Petit Verdot 11%, Malbec 3%

Chester Kidder Columbia Valley Red Wine Cabernet Sauvignon 2015 by Gilles Nicault
Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah, Merlot

Sequel Columbia Valley Syrah 2015 By John Duvall, renowned winemaker for Penfolds Grange

More to follow ...