Drinking and Eating Media Tour in Whatcom County

A couple of weeks ago, we attended a Bellingham Whatcom County Tourism Media Tour in conjunction with the Bellingham Northwest Wine Festival. We had a wonderful time! And even though we’ve lived in the area for more than four years now, we found new places where we will definitely return.

The highlights: The Bellingham Northwest Wine Festival; a Washington wine dinner at B-Town Kitchen at Four Points by Sheraton Bellingham; a tour and flights at Twin Sisters Brewery and Beer Garden; wine tastings at Samson Estates Winery and Dynasty Cellars; and a delicious lunch and whiskey cocktails at 9 Restaurant at North Bellingham Golf Course.

In addition, other tour stops included Cosmos Bistro for a tasty breakfast; Bellingham Farmers Market (loved the dumplings at Dumpling Girls booth, pictured right); Waypoint Park Tour (one of the first tangible signs of the city’s waterfront redevelopment of the former Georgia-Pacific paper mill site); historic Hotel Leo (formerly known as Hotel Leopold, and transitioning to a boutique 31-room new hotel and 61-unit apartment building); Good Time Girls Walking Tour and Cloud Mountain Farm (whose grapes are pictured above).

Here are the highlights.

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Bellingham NW Wine Festival 2019

Mark your calendars for the fourth annual Bellingham Northwest Wine Festival on August 10 at Four Points by Sheraton. This is our favorite local summer wine event. Whether you live in Bellingham, Birch Bay, other parts of Whatcom County, or the Vancouver and Seattle areas, save the date and prepare to have fun. More than 55 wineries from Washington, Oregon and Idaho will be pouring up to 150 different wines. Two local distilleries and at least one northwest brewery will also participate.
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Bellingham NW Wine Festival

Mark your calendars for the third annual Bellingham Northwest Wine Festival on August 4 at Four Points by Sheraton. This is a fun event, whether you live in Bellingham, Birch Bay, other parts of Whatcom County, or the Vancouver and Seattle areas.

The wines that are poured will be the winners of gold, double gold and Best in Show from an earlier judged competition. More than 125 wineries will be pouring wines from “the only judged wine competition between Seattle and Vancouver.”
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Bellingham NW Wine Festival

IMG_3924More than 100 wines were poured at the inaugural Bellingham Northwest Wine Festival on Aug. 6, which was presented by Brigadoon Service Dogs  in collaboration with Growing Veterans, and benefitted disabled veterans’ programs.

IMG_3934Of course we couldn’t taste all the wines from 36 participating wineries but between the two of us, we found quite a few new wines that we never tasted before and hope to again in the future (e.g., Tucannon Cellars, Two Mountain and Jones of Washington), along with new releases of old favorites from Forgeron Cellars, William Church Winery and Cooper Wine Company.

Here is the list (in alphabetical order by winery):

  • Screen Shot 2016-08-14 at 10.12.50 AMCooper Wine Company: 2013 L’inzio (we’ve been fans of this Red Mountain beauty since its first vintage); 2012 Cabernet Franc; and Bud’s Blend “Gatekeeper,” named after Coop’s awesome winery dog
  • Dynasty Cellars: 2012 DCZ Zinfandel, a local Bellingham favorite
  • Forgeron Cellars: 2012 Cabernet Sauvignon, another fantastic release from our friend Marie-Eve Gilla in Walla Walla
  • Jones of Washington: 2012 Cabernet Sauvignon (the talk of the VIP room)
  • Lost River Winery: 2013 Cedars, a unique blend of 50% Cab Franc and 50% Merlot
  • Proper Wines: 2013 Estate Syrah for when you like your Syrah nice and funky
  • Revelry Vintners: 2013 “The Reveler” red blend
  • IMG_3926Tucannon Cellars: 2012 Cabernet Sauvignon, a great find from Red Mountain
  • Two Mountain Winery: 2013 Reserve Cabernet Franc
  • William Church Winery: 2013 Sur La Mer and 2013 Malbec (We’ve been long-time fans of both of these wines.)

Event organizer Zacchoreli Frescobaldi-Grimaldi told us that plans are already underway for the second festival in 2017, so mark your calendars now.

Cheers!
Margot and Dave