Chatter Creek Winery

Visited the Chatter Creek tasting room for a private dinner and wine pairing. Gordy was extremely knowledgeable and I enjoyed listening to him explain each blend.

My favorite was by far the Grenache! I enjoyed it so much, I bought a bottle after the dinner was through.

It was also nice to taste some of the juice that was in the early stage of the wine making process.

Definitely a tasting room worth visiting anytime you're in the Woodinville area.

Definetly my favorite woodinville winery, and there are a lot to choose from. The winemaker and staff are always friendly, knowledgeable, and approachable about the wines and process. The wines themselves are of a wonderful quality; refined and delicious without being overpowering or jammy.
My personal favorites: the Cabernet Franc, and the Nebbiolo

A pleasant "warehouse" style winery and tasting room, Chatter Creek offers several tastes for the $5 fee. On the occasion of our visit this past Saturday, we found the staff to be friendly and excited to gab with us about the Sounders' prospects. It was the weekend of their Malbec release and they were offering a tasty caprese bruschetta early-on and had we arrived a little later in the day we could have had lamb burgers as well. Although I'm not usually a fan of sweet wines, surpisingly I couldn't pass up Chatter Creek's Orange Muscat ($18)...looking forward to pairing it with a late spring brunch!

I love these guys: They know how to pour a taster! Don't be shy to ask for a refill. Met the big guy, Gordy, yet again. He always seems to be there and loves to talk about his bottles. Prices are more than fair for what you get. Staff is always friendly and well-informed. The wines are approachable and slightly earthy. Nothing too extreme with sweetness, dryness, tannins, etc. This winery is always a regular stop in W-ville for me.

Impressive selection, consistently pleasing, pleasantly surprising, and probably one of the best value wines in Washington. Five big stars!

PS. Thad, only 3 stars? What's your deal man?

Delicious varietal, small lot reds - Cab, Tempranillo and Cab Franc are my favorites. Tasting room is quaint with a wall of barrels aging right behind you. Winemaker is friendly and very knowledgeable. Great stop when in the warehouse district.

Incorporated in a dinner party I hosted this summer we walked down to the Warehouse Wineries. Of the many we visited Chatter Creek stood out as the best. Lovely verity of wines, excellent service. I'd rank the experience above the big boys of the area St Michelle and Columbia. Here they have the time to build a relationship with you over their passion of wine making, the whole tasting experience is a fuller more enjoyable experience.
Thanks Chatter Creek not only will I be back but I now look for your label in the stores.

It was Washington wine Passport weekend, and there were LOTS of wines to be tasted. Being the wine snob I am, I researched alot of the places to taste, and this wasn't participating in the "passport" aspect of the weekend, but due to the location, they in fact were doing tastings. OMG... this wine is GOOD. I bought one of every one we tried. Orange Muscat, A Blend, and a Garnache. All of these were about 20 bucks a bottle, plus I got an industry discount. Hooray! Seriously, when you go wine tasting, often times your palette goes flat after numerous tastings... but this one stood out. I can't wait to drink the wine I purchased from them.

The partner and I are spending more time in the Artisan Hill district just across the main drag from the Warehouses. Each trip so far has had at least one nice surprise and the latest one was Chatter Creek. The wine fare here is pretty standard for a Washington tasting room: on the red front a Merlot, a Right Bank style Bordeaux blend and a Barbera; on the non-red end of the wine spectrum a rosé and a Chard. The wines are all well made, though, as well as remarkably consistent in style. All of that goes a long way.

Our tasting started with a pour of the their 2010 Merlot. This wine was solid but probably the least exciting of the bunch. Pretty standard Washington Merlot -- medium body with a fair amount of red fruit on the nose and palate. Things picked up with the Bordeaux style. Driven by Merlot, this was an excellent, elegant medium bodied blend that balanced savory herbal and leather notes with plum and cherry on the palate. This would be a nice wine with simple French or American bistro fare. The Barbera, our next wine, was the real star of the reds. Barbera is a big, acidic grape but Gordy the winemaker reigned it in and kept both the body and the acidity of the wine at a balanced mid-level and let the cherry and chocolate notes in the palate do their thing. If your reservations are for a trattoria instead of a bistro, then this is your wine.

In a surprisingly bold move, the folks at Chatter Creek pour their rosé and their white after their reds (I'm still in shock, let me tell you). Whatever you think of the tasting strategy, the wines they were pouring were a treat. The rosé was nearly equally parts Cab Sauv, Merlot and Cab Franc (though slightly in favor of the Cab Sauv) with a minerally, chalky palate balanced by lots of cranberry flavors. They claim this wine is bone dry and it may be but the brightness of the fruit flavors will definitely make you think you're getting a whisper of sweetness in there. Either way, this is a great food wine and would be a nice sipper on a warm day. Last but not least we tried an excellent Chardonnay done on neutral French oak that preserved the clean tropical fruit notes and aromas of the grape (especially pineapple) but that also had creamy, bread dough notes from repeated lees stirring during aging.

We lucked out and had our wines poured by Gordy the winemaker along with a charming lady running the tasting bar. Gordy turned out to be a fountain of information about the Washington wine scene and both of them were great conversationalists in general, making for a very pleasant tasting experience.

Bottom line: Chatter creek is a great source of elegant wines that seem made for good food and good conversation. If that's what you're looking for, this is the place.

I tasted here on July 31, 2010

Tasting Fee = $5 [refundable with wine purchase]
6 wines were offered at this tasting:

- 2008 Orange Muscat [$18]
Think florals and nectarines & oranges & rosewater
A small joy
Its fruit sweet, not sugar sweet

- 2008 Pinot Gris [$15]
Smell the tart Fuji Apple
Lovely and crisp on the finish

- 2007 Chatterneuf-du-Pape [$22]
Syrah dominant, with Grenache & Mourvedre
Bramble on the nose, not too grassy
Slightly Tart
Good Acidity
Hints of Anise & Pepper
Smooth tannins

- 2006 Blend 105
Merlot dominant
Many cherry and berry notes
A pretty, feminine wine
A touch of cassis on the finish
Ready now

- 2007 Blend 105 [$22]
Predominantly Merlot
Lovely nose
Again, lots of cherry and berry, but also pepper
Bolder than the 2006
The tannins zing through the finish

- 2007 Malbec [$25]
I smelled cranberries on the nose
There's complexity
Black cherries mid-palate
Very Good Acidity
Food Friendly

Thanks Gordy - you're an artist...