Can\u2019t get enough of Washington wines? Then consider attending Taste Washington, the state\u2019s premiere food and wine tasting event at Century Link Field Event Center in Seattle.<\/p>\n
This year\u2019s Grand Tasting has expanded from one to two days on March 31 and April 1 and over 200 Washington wineries are scheduled to attend.<\/p>\n
Also featured will be a number of food and wine-related exhibitors as well as dozens of Northwest restaurants that offer bites for noshing during your wine tasting.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve attended this event for several years and found that it\u2019s easy to get caught up in the sensory overload of sounds, tastes, and aromas. Should you plan to attend, let me offer a few suggestions to help maximize your enjoyment: <\/p>\n
\u2022\tDon\u2019t try to do too much, too soon. If you start drinking every full sample you\u2019re poured you won\u2019t make it past the first hour.<\/p>\n
Pace yourself and you\u2019ll cover more territory. I usually select one wine per winery and try just a sip or two. I also focus on white wines during the first half of the event, red wines in the latter half. Also remember that tasting and spitting is not only acceptable, it\u2019s practical.<\/p>\n
\u2022\tEat some food. Most restaurant stations are sprinkled between the wineries, allowing you to grab a nibble and absorb some alcohol intake without missing a beat from your wine tasting agenda.<\/p>\n
And while many wine festivals provide just a smattering of breads and cheeses, Taste Washington offers a much wider variety of superbly prepared food samples such as oysters, grilled steak, pastas, and Asian cuisine. <\/p>\n
\u2022\tExercise wine tasting etiquette. Nothing bothers me more than a person or two who park in front of the wine bar, monopolize a conversion with whoever is serving, and insist on trying every wine in sight. <\/p>\n
Use a little common sense and respect your fellow wine tasters by taking a sample and stepping to the side. You can still chat with the server while allowing others to have a taste and keep things moving behind you.<\/p>\n
\u2022\tHave fun! And with great food and Washington wine, how could you not?<\/p>\n
General admission to the Grand Tasting runs from 2 to 5 pm each day with VIP access from 1 to 5 pm. One and two day passes are available at a cost of $75 and $99, respectively, for general admission and $125 and $140 for the VIP option. Tickets can be purchased at tastewashington.org.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Can\u2019t get enough of Washington wines? Then consider attending Taste Washington, the state\u2019s premiere food and wine tasting event at Century Link Field Event Center in Seattle. This year\u2019s Grand Tasting has expanded from one to two days on March 31 and April 1 and over 200 Washington wineries are scheduled to attend. Also featured […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-830","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-from-the-bellingham-herald"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.danthewineguy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/830","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.danthewineguy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.danthewineguy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.danthewineguy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.danthewineguy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=830"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.danthewineguy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/830\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":835,"href":"https:\/\/www.danthewineguy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/830\/revisions\/835"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.danthewineguy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.danthewineguy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.danthewineguy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}