My sister, Patty, and her husband Joe booked a cruise out of San Diego for the weekend following my Seattle seminar. It was the perfect opportunity for them to stop-over in Phoenix for a visit, but I already made plans to go to Seattle on Thursday for some sight-seeing and winery hopping prior to the weekend. Patty got it all worked out for a Phoenix-Seattle-SanDiego west coast tour!

We flew up to Seattle on Thursday morning and met up with my bud, Dr. Chris Pierce, who flew in from Portland, Oregon to meet us. Chris shares my passion for fine wine and good fun, and earlier in the year, I shared a bottle of 2003 Chaleur Estate from Delille Cellars, a gorgeous Washington State Bordeaux blend, that Chris just had to get to know better. We booked an appointment for the Friday at Delille Cellars in Woodinville, Washington, about a 30 minute drive from Seattle for a private tasting.

To start our journey, we shot downtown for some fresh seafood for lunch. We popped in to the Flying Fish and luckily were able to get a table right away. We started with kumamoto oysters, my favorite bivalves, along with a cool bootle of L'Ecole No.41 2006 Seven Hills Vineyard Estate Semillion, from Walla Walla, WA. I've had alot of Semillion in my travels to Australia, and I thought it would pair well with the oysters. In fact, it fared so well, we ordered another bottle to have with our mains.

Then it was off to Chateau Ste. Michelle for a look at their perfectly manicured grounds and large scale production of Washington State wines. We booked a private tasting there which was quaint and enjoyable.

My friend Tom Sanford turned me on to Michael Januik's wines a year earlier, so I was eager to visit his new tasting room. In addition to his own wines, Mike makes wine for Novelty Hill. The two independent wineries share a production facility and tasting room in Woodinville.

Mike was the winemaker at Chateau Ste. Michelle prior to going out on his own sourcing his fruit from a collection of top-flight Columbia Valley vineyards.

The highlight of the day for me, however, was the winemaker's dinner that I booked at

Matthews Cellars. Upon arriving at Matthews Estate, we were greeted with a glass of their current release Sauvinon Blanc and entered the cellar room where dinner was to be served. We visited with fellow oenophiles as we munched on wonderful array of passed hors d’ oeuvres from nearby Iris Grill. Terrific Matthew's Cellar wines were paired with a four-course meal beginning with an Arugula salad and blood-red oranges; followed by home-made pasta, seared halibut paired with Matthew's Pinor Noir, and finally, breast of duck with Matthew's Bordeaux blend.

Established in 1993 by Matthew Loso, Matthews Estate is located on an eight-acre estate in Woodinville, WA, about twenty minutes northeast of Seattle. Matthews specializes in limited production clarets, incorporating traditional Bordeaux varietal grapes grown in the Columbia Valley.

As the evening concluded, we were invited to barrel sample a private reserve Syrah that they were crafting directly from the french oak barrel. It was full of blueberry and blackberry fruit characteristic of the grape.

I left with two of their 5-year verticals of Matthews Bordeaux blends for my own cellar.

On Friday, we leisurely made our way back to Woodinville for lunch at the Barking Frog at Willows Lodge. This casual bistro featuring country fresh Northwest cuisine has earned rave reviews and we all enjoy the classy and relaxed atmosphere.

We then ventured over for our appointment at Delille Cellars where we enjoyed a private tasting of their current releases.

Delille's Shawna Carpenter poured us samples of their Doyenne Roussanne, Chaleur Estate Blanc, Chaleur Estate Red, Doyenne Aix, and the Doyenne Syrah. Our "wine of the day" was the 2005 Harrison Hill. Chris and I both raved about the wine.

We headed back to the hotel to assist with seminar set-up, and hooked up with our seminar team

for a night out on the town. We, of course, had to visit my favorite Seattle restaurant, Ray's Boathouse. Ray's is a Seattle icon, perched right on the Puget Sound, first introduced to me by my friend, and DocumentPlus owner, Hale Spiegelberg. Hale and I have been there many times during my seminars for their fresh oysters, manilla clams, dungeness crab, and fresh fish. It's just something you have to do when you're in Seattle.

On Saturday, it was back to business. I hosted our Seattle seminar with Team Neuromechanical. Dr. Chris Pierce headed home for Portland, and Patty and Joe set out to tour downtown Seattle and Pike's Market prior to embarking on Sunday morning for their Mexican cruise out of San Diego. And a good time was had by all!