Evergreen Escapes Wacky Quacky Holiday Lights and Wine Tour

Are you in Seattle for Christmas/New Years or will you be traveling there? If so, I want to tell you about a fantastic holiday venture that will delight any food and wine lover! The Wacky Quacky Holiday Lights and Wine Tour!

Evergreen Escapes has teamed with Ride the Ducks of Seattle, Fall Line Winery, and Maven Meals for a ride through downtown Seattle to view the prettiest light displays, followed by the ultimate food and wine experience at the Fall Line tasting room.

Lights Tour: This is the ceiling of the vehicle. All decked out for the holidays!! The vehicle is semi-open, so bundle up and cover up with the blankets provided in the vehicle (the DUKW 'Duck' -- an amphibious landing craft developed by the U.S. Army during World War II) on the tour.

This is Macy's display, which is right across from the Mayflower Park Hotel where we stayed.

Trees in Occidental Park were dressed in sweaters!

De-boarding the amphibious. I loved this kid's Angry Birds hat.

Then it was into a HEATED caravan :) and onto Fall Line Winery for the food and wine pairing (don't worry, the kid was not on the wine portion of the tour and only there for the duck!)

 

The winery name: The owner of Fall Line, Tim Sorenson, and his wife Nancy Rivenburgh are both avid skiers, and the name Fall Line worked because a perfectly balanced skier will leave behind a "fall line" on a slope.

 

After 4 years of winemaking studies and apprenticeship, they founded Fall Line Winery in June 2003 and in 2004, moved it to the South Seattle neighborhood of Georgetown (its present location.)

Really cool map of Washington AVA's was on the wall.

The tasting room was decorated so pretty with lights and little herb baskets (containing rosemary and sage). The lights in the room were turned down and the tables were lit with candles.

Food (provided by Seattle's Maven Meals) and wine for the evening were set up at three stations. The first station (the Snoqualmic Pass Station) featured this table of appetizers which included locally made Beecher's Cheeses, cured meats, an olive tapenade, and a roasted vegetable spread. The wines for this course included a 2008 Red Mountain Artz Vineyard Bordeaux-Style Blend and a 2008 Yakima Valley Boushey Vinyeard Bordeaux-Style Blend.

 

Tim Sorenson, the winemaker.

At the Crystal Mountain Station, a Carnival Squash Lasagna layered with a sage bechamel sauce and cheeses was served with a garlicky grilled broccoli. This pairing included two more wines, the 2008 Red Willow Vineyard - Yakima Valley and a 2009 El Otro - Yakima Valley Tempranillo with which the BF absolutely fell in love (before he found out it was rated 92 points in Wine Advocate)!

Station 3 was Hurricane Ridge and a Brandied Cranberry Short Rib served with Whipped Garlic Red Skin Potatoes. We sampled this dish while sipping a 2009 Exhibition - Yakima Valley (my favorite wine besides the Tempranillo served at the earlier station, and a blend of 46% cabernet franc, 34% merlot, 16% cabernet sauvignon, 4% tempranillo). The last wine of the evening was the 2009 Cabernet Sauvignon - Yakima Valley.

Dessert was a duo of Spice Cake with Maple Cream Cheese Frosting and a Bittersweet Chocolate Cake. They went over very well with the crowd around me as I had another glass of the Exhibition instead. I really want to stress that no one was left hungry and the portions were sizable. If there was something left on the table and you wanted another taste, you were welcome to have it. The same goes for the wines.

And here's Tim at the end of the evening, adding up all the wine my BF bought!
A whole case of Tempranillo, and another case of mixed wine.

Do you want to get in on this tour and wine/food tasting fun?? There are still seats remaining for December 23rd and December 30th! You can book your experience here. Also, if you are a participant on the Holiday Lights and Wine tour, you will receive a 15% discount on a purchase of three bottles of wine or more.

You can find Evergreen Escapes on Facebook here and on twitter here.

Ride the Ducks is on Facebook here and on twitter here.

Fall Line Winery's Facebook page is here.

Maven Meals is on Facebook here and on twitter here.