Cascade Cliffs Tasting Room

Good atmosphere, nice wines. I like the Barbera the best. The staff is knowledgeable and friendly. Make it a place to stop!

Great people, nice space, good education. …
Barbera’s are very nice. The Nebbiolo was quite interesting, light but big body.
Certainly worth the visit

Cascade Cliffs may very well be the newest kids on the Woodinville tasting block. The tasting room occupies a nice, new space a bit off the beaten path on Wood-​Red road, but there are a couple of wineries in the same little complex they’re in and a small pod of them across the street, so you could easily hit several tasting rooms on foot and make a day of it. Their tasting room is clean and elegant, and the gentleman who helped us was very friendly and did his best to be attentive to us even though we managed to get there in the middle of a big rush. So, score some points for ambiance and customer service.
The wines were a mixed bag. There was a well executed Gewürztraminer with some nice aromatics. That was followed by three reds that were a big disappointment, mostly because their acidity was out of balance with their other components. This was especially evident in the Nebbiolo, which had some interesting flavors and aromas going on that got lost in the overall impression of tartness. Speaking of the Nebbiolo, they were charging $ 50 a bottle for it, which is too much. I get that Neb is a challenging grape to work with, etc., but this is Washington and not the Piedmont. In general, the prices were steep on the wines, with even the Gewurz coming in at 24 bucks a pop, which isn’t exactly outrageous but is noticeably above the high tens you’ll see for most Washington GT’s.
Just when we were about to write them off, though, our host capped the tasting with a pour of their Blood Red Barbera. Well, color me intrigued. This wine is not at all what you think off when you think of Barbera; in fact, it’s best described as an attempt to make Port with Barbera, except for the part where you actually make Port. The grapes were harvested at 30 brix (that means they were really ripe and sweet) and while it wasn’t fortified (like a Port would be) it still tasted of big ripe, ripe fruit and even sported some residual sugar that gave it a luscious mouth-​feel and, for once, effectively balanced the acid. This is a good wine, though not an everyday drinker. Good thing, too, because it’s priced at $ 75 a bottle.
Bottom line: My trip to Cascade Cliffs left me perplexed. The lion’s share of the wines didn’t do a lot for me, or, more to the point, particularly exemplify great wine making. And, I’m not sure that a good Gewurtz and a really good Barbera/​Port hybrid thingamabob are enough to redeem their overly tart cousins. What finally tipped the scales for me, though, was the pricing, which was just too much for what you were getting, even for the Barbera.