WOODHOUSE FAMILY CELLARS -
WOODINVILLE, WA
For our inaugural Featured
Winery it only made sense for us to go local.
But how would we ever choose with so many fine
wineries in western Washington? So, after some
deliberation on this problem, with no clear
answer, we decided to hit the bottle. In fact,
it’s only appropriate that we drink some wine
right now while typing this feature, but that’s
beside the point. We went to many tasting rooms,
tried many bottles, and researched many wineries
and there was one that stood out to us not only
for its superb wines, but for its unique
attitude and contributions back to the
Washington community.
 We are speaking
of Woodhouse Family Cellars based out of
Woodinville, Washington. For this piece we were
able to spend a comfortable afternoon with owner
Bijal Shah, who founded Woodhouse with his wife
Sinead, and Marketing Director Abbey Baker.
Sitting in their tasting room, which also serves
as a 1200 sq. ft. banquet facility for private
events, we were able to talk about wine, the
Woodhouse labels, and their new winery/event
center. Here is what
followed:
WC: How did
you decide to make the jump from wine collector
to wine owner?
BS: “A Pissed
Off Wife!”
In the mid 80’s Bijal, a long
time fashion industry executive, involved in
design and manufacturing, was traveling around
the world for work. During his travels he would
buy wine for his personal collection, sometimes
coming home with up to 300 bottles a
month.
At the time, wine wasn’t a well known
or appreciated beverage in the state of
Washington, as it is today. Often times Bijal’s
friends would come over, who were beer drinkers
and didn’t know cheap wine from quality wine,
and drink up some of his most valuable bottles.
Sinead, Bijal’s wife, was having a hard enough
time coping with the quantity of wine he was
bringing home each month, but his friends
drinking all the good stuff was the last
straw.
It was this reason that Bijal spoke
with his uncle, winemaker Tom Campbell, about
making their own wine. Tom was already an
accomplished and respected winemaker in the
state of Washington, so along with being family
he was the obvious choice. Shah and Campbell sat
down and went over all the things they wanted
from this wine and Darighe, a Bordeaux style
blend, was born.
Initially, their goal was to
make 100 cases per year, 50 to drink and 50 to
give away to friends/family. “It was all about
having something good to drink and never
supposed to be a business.” That all changed
however, when a few cases of the wine got out to
some local restaurants and the calls started
coming in demanding to get more of their
fantastic blend.
WC:
Besides Darighe you currently have 3 other
labels as well, why do you use different labels
for your wine?
BS: “It’s a
common mistake by consumers to choose the wrong
vintage or varietal with all the labels being
the same.”
“When you ask someone to grab
a bottle from your cellar, or pick you up a
bottle at the store, especially if they were
inexperienced with wines, they would have to
sift through a handful of years or varietals
from the same label potentially picking the
wrong one.” Instead Shah makes it easy by
creating four different varietals all with
different names and labels, and all housed under
the Woodhouse Family Cellars brand.
“This
makes for easy recognition” with each varietal
falling under a different label, all of which
are named after the Shah’s family and friends
with the exception of Darighe, their first
label. The name Darighe, which is Gaelic for
“red”, was inspired by Sinead, a United 777
pilot of Irish-English descent. The Maghie and
Dussek labels are named after friends, while the
Kennedy Shah label is named for their
daughter.
WC: What’s
next, is there a fifth label coming
out?
BS:
“Hudson”
Named after a friend from
Microsoft, it’s going to be a small production
(100 cases at $45/bottle) run of high-end
Chardonnay, eventually leading into other white
varietals.
WC: One of
the things that drew us to your winery was all
the work you do with charities, can you tell us
how you got into that?
BS:
“I was tired of all the rubber chicken
dinners.”
“Posing as charity events,
these dinners were really just an excuse for 600
noisy people to get together, eat shitty food
and get drunk off bad wine.” It was at these
dinners that Shah noticed most people didn’t
even care what the event was for, and would just
pay to attend for the social gathering, but not
donate past filling their stomachs. “Something
has to really hit the heart to get people to
donate.” It’s from the heart that the Shah’s
created the Kennedy Shah Foundation, which
donates to a mixture of women’s and children’s
charities.
After the birth of their daughter
Kennedy, the Shah’s decided to combine their
passions for wine and charity by creating a wine
(and foundation) that gave back to the
community. So, the Kennedy Shah label was
created, with a collection of offerings
including a Chardonnay/Chenin Blanc blend, a
Syrah, a Merlot blend and a Cabernet, from which
20% of the profits were donated back to the
charities of their choosing.
The Shah’s also
hold events at their winery to raise money for
their charities as well. Originally this space
was intended to only hold wine and a 200 square
foot tasting room, but with the exposure gained
from their charity work, a first class kitchen
and tasting bar was donated by Viking. The end
result became today’s 1200 square foot tasting
and event hall, known as Kennedy’s
Kitchen.
After costs, all money remaining
from each event is donated back to charity. An
event here won’t resemble the rubber chicken
dinners of Shah’s past; they have Daniel’s
catering chef Bradley Dickenson to cook up food
that pairs perfectly with the Woodhouse Wines.
Shah’s newest charity project is based around
providing better, more balanced and nutritious
school lunches to children.
You can visit
the Woodhouse Family cellars tasting room in
Woodinville, Washington, on Tuesday through
Friday: 12-4pm, Saturday and Sunday: 12-5pm. A
$5 fee will be charged for each tasting and can
be applied to any purchase. If you are
interested in booking an event at the winery
contact Abbey Baker by phone at (425) 527-0608
or e-mail at abbey@woodhouse-usa.com.
Woodhouse Family
Cellars
15500 Woodinville
Redmond Road NE
Suite C600
Woodinville,
Wa. 98072
Phone: (425)527-0608
Fax:
(425)527-0609
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