Chateau Ste. Michelle opened on an old dairy farm here in 1976. Fifty years later more than 130 wineries pour Eastern Washington fruit 25 minutes from Seattle, with a paved river trail running past the tasting rooms.
Woodinville, Washington is a King County city of about 14,350 people in the Sammamish River Valley, 19 miles northeast of downtown Seattle, and it is home to more than 130 wineries. Almost none of the grapes grow here. Fruit is picked in vineyards east of the Cascades and trucked over the mountains every fall, and the wine is made and poured in four districts: Downtown, Hollywood, the Warehouse District and the West Valley.
The wine came late. Ira and Susan Woodin moved their family here from Seattle in 1871, and their home served as the first school and, from 1881, the first post office. Frederick Stimson finished his manor on Hollywood Farm in 1912, a year after the area around it was renamed Hollywood. In 1975 ground broke for Chateau Ste. Michelle on that farmland, and on September 22, 1976 it opened as Woodinville’s first winery. The town itself took longer: two incorporation votes failed before a third passed by 52 votes, and Woodinville became a city on March 27, 1993.
That order explains how to visit. Start in the Hollywood District, where Chateau Ste. Michelle, Woodinville Whiskey Co., Novelty Hill Januik and The Herbfarm sit along NE 145th Street and Woodinville Redmond Road. Give an afternoon to the business park tasting rooms of the Warehouse District, eat downtown in the Schoolhouse District, and walk or bike the Sammamish River Trail, 10.1 paved miles that pass right by the wineries.
One thing to know before you plan around the big name: Chateau Ste. Michelle changed hands in December 2025, when the Wyckoff family of the Yakima Valley bought it from a New York private equity firm. The tasting room is open Wednesday through Sunday.
Woodinville is 19.1 miles and about 25 minutes from downtown Seattle by car. There are two natural routes. SR 522 starts at I-5 in Seattle and runs northeast through Lake Forest Park and Bothell, crossing I-405 before it reaches Woodinville and continuing on to US 2 in Monroe. From the Eastside, take I-405 north to the SR 522 interchange in Bothell. Once you are in town, SR 202 begins at SR 522 northwest of downtown and runs south down the east side of the valley through wine country toward Redmond. Woodinville Wine Country’s own planning page puts it simply: easy access from I-405, SR 522 and SR 520.
Kirkland is 6.8 miles and about 13 minutes south, and Snohomish is 13.1 miles and about 20 minutes north. See our Seattle guide and Kirkland guide if you are building a longer trip.
Seattle Tacoma International Airport is 28.4 miles and about 34 minutes from Woodinville by car. Without a car, ride Link light rail north to Shoreline South/148th Station and transfer to Sound Transit’s ST Express 522, which runs between Shoreline and Woodinville about every 15 minutes through the day; the whole trip takes a little under two hours. Paine Field in Everett is the closer airport: the Hampton Inn in Woodinville puts it 15 miles from the hotel.
Woodinville Wine Country’s advice is the right advice: most districts are walkable, so plan the day around one, park once and spend it strolling and sipping. Uber and Lyft both work here, and local tour companies run everything from private town cars to shuttle buses and a 15 person party bike. Cycling is the other good answer. Park at Bothell Landing for a flat ride of about three miles along the river into Woodinville, or start at Marymoor Park in Redmond and pedal north through the valley to the Hollywood District.
Two parking notes. The Schoolhouse District garage downtown is free for customers, but you have to validate with your license plate number at each business, and you enter from NE 175th Street past the sports fields or from 133rd Avenue NE north of City Hall. In the Hollywood District, the Hollywood Tavern shares its lot with Woodinville Whiskey Co. and asks guests to rideshare or carpool. Our day in downtown Woodinville story covers the rest of the walkable core.
Chateau Ste. Michelle opened on September 22, 1976 as Woodinville's first winery, on the farmland where Frederick Stimson built his Hollywood Farm manor in 1912. The tasting room at 14111 NE 145th Street is open 11 AM to 5 PM Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday and to 7 PM Friday and Saturday, and the Feature Flight of four Reserve and Limited Release wines is $30, with reservations recommended. For a longer sit, The Somm's Table is a five course food and wine pairing for $110, and well behaved leashed dogs are welcome on the patio.
Lifelong friends Orlin Sorensen and Brett Carlile founded Woodinville Whiskey Co. in 2010, finished the distillery and tasting room in 2014, and sold to Moet Hennessy in 2017 while staying on to run it. The tasting room at 14509 Woodinville Redmond Road NE is open daily from 11 AM to 6 PM with no reservation needed, while full distillery tours require one. The mash starts with corn and rye from the Omlin Family Farm in Quincy, and every bourbon and rye ages at least five years in barrel houses there.
The district takes its name from the Hollywood Schoolhouse, built in 1912 and still standing on NE 145th Street, and it is where the biggest names in Woodinville wine sit next to small tasting rooms. Novelty Hill Januik at 14710 Woodinville Redmond Road NE pours daily from 11 AM to 4 PM, with house made charcuterie every day and oven fired pizzas Friday through Sunday, and DeLille Cellars pours and runs a restaurant at 14300 NE 145th Street. The Hurray for Hollywood Wine Pass covers four tastings at participating wineries if you want to plan a walking loop.
On the hill above town and SR 522, the Warehouse District trades scenery for density, with four sub neighborhoods: the original Warehouse Wineries, The Gateway, The Junction and Artisan Hill. This is where small producers lend each other equipment and hands at crush, and EFESTE at 19730 144th Avenue NE is one of the Passport to Taste wineries that requires reservations from pass holders. Come in September or October to see working wineries mid harvest, and pick up the Warehouse Wine Pass or Artisan Hill Wine Pass to keep tasting fees down.
Built around the restored Schoolhouse No. 23, a 1909 building, the Schoolhouse District is the walkable downtown block where L'Ecole No. 41 and McQueen Champagne Bar pour, next to Ballard Pizza Co., Jackson House, SheChill Patisserie and Sip and Scoop, with Flatstick Pub opening soon. The garage is free for customers but needs validation, so have your license plate number ready at each stop. The tenant list has changed since 2024, so check current hours before you go.
The West Valley District is a half dozen boutique wineries and distillers strung along the west side of the Sammamish River. Get on Woodinville Redmond Road at the Hollywood Tavern and head north to find them on both sides of the road. With fewer stops, you spend more time at each one, which makes it the quiet afternoon after a busy Hollywood morning.
King County's Sammamish River Trail runs 10.1 paved miles from its junction with the Burke Gilman Trail at Blyth Park in Bothell to Marymoor Park in Redmond, passing Wilmot Gateway Park, Woodinville's wineries and breweries and Sixty Acres Park, with views of the valley and Mount Rainier. Watch for bald eagles, great blue herons and salmon in the river, and use Wilmot Gateway Park downtown for accessible parking. A separate soft surface path for horses parallels the trail from NE 175th Street south to Marymoor.
The Woodinville Farmers Market sets up every Saturday from 10 AM to 2 PM, May through September, on Festival Street in the Schoolhouse District next to the Woodinville Sports Fields. Expect fruit, vegetables, flowers, honey, baked goods and artisan crafts. It accepts SNAP and EBT, WIC and FMNP, and Market Match, and it pairs well with a downtown tasting afterward.
21 Acres at 13701 NE 171st Street is an organic farm, an education center and a farm market in a LEED Platinum certified green building. The market is open year round Wednesday through Saturday, stocking Certified Organic or sustainably grown Washington produce, eggs, dairy and frozen grass pastured meats. Ask about tours of the green building and the organic farm before you go.
King County opened the Brightwater Treatment Plant in 2011 and built a 70 acre public preserve around it, with three miles of trail through a North Habitat, a sculpture filled Wetscape and a South Habitat along Howell Creek. Look for mergansers on Duck Pond and the salmon rehabilitation work at Otter Pond. The trails and lot are open dawn to dusk off SR 9 just north of town, parking holds 28 cars, and it is an easy hour or two with kids or a dog.
Willows Run, just south of town at 10402 Willows Road NE in Redmond, packs two par 72 courses, Eagle's Talon and Coyote Creek, plus the Heron Links par 3 nine and a family mini golf course into the Sammamish River Valley, with a covered, heated range. Eagle's Talon is the harder test at 6,843 yards from the Blue tees, and it is open to the public all year with dynamic pricing. Bear Creek Country Club in Woodinville is a private Jack Frei design from 1983 that stretches to 7,026 yards.
“Almost none of the grapes grow here. The fruit crosses the mountains every fall, and the wine is made and poured 25 minutes from Seattle.”
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The classic Woodinville splurge: an 84 room lodge on the Sammamish River in the Hollywood District, with Barking Frog, the Fireside Lounge and a spa on site and The Herbfarm across the way. Tasting rooms are steps from the door, and trails along the Sammamish River are right outside. Check in is 4 PM, children under 18 stay free, and extra adults are $35 each.
Visit websiteWoodinville's newest hotel opened in fall 2025 at 14800 NE 144th Street, inside the Harvest development in the Hollywood District. It has 164 rooms, the Bin 47 restaurant from chef Maximillian Petty, The Shed rooftop bar with views toward Chateau Ste. Michelle, Vin de Spa and a wine blending class that is free for hotel guests. Budget for overnight self parking, which was $31 in early 2026.
Book directThe practical pick at 19211 Woodinville Snohomish Road NE, a 102 room hotel the property says is 2 miles from wine country. Free hot breakfast, a heated indoor pool, free parking and EV charging, and dogs or cats are allowed, two at most, for $50 on stays of one to four nights.
Book directIn neighboring Kenmore, this restored landmark is set in 332 acres of forest on Lake Washington, with Saint Edward State Park trails and lake access, 84 rooms and suites, the Cedar and Elm restaurant and Vita Nova Spa. It earned a MICHELIN Key in 2024 and 2025, and it is the choice if you want lake trails in the morning and wine in the afternoon.
Visit websiteIn neighboring Bothell, McMenamins turned a 1931 art deco junior high into a 72 room hotel with private baths in every room. The North Shore Lagoon pool is free for overnight guests, and the property has its own brewery, a movie theater and a handful of bars, which makes it the fun value base for a Woodinville weekend.
Visit websiteFind a Cabin Near Woodinville
The Herbfarm has served farm to table dinners since 1986 and came to Woodinville in 2001, when, by its own count, only a few tasting rooms existed. Dinner is a single seating, at 7 PM Thursday through Saturday and 4:30 PM on Sunday, for a nine course menu that is finalized daily and changes with the seasons. The price is $325 per person including paired wine, beer or nonalcoholic botanical drinks, with a 21 percent service charge and 10 percent sales tax added. Reservations open monthly, four calendar months ahead, with a $125 per person deposit. Arrive early enough to walk the gardens, where the kitchen picks herbs and greens just before service and where you can meet the pet pigs, Lily and Daisy Mae. The restaurant’s nearly five acre farm sits on a 47 acre farm trust. If you can, book the annual Halloween dinner, Thursday, October 29, when the kitchen dresses up as a different restaurant entirely. It is at 14590 NE 145th Street.
Barking Frog is the restaurant inside Willows Lodge, and it serves breakfast, lunch and dinner. On the current menus, breakfast means huckleberry pancakes or the Frog in a Hole, griddled brioche with a sunny side egg and bechamel, for $14. At dinner, order the king salmon with smoked apple beurre blanc and chanterelle conserva for $48, or the crispy half chicken glazed with Woodinville lavender kombucha and Woodinville bourbon for $44. Advanced Sommelier Beth Hickey runs a wine list that has earned Wine Spectator’s Award of Excellence for seven years, and corkage is $35 for up to two bottles. Executive chef Lyle Kaku took over the kitchen in 2024. Dinner runs 5 to 9 PM daily and weekend brunch 7 AM to 3 PM, and reservations are recommended for both.
In 1922 Andrew Larson opened the Hollywood Corner Service Station at this corner, across the road from the Hollywood dairy farm that is now Chateau Ste. Michelle. In 1947 Mabel Nieman bought it and turned the station into a tavern, and the tavern still anchors the corner today. Today it pours craft cocktails and serves scratch made tavern food around a fire pit and an outdoor patio, with a shaded upper patio called The Knoll. Kids are welcome in the dining room and on the patio. Hours are 11 AM to 9 PM Sunday through Thursday and to 10 PM Friday and Saturday, with happy hour 3 to 6 PM on weekdays; on Chateau Ste. Michelle concert nights it closes at 9. It is at 14501 Woodinville Redmond Road NE, and the lot is shared with Woodinville Whiskey Co.
Bobae sits in a strip mall at 14015 NE Woodinville Duvall Road, and it takes bubble tea more seriously than anyone in town. The motto is Farm to Straw: freshly brewed teas, locally roasted coffee, house made lavender syrup and matcha from a small farm in Japan, with no powdered flavors. Bobae says it was the first bubble tea shop to nitro its tea, it rotates a creative menu on top of the regular one, and it calls itself the home of the original boba donuts, which come out in limited drops announced on its social accounts, so follow along if you want a box. It also bakes in pastries from Origin Bakery and runs a boba making class. Read our visit to Bobae Coffee and Tea before you order.
Most Woodinville tasting rooms do not open until 11 AM or noon, so start the day at Woodinville Bagel Bakery, a quick service neighborhood shop on the same road as Bobae, at 14126 NE Woodinville Duvall Road. The menu runs from bagels and spreads to salmon lox, deli sandwiches and melts, with lattes and milk tea to go with them. It opens at 7 AM every day, closing at 2 PM on Monday and 3:30 PM Tuesday through Sunday. On a dry day, carry your order to DeYoung Park downtown and eat on the lawn.
Woodinville Wine Country's annual tasting passport is valid from January 1 through December 31, and the 2026 edition covers 25 participating wineries, from Brian Carter Cellars to Sky River Mead. It is sold only through Woodinville Wine Country, and some wineries on it require reservations.
The open air market runs every Saturday from 10 AM to 2 PM, May through September, on Festival Street in the Schoolhouse District downtown. It accepts SNAP and EBT, WIC and Market Match.
Concerts on the winery's outdoor amphitheater lawn have been a summer tradition since 1984, with room for about 4,500 people a show. The 2026 series ran 21 shows from May 24 through September, with tickets sold through Ticketmaster starting in March.
Four free Wednesday night concerts at Wilmot Gateway Park, with food trucks and a wine and beer garden from 5:30 PM and the band at 6:30. The 2026 dates were July 8, 15, 22 and 29; picnics and dogs are welcome, outside alcohol is not.
A full Saturday downtown: a pancake breakfast at Fire Station 31, a parade down NE 175th Street, the Basset Bash in DeYoung Park, where basset hounds compete for longest ears and loudest howl, and a fair at Wilmot Gateway Park. The 2026 festival was Saturday, August 8.
A new free festival at Harvest in the Hollywood District, with live music, a custom hat bar and family photos. The first one is Saturday, October 17, 2026, from 1 to 5 PM, with a chamber ribbon cutting at 3 PM.
Pictures with Santa, wreath making and school performances in DeYoung Park, a 5:30 PM tree lighting, and s'mores and a holiday farmers market in the Schoolhouse District. The 2026 fair is Saturday, December 5, from 3 to 6 PM, the same day as the Winterfest 5K.
Hundreds of lighted cars roll through Woodin Creek Village and down NE 175th Street, ending at a festival with hot cocoa near Haggen and Red Robin. The 10th annual parade is Sunday, December 13, 2026, at 6 PM.
Snohomish is 13.1 miles and about 20 minutes north of Woodinville, the shortest real day trip on this page. Founded in 1859 as Cadyville and the county seat until 1897, it keeps a 26 block downtown historic district on the National Register of Historic Places, and more than 175 antique dealers work the redbrick storefronts along First Street; Star Center Antique Mall alone holds more than 200. Go on a weekday or get there early on a weekend, when street parking fills by midmorning. Start with our Snohomish guide.
Snoqualmie Falls is 27.7 miles and about 42 minutes from Woodinville. The falls drop 270 feet, and more than 1.5 million people a year come to see them. The paid lot closest to the upper viewing platform charges $7 an hour, and there is a free lot across the road connected by a pedestrian overpass, which is the better bet on a busy weekend. Pair it with lunch in the town of Snoqualmie; our Snoqualmie guide covers the railway museum and the Twin Peaks stops.
Leavenworth is 98.5 miles and about 2 hours from Woodinville. Follow SR 522 northeast to its end at US 2 in Monroe, then take US 2 east over Stevens Pass. The former logging town remade itself as a Bavarian village in the 1960s, and Front Street packs shops, tasting rooms and restaurants into a few walkable blocks. In winter, check WSDOT pass conditions before you leave, because chain requirements can stretch the drive. Our Leavenworth guide and Spending a Weekend in Leavenworth make it an overnight.
Kirkland is 6.8 miles and about 13 minutes from Woodinville, and its downtown is its waterfront: Marina Park sits right on Lake Washington with public piers and a lawn, and the paved Cross Kirkland Corridor runs 5.75 miles through the city. Seattle is 19.1 miles and about 25 minutes away. Treat Woodinville as the quiet base and the city as the day out, or the other way around. Read our Kirkland guide and our Seattle guide, which sorts the city by neighborhood.
Woodinville is a year round tasting town, but harvest is when it makes the most sense. In September and October the trucks arrive from vineyards east of the Cascades, crush pads fill with grape bins and cellar crews work around the clock. Sparkling wine fruit usually comes in first, then whites, then the later ripening reds, so the work goes on for weeks. The Warehouse District, where working wineries share equipment and help each other at crush, is the place to see it. Be honest with yourself about scale, though: Woodinville is mostly a tasting room district, and the crush you see here is smaller than what happens in Yakima or on Red Mountain. Our guide to Washington harvest and crush season compares the options.
Summer is the other high season. The Chateau Ste. Michelle concert series ran from May 24 through September in 2026, the free Celebrate Woodinville concerts fill Wilmot Gateway Park on Wednesday nights in July, and the farmers market runs Saturdays from May through September. December brings the Winterfest tree lighting and a lighted car parade.
Woodinville has turned over a lot in two years, so check before you build a day around an older review. The Wyckoff family, Yakima Valley growers who have worked with Ste. Michelle since the early 1980s, closed their purchase of Ste. Michelle Wine Estates on December 4, 2025, the first time in more than 50 years the company has been owned by a Washington family. The chateau plans to open a Trothe tasting salon for Horse Heaven Hills wines, tentatively in December 2026. Downtown, Walla Walla Steak Co. closed its Woodinville location in the historic schoolhouse on September 4, 2025, and the former Pintxo by Valdemar space became Jackson House, run by Pintxo’s former chef Lauren Jackson, in October 2025. In the Hollywood District, The SOMM Hotel and Spa opened in fall 2025, and the Harvest development around it is opening The Yard in phases, with its first Harvest Fall Festival on Saturday, October 17, 2026, from 1 to 5 PM.
One day covers one district well. Two nights let you do Hollywood on foot, the Warehouse District with a driver, and a morning on the river trail. Start at the Woodinville Visitor Center, 13590 NE Village Square Drive, Suite 1030, open 11 AM to 3 PM Monday through Saturday, for a map and a plan. If you will taste at more than a few places, the Passport to Taste, sold only through Woodinville Wine Country, is valid January 1 through December 31, 2026; some participating wineries, including Brian Carter Cellars, Darby Winery, EFESTE, Goose Ridge and JM Cellars, require reservations. You must be 21 to taste. On concert days, Chateau Ste. Michelle is reserved for ticketed guests starting two hours before the show, so taste there on another afternoon.











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Get your free cardWine. Woodinville is home to more than 130 wineries spread across four districts, plus distilleries, breweries and cideries, and it is where much of Washington’s wine is made and poured even though the grapes grow east of the Cascades. Chateau Ste. Michelle opened here in 1976 as the town’s first winery. Woodinville is also known for The Herbfarm, Woodinville Whiskey Co. and the Sammamish River Trail. Our Chateau Ste. Michelle story is a good place to start.
Yes, if you like wine, food or an easy bike ride. You can taste wines from all over the state in one walkable district, eat at a nine course farm restaurant or a 1947 roadhouse, and ride a flat, paved river trail between tasting rooms, all about 25 minutes from Seattle. Plan on one district per day and two nights if you want to see more than one.
Woodinville is about 19.1 miles and 25 minutes from downtown Seattle by car, usually by SR 522 or by I-405 north to SR 522. Without a car, take Link light rail to Shoreline South/148th Station and transfer to ST Express 522 into Woodinville. Seattle Tacoma International Airport is about 28.4 miles and 34 minutes away.
More than 130, according to Woodinville Wine Country. They are grouped into four districts: Downtown, which includes the Schoolhouse District; Hollywood, home to Chateau Ste. Michelle; the Warehouse District, with its four sub neighborhoods; and the smaller West Valley District along the Sammamish River.
The Wyckoff family of the Yakima Valley. Their purchase of Ste. Michelle Wine Estates from Sycamore Partners, a New York private equity firm that bought it in 2021, closed on December 4, 2025, making it Washington owned for the first time in more than 50 years. The Woodinville tasting room is open Wednesday through Sunday, and the summer concerts continued in 2026.
It depends on the winery. Chateau Ste. Michelle recommends reservations for its $30 Feature Flight and requires them for The Somm’s Table, Woodinville Whiskey Co. takes walk ins for tastings but requires reservations for tours, and several Passport to Taste wineries, including Darby, EFESTE, Goose Ridge and JM Cellars, require reservations from pass holders. Book ahead for Saturdays and for groups.
Yes, within a district. Woodinville Wine Country recommends parking once and walking each district, and the Hollywood and West Valley districts are easy to reach by bike on the Sammamish River Trail. Park at Bothell Landing for a flat ride of about three miles into Woodinville, or start at Marymoor Park in Redmond. Getting between districts, especially up to the Warehouse District, is easier with a driver or a tour.
September and October, when harvest fruit arrives from Eastern Washington and the wineries are in the middle of crush. Summer brings the Chateau Ste. Michelle concerts, the free Celebrate Woodinville concerts in July and the Saturday farmers market, while December has the Winterfest tree lighting and car parade. Read our harvest and crush season guide to compare Woodinville with the eastern wine regions.