Where Washington wine meets Woodinville farming

Spring is here! It’s a season of renewal and of new beginnings.

At Matthews, we’re renewing the many wonderful things that we launched over the past several years - our unique CSA program, our truly farm-to-table dinners, and of course, the organic farm adjacent to our Woodinville winery. And we’re announcing new programs for 2017 that we know you’ll love - a Matthews Market complete with a ‘you-pick’ dahlia area, and a Saturday Farmers Market.

But Spring also is a good time to reflect on what makes life special, so we want to take a minute to reflect on how we got here and why we are committed to deepening our Woodinville roots.

A new Matthews in Woodinville, WA

Here are some things to know about the Matthews Woodinville estate property.

First, it’s unique, unlike any other winery in Woodinville and perhaps all of Washington State (Google Maps link here). It’s located within an easy drive from more than three million people that call the Puget Sound home.

Early in its history, the Matthews property was home to most of our winemaking operations. As we detailed in length over several blog posts (here and here), we moved most of our winemaking operation to Walla Walla into a state-of-the-art facility. This new facility and our work in the vineyards has produced the highest wine reviews and scores in our history.

But once we moved most of our production to Walla Walla, we were faced with a question: what can we do with our eight-acre property in Woodinville that is authentically Woodinville?

Before the wine boom, Woodinville qualified as farm country, a lush rural valley with nutrient rich soil, access to fresh water and long warm days perfect for growing produce. Matthews honored that farming heritage last year when we planted and harvested our first crops from our new organic farm, located behind the newly remodeled tasting room.

Today, we are excited to announce our plans for the next chapter of our Woodinville Farm property.

We didn’t hold anything back…

The Matthews Farm, 2.0

Our initial efforts to incorporate a unique farm experience into Matthews were a success by any measure - four incredible Farm-to-Table dinners, 15 CSA members and fresh-cut flowers daily in the tasting room.

Now it’s time for Matthews Farm 2.0 - more CSA memberships and true Farm-to-Table dinners, a you-pick area for those glorious dahlias, a Matthews Market, and a Saturday Farmers Market. Let’s break it all down:

First: CSA Boxes - Matthews farm provides a unique local food experience with our CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) program. It’s a weekly box of fresh vegetables, herbs, flowers, bread, cheese, and of course, Matthews wine, including bottles of older vintage library wines. Boxes are available for pick-up each week on Wednesday inside the tasting room.

As previously mentioned in the Seattle Times, this weekly farm share runs for 20 weeks. The cost is $1,750, which amounts to about $89 per week.Yes, $89 per week for a box of food, flowers and a bottle of Matthews wine. You won’t find a better way to eat local.

Want to sign up? Click here to purchase or email hello@matthewswinery.com for more questions. But act quickly - only 30 CSA spots are available, and many already have been spoken for by last year’s members. The first farm box pickup day is Wednesday, June 21st, at 1pm.

Second: Farm-to-Table dinners - We’re excited to announce our next series of Farm-to-Table dinners. These evening are designed to celebrate hyper-local food, showcase our most limited Matthews wines, and most of all, create an evening to enjoy alongside close friends and family.

Each Farm-to-Table dining experience will feature food locally sourced from within our farm walls, and up to 20 miles of the Matthews property. Each course will be paired with current and library vintages of Matthews. Each dinner is limited to only 36 people at a price of $125 per person. Look for an email next week for a list of all Farm-to-Table dinner dates, our featured chef, as well as a ticket link to secure your spot. Make plans to join us for one (or all) of them this coming spring, summer and fall!

Third: A “you-pick” dahlia field - Anyone who purchases 3 or more bottles of Matthews wine will receive complimentary bouquets of our stunning farm-raised dahlias, starting in mid-June on a first-come, first-served basis. We know these flowers will make a great addition to your table next to a freshly opened bottle of Matthews wine.

Fourth: The Matthews Market - We will feature a small flower and food market inside the Matthews tasting room, stocked daily with herbs, flower and vegetables from our property and surrounding farms. The market will be small but mighty, with food as fresh as you can find anywhere. The Matthews Market will be fully stocked starting in June, as produce begins to get harvested out of our farm.

Fifth: The Matthews Farmers Market - From 9am to noon each Saturday, Matthews will host a Farmers Market featuring curated farms located within a 20-mile radius of our Tasting Room + Farm. And yes, our tasting room will be open. The Matthews Farmers Market starts June 24th.

At Matthews, we’re more than just a tasting room. We want to offer a unique wine + food experience that honors the farming heritage of Woodinville.

But, we didn’t stop at dreaming up new food and farm experiences. We are excited to announce a new member of the Matthews wine family, a wine designed to make your visit to Matthews so much more enjoyable on those warm summer afternoons.

A new patio deserves a new patio wine

We’ve recently cleared out the side of our building to make way for a new, beautiful outdoor patio. And, what better wine to enjoy on our new patio than the perfect patio wine: rosé

This year marks the inaugural vintage of the Matthews Rosé. Rosé is steeped in tradition in Bordeaux, being first called Clariet, a word for a “clear, red wine”. (For more Claret history, click here and here.) The name was later moved to “Claret”, and over the years the Bordeaux wines began to get darker. Our Matthews Rosé pays homage to these lighter style reds of Bordeaux.

We only made 120 cases of the Matthews Rosé and it will only be available by the glass or bottle in our tasting room. This wine is set for release on June 17th.

Finally, we’ve saved the best news for last… our wine price commitment to our fans.

The best place to purchase Matthews wines

We don’t make large amounts of wine at Matthews, so we want to make sure our fans have the easiest access to obtain them from us. We are making some adjustments to ensure this is true, from today forward.

We guarantee the lowest price you will find our wines will be in our Woodinville tasting room, or shopping online on our website. Find one of our wines for less at another retail outlet and we’ll honor that price if you choose to purchase from us (on current vintages, and while our in-house supplies last).

Many of our wines, such as the the upcoming Reserve Sauvignon Blanc or Rosé, will only be available for purchase in our Woodinville tasting room or online.

Of course, the best way to guarantee your allocation to our most limited wines is to join our Wine Club. The entire benefits list is detailed here, including a link to join.

When you visit Woodinville, please make the unique Matthews experience part of your wine tasting itinerary. We are open noon to 5:30pm daily and will have extended summer hours, weather permitting.

We love making our wines for you, and are excited to see you in Woodinville this Spring. Now, bring on the sunshine!

Cheers,

The Matthews team

P.S. As a way of spreading the Rosé love this spring, we’re offering a complimentary wine tasting of the new 2016 Matthews Roséto anyone who shares this article in any of their social networks (Facebook, Twitter, etc). The tastings will be available on, or after, June 17th as long as supplies of the wine last. Email hello@matthewswinery.com to line up a tasting. We will be using the honor system. Must be 21yrs or older.