Northwest Wine Academy

I recently discovered South Seattle College's hidden, local Wino secret: The Northwest Wine Academy! It's in the far northeast corner of the campus close to the Japanese Gardens and pavilion. For wine lovers, newbies and nerds alike, they offer both wine tastings (Wednesdays-Friday 12pm to 6pm and monthly Second Saturdays 12pm to 6pm) and classes for all levels (naive to sommeliers). I hope to take one of their classes such as Sensory Evaluation, Intro to Food & Wine Pairing, or Intro to Washington Wines.I came in on a Second Saturday for a tasting last weekend and was told about their Fall Wine Release held this weekend. A group of friends and I stopped in yesterday to a FREE wine tasting of various wines paired with goodies from the SSC Pastry Chef school and charcuterie. They served three types of Chardonnay's (American Oak, French Oak and a Reserve blend), a Red Blend, a delicious Merlot and a warm mulled wine creation. Everyone here is very knowledgeable, helpful and loves to experiment with unique grapes like Blaufrankisch/Lemberger and even Müller Thurgau through an agreement with Chateau. Although the wines aren't the absolute best in the area, all their grapes are donated by Washington vineyards for the purpose of learning. How cool!The space is quite modern and geared towards academics with a full kitchen, chemistry room (I loved seeing how they analyze sugar content and doing a red/white scent test), small corner selling Alumni wines, a barrel warehouse, tasting room counter and a large outdoor patio with space heaters.If you're a wine lover, be sure to check out this place!Awarded Review of the Day in Seattle, Washington on 3/23/2017!

Love this place. The wine is actually crazy good - the blaüfrankish and convocation red are my favorites. You can also see all the production equipment in the back part of the building.

Amazing place, wine and experience. Be it their ongoing tastings or release event (like the one coming up November 20-22 2014) the wines will surprise and delight you. Imagine making a top quality wine using surprise donations from Washington Vineyards and only students. No wonder their alumni are top known winemakers around here. And the wines, TOP shelf taste, effects and LOW shelf pricing. I buy by the case.. why? Because they are great and I can afford them.ok ,see you at the release.

I love Northwest Wine Academy! It's such a great place to learn everything about wine. And free tastings!!!

The Tasting Room at Northwest Wine Academy offers free tastings each day from 12-4. FREE WINE TASTING! Usually a mix of awesome, award winning wines produced by the academy itself, other WA state producers, and imported wines. The staff is knowledgeable (it's a college, duh), friendly and always eager to answer your questions...even if you are a newby. They occasionally have events such as wine releases or wine and food pairing with the culinary department, so keep an open eye out for those. I can't think of a better way to spend an afternoon.

If you ever wonder where people learn to make work, look no further than our own community college. This review is for the tasting room - which offers low priced tastings paired with a charcuterie tray in a laid back environment. This time in, we came on a spring day and sat outside, enjoying being surrounded by plants you could also buy at the nursery. The place has a nice community feel and is less stressful than the wine places with high dollar tastings. Are the wines the best I have ever tried? No, but they were still decent and drinkable, especially in such a nice, learning environment.

Wine tasting was good need to add food paring! The 2017Grenache was the best we tasted. Good ambiance with music.

Trust me! You will be pleasantly surprised! Better than most if not all you will find in the supermarkets/liquor stores!

This is a great place to taste and learn about wine! The only downside is the hours they are open, I wish they were open more weekends!The tasting room is run by students in the enology program and the wines they pour are the wines they make as well as featured wines from wineries run by alumni of the program.