Mark Ryan Winery
★★★★☆ 3.9 (134) • $$
"In shortA big new space in the converted old brewery. Fantastic wine. Not exactly cheap, but fantastic without a doubt. In longI can remember when this building went up as a brewery. In the 90s, it was a great sign for the coming craft-beer revolution. An independent brewhouse reaching this scale? It was exciting!Well, the industrial breweries have made more and more offers that the little guys couldn't refuse, so many little guys have semi-disappeared from the beer world, and this big space is now chopped up to share among many local wineries. Thankfully, pretty much everybody on this campus makes very good wine.Mark Ryan is sort of out front, but parking's around back, so you're kind of driving past everybody to get here, anyway. It's a big building, and even with just a part of it, MR has a huge space. Most winery (and brewery) tasting rooms can be laid out in funky, fun ways, because they're trying to scrape together enough room for the public to come bend an elbow. Not here.You walk in to a huge foyer, with high ceilings, lots of framed concert posters, and little dibs and dabs of seating here and there. Dark walls. Concrete floors. Well lit, but feels like you entered sort of a secret space. Or maybe it's so minimalist that it's not obvious about what it's doing. It's welcoming and cheerful despite the colors and minimalism. And maybe it seems less than obvious only because most winery tasting rooms seem the same (old barrels, vineyard photos, inexpensive furniture, etc) , and this one dares to look different. It seems to be entirely focused on retail and tasting. No production or aging happening that you can see. The staff are super friendly, and as you walk through to the cavernous main room they're already asking what you're up to today and what you'd like. You can get flights of the more everyday wines MR makes, or of the fancier stuff. Yesterday 5 tastes of each were $35 and $45, respectively. With tax, that's $88 for about 3 glasses' worth of wine, combined. To me, the value for this is there, because you're getting tastes of wine that all cost in the $50-100 range per bottle, so you can be certain of which ones are worth their bottle cost. If you buy a minimum amount they refund the flight fees. So it's much like any other winery tasting room's M.O., just at a higher price point. We came home with chardonnay bottles and syrah bottles--each was among the best examples we've had of those styles. Aside from tons of concert posters and photos framed on the walls, there are also vintage motorcycles parked around the tasting room. MR has multiple wines named for Pearl Jam songs, along with a whole sub-brand named for old cycles (Board Track Racer). More than most wineries, MR does a good job putting memorable names on their bottles, which makes it easy to keep track of them all. This is an especially good thing given that they have 5 different brands with different label/naming personalities, price points, and wine character. In the end, this is an easy place to come ask tons of questions and learn a lot about many different wines. They do have snacks, and of course plenty of bottles available to go. It's not quite a neighborhood watering hole but you do feel comfortable hanging out here and savoring everything, even if it takes a little while. You could easily hop from room to room around this complex and make an entire day's wine country "tour" out of it...provided someone else is driving you home. Highly recommended."
"This amazing boutique wine tasting room is a must Stop when in the Woodinville warehouse district, or any where on the Eastaide and you want to taste delish wine! A fun staff and some tasty wines including Italian inspired and more! Tell them socially savvy sent you and enjoy!"
"What a great find! We went mostly because they were dog friendly and will definitely be back because of the outstanding service and great wine choices! We had a reservation outside on the back patio and tried all of their flights in our party because we hadn't been before. Quite a few good choices for all different tastes. Their cheese board was surprisingly good and we tried the wine chips but wouldn't recommend them . The service was stellar and we are planning to return next time we're in the area. They have a tasting room on Main Street that would be worth visiting if you don't have a car but I don't believe it's dog friendly."
