Chateau Ste. Michelle Winery

While my in-laws were visiting one of the places we usually visit is the winery Chateau Ste. Michelle.  It's one of the more well known and oldest wineries in Washington.  We always love to walk around there and enjoy the scenery and then take the winery tour.  The tours are free and include a wine tasting at the end.  Definitely a place that's worth taking a visit to if you're visiting the area, it's one of the top historic tourist attractions here.  In early spring the Woodinville Garden Club has one of their plant sales there, which I seem to miss every year.  One day I hope to make it to it.

 There is a large lily pond under the tree.  I was surprised at how good most of the gardens looked here after the dry summer we've had.  

This is the Manor House which is used for different events.  I read that it can hold up to 60 people, what a beautiful place for a small wedding!  These stairs overlook the pond in the previous picture.

Walking down toward the winery are these pretty lampposts.  There are tall evergreen trees all around this area.  The winery itself is on 87 acres.

The Chateau was built in 1976, but it feels like it's been there a lot longer.  The land that it's built on is the 1912 estate of a Seattle lumber baron Frederick Stimson.  The winery originally was started back in 1934, but has gone through several name changes before they settled on Ste. Michelle.

One of the gardens near the entry to the Chateau.

I loved these tall doors at the entrance.

The winery tour was really interesting.  I won't show all the pictures, but I thought it was amazing that these vats each hold about 5000 gallons of wine each.  There were rows and rows of them.

During the weekend lots of people have picnics here.  There is a little shop in the winery that sells everything you could want for a picnic.

This area is where they hold the summer concerts.  I've been to one here once before and it's really fun.  Everyone brings picnics and enjoys the beautiful surroundings and the music.  There is wine tasting and food sold during the concerts too.

One last look before we left.

There are quite a few other wineries being built in this same area, although like the Ste. Michelle winery most of the grapes are grown in the Columbia Valley in Eastern Washington.  On weekends there are bus tours that people go on that take them around to different wineries for tastings.

Across the street from this winery is the Redhook Brewery which we at lunch at first.  It's also a lot of fun and they offer free tours there as well.