Choosing wine over oysters

It was a tough choice, but we made it. Shelton Oyster Fest with one group of friends, or take Jim & Ruth to DeLille Cellars with us. We chose the latter. We haven't seen Jim & Ruth for too long, and knew they'd love the wines at DeLille. As part of our wine club membership, once a quarter we get a wine tasting for four, and knew we wanted to share it with them.

It was a fun afternoon. We got all caught up on their house plans, the plans for the house at Benson Lake, and of course, work at “the place.” Ruth is still planning to retire end of January.


Because I-405 is closed in Bellevue (they’re connecting the new SR-520 on-ramps this weekend), we took the back way through Issaquah, Redmond, and came into Woodinville from the south. Perfect, since our first stop is at DeLille Cellars. Jim & Ruth haven’t been here before, and they really enjoyed the wine, especially the reds (we thought they would!). We stayed an hour, talking and sampling, then headed to DiStefano. We have wine to pick up, and ended up staying until after closing. We looked around the cellar room where they have tastings and dinners, admired the riddling rack table on the new patio. I’d love to have one; with a glass top it would make a great coffee table. Either flat or as a wall display, wouldn't it be a great way to display my shell collection?

We spent most of our time sitting around a table on the patio, enjoying the sun (although it’s chilly today) and working through the wines. They’re having a fund-raising event tonight, and were busy getting set up for it. They said we were welcome to stay and enjoy ourselves, but eventually we had to leave. We were getting hungry anyway, and chose an Italian restaurant just east of town. We had a reservation for 7:00,  and were early, so we sat in the bar and kept right on talking until our table was ready. Dinner was excellent, a bit pricey, but the good Italian restaurants always seem to be. We would definitely come back here.