Woodhouse Family Cellars

"From our family to yours… we can’t wait to share our wines with you." - Bijal & Sinead Shah

Question: What do Darighe, Dussek, Kennedy Shah, Maghie, and Hudson have in common (besides being blessed with great names)? Answer: They all are wines produced by Woodhouse Family Cellars and like the name implies, this is a family affair. At Woodhouse Family Cellars, wine-tasting trekkers have an opportunity to sample a variety of wines in a spacious room lit by chandeliers. Woodhouse Family Cellars is a partnership between husband and wife Bijal and Sinead Shah and Bijal’s uncle and winemaker Tom Campbell. The winery debuted with 100 cases of its 1998 vintage of “Darighe,” a Bordeaux-style blend that sold out three months after its release in 2001. Darighe, meaning “red” in Gaelic references Sinead’s Irish roots and is their flagship wine.

The Kennedy Shah and Hudson Shah labels reference the names of their daughter and son respectively and reinforce the tagline, “From our family to yours…” With a price tag of $12, the Hudson Shah Cab is a favorite for many including this WineTrail trekker. It surely is one of the best values in the stores. For a few bucks more, the Kennedy Shah La Vie En Rouge produced by winemaker Jean Claude Beck delivers a surprisingly complex experience.

Unlike many tasting rooms where you need to keep your wineglass close to your chest when the throngs arrive, at Woodhouse Family Cellars there is plenty of space to mill around and explore. You can check out the barrel room, enjoy wine in the intimate banquet area, and note the many chandeliers as you gaze upward. As you might expect, this is a space often reserved for private events and winery-sponsored events including cooking classes. (It’s nice to have a full-size kitchen to back up a pastry chef teaching a class on pie making from crust to fruit filling!)

Just when you were beginning to think that all Woodinville-based business-park winery settings were the same, Woodhouse Family Cellars shatters that image. It offers a top-notch tasting room designed to encourage its visitors to relax and enjoy its wines. That makes it a mandatory stop along the Woodinville WineTrail. Enjoy!

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  Woodhouse Family Cellars was featured in WineTrails of Washington as part of the Woodinville Heritage WineTrail on page 148!