Last Sunday, I rented one of the fabulous new Chateau Cabanas over at the jewel of Woodinville wine country, Chateau Ste. Michelle. (Chateau Ste. Michelle is the oldest winery in Washington State, so what better place to celebrate Washington Wine Month?) I was eager to spend the day drinking wine and nibbling on food and socializing (carefully) with friends.
Jen wasn’t able to come with me, as she was celebrating her daughter’s eighteenth birthday, so I invited my fellow wine blogger Shona from Wine Diva Lifestyle to join me for the afternoon. On short notice, we weren’t able to get any of our other wine friends to join us – most of our friends were spending the day at beaches, camping, at lakes, or with family and children.
We invited local photographer (and musician!) William Munoz to join us for lounging, food and wine, and photographs of our adventure!
Shona and I did not chat about what we might wear that day, and we laughed when we both showed up at the Chateau with black hats (hers was a flower-topped fascinator) and black and white polkadot dresses!
Great friends dress alike, I suppose! I had to immediately stop to compliment her on her pearl necklace.
I have to mention, it was so great to be back at The Chateau again. They’ve been closed since the pandemic started, for the safety of their employees and the wine tasting public. You can only be on the grounds if you have a by-reservation curbside pickup appointment, or if you have reserved and booked a wine tasting or a winery experience.
After checking in with Security and parking, we were greeted by a Chateau Ste. Michelle employee who walked us over to the cabana area and introduced us to our hostess. She immediately poured us each a glass of Luxe sparkling wine to sip on our walk over to the cabana. The Luxe life indeed!
The cabana came with social distanced comfortable seating for five people, an ice bucket and tray, a little coffee table for the food, a couple fresh bouquets of hydrangeas, and a Bluetooth music player. The other cabanas were distanced far enough away we could hear the other people talking and laughing, but felt like we had privacy and distance from them.
Note that the nearby Manor House is not set up for sanitization and social distancing, so we were invited to walk down through the grounds to the Visitor Center to use the Shop bathrooms as needed.
The Chateau comped us this bottle of their delicious limited release Le Rosé and as you can imagine, we wasted no time diving in to drink it.
“Today,” Shona announced firmly, “We are Cabana People.”
This year, Chateau Ste. Michelle is partnering with The Kentucky Derby, which was moved to Saturday, September 5.
This is a 100% Rosé of Cabernet Sauvignon.
We appreciated that our cabana came with a giant tub of ice and several bottled waters so we could stay hydrated on a hot and sunny summer Sunday!
The cabana hostess presented us with menus for food to order and left us with her cell phone so she wouldn’t hover and disturb our lounging.
We ordered a baguette from Macrina Bakery (turns out we should have ordered one per person) and both the Cheese Plate and Vineyard Plate. The Chateau treated us to salted caramel popcorn, and Shona absolutely had to enjoy the Beecher’s Cheese Curds.
Shona had ordered artichoke dip and olive tapenade for us to eat with the baguettes, but we really should have ordered crackers as well. I think we were too busy gossiping and chatting to remember to order more food.
I was delighted to see the grapes, since they are toxic to dogs and I have naughty retrievers at home so can’t enjoy grapes or raisins at my house.
Other offerings from the Chateau Cafe Window besides the vineyard Plate and Cheese Plate include a cold pressed panini, a brie baguette, a Caprese sandwich, a Salmon pate, a Greek salad, and croccantini crackers. (We should have ordered those!)
I regret not ordering the Greek Salad and Caprese Panini! That would have been delicious.
However, I can’t say I left hungry after nibbling on all the delicious cheese, bread and dips!
Loved seeing local businesses like Macrina Bakery and Beecher’s Handmade Cheese represented in the food offerings here.
After a long stressful week of work and dealing with a plumbing disaster at my house, it was so nice to sit back and relax and catch up with wine industry gossip (erm, I mean “news” and “facts” of course).
We did feel obliged to play a few rounds of bean bag toss, since lawn games were available. (I did quite well, I have to admit.. not that we were keeping score!)
Between the three of us, we finished off the bottle of Rose in an hour and thought to order a white wine from Chateau Ste. Michelle, but as I had other wine tasting appointments to go to later that day, we decided to hydrate with water instead.
In the interest of authenticity, I am going to share this photo of us relaxing even though it makes me look pregnant. I’m not! I’m too old to be; it’s just that I eat too much cheese and drink too much wine. Plus, why deprive the world of this adorable pic of Shona!
Did you know that you can also reserve a Picnic at the Chateau for you and up to four other friends? Visit the Picnic at the Chateau page for more info.
If you’re tempted to follow in our footsteps and reserve a luxury cabana at Chateau Ste. Michelle here in Woodinville (they’re available Thursdays through Sundays; limited availability and they book up fast!) visit the Chateau Cabanas page.
Disclosure: At the end of the day, while I was paying for my cabana rental, the hostess informed me that our food had been gifted by Chateau Ste. Michelle. Thanks for the lovely meal!
Photo credits: William Munoz Photography
Happy Washington Wine Month!
-Carrie
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