Structure Cellars Winery & Tasting Room

I’m not quite sure which is better, the people who run this place or the delicious wine that they make! We are members at a few different wineries around town, both in Woodinville and and SODO, and this has to be our favorite. Their wines have a great drinkability, structure and complexity that is only seen at a much higher price point in Washington. At some point, I don’t see a way they will keep their prices where they’re at, so I just feel lucky to be getting this amazing wine at it’s current price!
We also can’t say enough about Brandee and Brian, who are just such fantastic people… they are honest and fun people who make you want to become friends with them. We ended up throwing a birthday party using their space and wine, and Brandee’s cooked food for our party of about 30. Everything was incredible, and the food and wine were big hits!
Can’t recommend this place enough… it’s just a matter of time before this place becomes a huge hit across the state, and we’re glad we discovered it early on :)

What a great space, great people and superb wines! You gotta come taste! Gotta join!!! Love it!

It would be a shame to keep a place like this a secret, so while I would love to have this tasting room all to myself, I’ll share in this secret: go there right now for a delightful tasting!
This place is tucked back in the end of a hallway and is super cozy and cute. Brandy is up front pouring the wine and she is a gem! They have 2 cute winery dogs, but you can bring your own too!
They have a lot of different wines to pour, mostly reds, all delicious and a steal of a bargain! Go here!!!

Heading to Woodinville again, and, wouldn’t ya know it, the 405 northbound was down to one lane. Much as we love the Bellevue skyline, staring at it for an hour from our car didn’t seem like the best way to spend a Saturday afternoon, so we decided to check out some urban wineries right here in Seattle. We headed down to SODO Urban Works, a pretty happening little office park with three wineries, a brewery and a Vespa dealership (what more do you need for living?). At the first place we hit our otherwise positive experience was marred only by a tedious group of 20-​something urban Gothic birthday revelers that were more interested in looking at each other drink wine than in, well, drinking wine. After we tasted and made our move, we spotted the same group already ensconced and worshiping their dark gods (or whatever it is that they do) in the next nearest winery. That settled it for us: we skipped right over that place (with a vow to someday return) and made our way to the little winery tucked into the far corner of the building, and that is how we found Stucture Cellars.
Structure is a gem for several reasons, so let’s start with the most important: the wine. The focus here is on reds; seven of the eight wines available for tasting were red, and I didn’t get the impression that they made any other whites. That said, the sole white was a doozy: a Roussanne/​Viognier blend that was complex, leesy and had a long, rich finish. Unusual blends like that seem to be something of a forte for them, as another of their standout reds was their Newel, a blend of Syrah and Cab Franc (come on, when was the last time you saw that?). I really liked the Newel; the Syrah (clocking in at 51%) had a meaty, juicy quality that was tempered by the green notes and acidity of the Cab Franc. They recommend it as a barbecue and burger wine, and I think that’s spot on. In general their treatment of single varietals was solid, too, with their two expressions of Cab Franc (a blue-​labeled lower tier and a white-​labeled upper tier) being especially impressive. The tasting we chose capped off with a pour of the Cantilever, a club-​member only red blend which was another success on the blending front, producing a relentlessly smooth and elegant wine.
Aesthetically, the watchword and governing metaphor for winery is «architecture.» From the name of the winery to the names of their wines (Blueprint, Foundation, Cloister, to name a few), the owner/​winemakers (Brian and Brandee) have committed to a particular aesthetic and identity with great consistency. The tasting room is gorgeous and shows a powerful sensibility for using lighting and accessories to create an intimate yet very urban space in which to drink wine; add to this Brandee’s infectiously positive personality and you’ll find yourself looking for new ways to prolong your tasting as you definitely won’t want to leave. Brandee also has a really fascinating story to tell about her experience with synesthesia and how that shaped their concept of what they wanted the winery to be about.
Bottom Line: This place is a real find. Go check them out for an experience of what a wine tasting can be when excellent wines meet a well-​thought out and executed vision of a winery’s identity.