Courtesy photo
Bijal Shah and his wife,Sinead

It’s Woodinville’s best kept secret, but word is slowly leaking out as people find it difficult to contain their enthusiasm for Woodhouse Family Cellars’ monthly winemaker dinner events.

Since February, when the winery started offering these special dinners, they’ve experienced sell out reservation lists. Unlike other such events, there is no fixed price, guests can make reservations throughout the evening and each menu includes seasonal masterpieces created by Executive Chef Bradley Dickinson and Chef de Cuisine Julie Hawkinson of Schwartz Bros. Restaurants.

Imagine driving up to an unmarked warehouse with a trellis and gardening beds as your only sign that something other than an ordinary office or storage facility might be located inside. But you would certainly never suspect to find a cozy dining area behind this nondescript, bland exterior.

Mouths drop and eyes widen as visitors react in delightful surprise to find golden chandeliers, a granite tasting bar and a Viking kitchen in full view awaiting them.

Rich wine-colored cloths drape tables set amid handsome oak barrels, jazzy background music creates an upbeat mood and a warm and inviting ambiance completes this intimate dining scene.

Everyone’s greeted with a smile and a glass of bubbly and immediately there’s the feeling that you’re now a part of one big happy family.

At the helm of this family is Bijal Shah, entrepreneur extraordinaire, philanthropist and community activist. Born in Kenya and raised for most of his life in Seattle, Shah is the owner and founder of Woodhouse Apparel, Inc., a producer of high quality clothing for private labels and major industry names. He is also the owner and founder of a software development company based in India.

Community is very important to Shah and he has served on the boards of the Seattle Aquarium and New Futures, a neighborhood-based organization that works to strengthen families.

Courtesy photo
You would never suspect to find a cozy dining area behind the nondescript, bland exterior of a warehouse.

Shah’s wife, Sinead, a United Airlines pilot, knew that her husband’s passion for wines was as she says, “a hobby gone amuck,” when he brought home 300 cases of wine one day. She adds, “I told him that it was nuts and that he was out of control! And the next thing I knew he was making wine with his Uncle Tom and I found myself labeling and putting foil caps on the bottles by hand. The rest, as they say, is history.”

Shah’s Uncle Tom is actually legendary Washington winemaker, Tom Campbell, who over a career spanning 27 years, has worked for some of the state’s oldest and most prestigious wineries. In 1998, Shah approached Campbell to create the ultimate Bordeaux style blend — the result of which is the award-winning Darighe and the flagship of the winery’s collection.

Since then, the duo has teamed up to create four other labels that fall under the Woodhouse Family Cellars’ name: Dussek, Maghee, Hudson and Kennedy Shah (the latter was created to provide a way for Bijal and Sinead to express their philanthropic nature and 20 percent of the gross revenue from the wines under this label are donated to women’s and children’s organizations in Seattle).

“All of the labels are tied to family and friends,” explains Shah, “and the individuality of each helps collectors recognize them on the shelves at stores.”

With Shah’s vision and Campbell’s expertise, Woodhouse wines have begun to attract a local and national following. Many of the vintages are often spoken about before their release. Today, the winery produces 5,000 cases of wine in a year.

Pre-production occurs in Eastern Washington. The fermentation process, however, happens at the winery’s facility in Woodinville.

“We moved in here about a year and a half ago,” says Shah, “and it’s been great to be in such a hospitable community where other winemakers have made their home. There’s so much potential here and the tourist overlay makes it ideal for wineries. We’ve had an enormous response to our wines. People seem to love them and it’s wonderful for me to see their popularity rise.”

Shah is passionate about wines and says of the winemaking business, “It’s challenging, but it’s so much fun. Everyone you deal with is happy and I get to meet so many interesting people.”

This adventurous entrepreneur’s next brainchild was to offer monthly winemaker dinner events at the Woodinville facility. The idea behind these dinners was to provide a unique restaurant-like environment within the winery, where the public could come to eat good food paired with Woodhouse wines.

“Food and wine are perfect partners,” says Shah. “I love an evening of good food and good wine and I wanted others to have a special place where they could enjoy this experience. We transform the warehouse into an amazing dining setting that people just go wild about and then we offer fantastic food and wine to complete the picture.”

At a recent event, the menu included such starters as braised Pt. Judith squid and Vietnamese style salad rolls filled with avocado, mango and fresh cilantro. Salads ranged from butter lettuce with Dungeness crab and Bay shrimp to tiny French beans with chilled chicken in sesame-soy dressing.

For entrees, pan-roasted soft-shell crab was featured, along with Copper River Sockeye salmon, grilled tenderloin steak and roasted pork tenderloin done with a Cubano-style rub.

Chefs Dickinson and Hawkinson make use of the on-site garden and include many of its fresh vegetables, herbs and berries in their seasonal specialties.

The menu is creative, the presentation is exciting and the dishes burst with flavors from around the world.

As for wines, there’s something for everyone, from the popular Kennedy Shah ‘Auntie Meredith’s Picnic Blend,’ a full-bodied blend of Chardonnay and Chenin Blanc, to the deeply flavored Dussek Cabernet Sauvignon.

The Kennedy Shah Orange Muscat is the perfect accompaniment with dessert and goes down ever so sweetly. In addition to these dinners, Woodhouse plans to offer monthly cooking classes.

Each class will provide students with a hands-on experience in the kitchen under the guidance of Chef Dickinson and include a post-class meal paired with wine.

“We have lots of other things that will be happening in the future,” says Shah. “It’s an exciting time for us and the growth has come so quickly. We have to make sure though that we always strive to keep the integrity of our brand image. That’s most important.”

Shah believes that Woodhouse is off to a good start and adds, “It’s amazing to step back and see how the journey of wine can be created step by step into the complete experience for all wine and food lovers out there.”

Woodhouse Family Cellars is located at 15500 Woodinville Redmond Rd. NE, Ste C600 in Woodinville.

For more information, call: 425-527-0608 or visit: www.woodhousefamilycellars.com.