The Fremont Wine Warehouse (#) is a veritable wine-lover’s paradise that’s tucked in the old Red Apple Market space in the heart of Fremont.

Owner Michael Cawdrey, former owner of the Red Apple Market and Wine Bar, hosts weekly wine tasting events featuring wines by local vintners along with top-notch imports from around the world.

I popped in last Saturday and was warmly welcomed by Cawdrey, who had invited two importers to showcase wines imported from France and Argentina in a sort of head-to-head competition.

The space, which is sparsely decorated and brightly lit, is focused on offering quality wines at an affordable price. Cawdrey seems as passionate about bringing fine wines to the neighborhood as he does about offering them at discount prices.  No bottle is more than $25.

2006 Malbec by Henry Lagarde

I chose the 2006 Malbec by Henry Lagarde from Argentinia over one of the French wines I sampled. The Malbec was priced at $10.96 and sells for $12.99 at most other stores. It was amazing and according to Cawdry the top seller for the weekend. The six wines featured ranged in price from $7.97 to $16.

For this Saturday’s tasting Cawdry has invited Dave Marks of Cascade Trade to present wines that are new to our region from Oregon and California.

Cawdry keeps a log of customers purchases to cross reference in case you enjoyed a particular wine in the past, but forgot the name. He also sends out weekly email blasts to update customers on each week’s coming event.  Included in his emails are tasting tips that make it fun and interesting for aficionados and novices alike.

The Fremont Wine Warehouse, located at 3601 Fremont Ave. N. Ste 212, hosts wine tastings every Saturday from 3-6 p.m. For more information, call 206-632-1110.

You need:
Mushrooms (duh)
A shallot
Olive oil
Salt and pepper
Red wine (something decent enough to drink)

Rinse (yes, rinse) the dirt off the mushrooms and cut them in half down the stem. (They are too pretty to brutalize too much with your knife). Slice the shallot. Heat up the olive oil in your (preferably) stainless steel pan to medium (or “5″). Add the mushroom and shallot and hit it with a generous amount of salt and a few grinds of pepper. The salt will leech out all of the moisture in the mushrooms and they will almost braise in their own juices. When the moisture is gone, the mushrooms with start to roast in the pan and you will see little brown, crispy bits in the bottom of the pan. Add about a 1/4 cup of wine and scrape up all the bits from the bottom. Let the wine soak into the mushrooms and serve.

I know most chefs say to brush the dirt off of the mushrooms because rinsing them will cause them to become waterlogged, but I think that is bunk. A stainless steel pan is nice because it forms the fond (aka the crispy bits at the bottom of the pan) in a manner that no nonstick pan can compete with.

If you happen to have an amazing Burgundy fall from the sky (see below), this is the best Pinot Noir possible for your dish.

Josh looking on while Doug tries to remember if this is the Merlot-Cab or the Cab-Merlot

Probably my favorite feature of the magazine is a column called “Cheapskate” where a round table spares no feelings as they sample the Washington wines that have a stronghold on the bottom shelf at your local grocery store. The results range from the predictably awful to the shockingly gulpable.

Since these guys have visited so many wineries and tasted so many wines, here is their advice and recommendations:

On the intimidation factor when visiting tasting rooms:
Ask questions! People love to answer questions.

Up-and-coming wine regions:
Chelan. It will be one of the premier destinations for wine in the next five years, and the wines are produced with all estate (that is, on-site) fruit.

Cheapskate Wine Picks:
Columbia Crest H3 Cabernet
Hollywood Hill Rosé
Airfield Estate Rosé
Foot Stomp Rosé
(These guys like their dry rosé!)

Nonprofit They Would Like You to Know About
Make the Dash Count Foundation

Where You Can Get Wino
Click here for locations

Have you seen WINO? What do you think?

• Dave’s Market Place 669 Lincoln Ave E, Tenino
• Tacoma Boys, 5602 6th Ave, Tacoma
• West Seattle Thriftway, 4201 SW Morgan Street, Seattle
• Stadium Thriftway, 618 N 1st Street, Tacoma
• Everett Grocery Outlet, 710 SE Everett Mall Way, Everett
• Matthew’s at Lakemont, 4989 Lakemont Blvd. SE, Bellevue
• Blaine Cost Cutter No 489, 1733 H St. #100, Bellevue
• Anacortes Food Pavilion #79, 1519 Commercial Ave., Anacortes
• Metropolitan Market, 1618 SW Dash Point Rd., Federal Way
• Metropolitan Market, 2420 N. Proctor, Tacoma
• Lynnwood Grocery Outlet, 19800 44th Ave W Ste. G, Lynwood
• Vashon Thriftway, 9740 SW Bank Rd., Vashon
• Denny’s Harvest Foods, 215 E SR 902, Medical Lake
• Cowiche Harvest Foods, 16850 Summitview Rd., Cowiche
• Dayton Mercantile, 516 W. Main St., Dayton

In addition to the independent grocery stores, a number of national stores will also be participating. Those stores include:

• Safeway (Bainbridge Island, Bellevue, Kirkland, Sammamish, Maple Valley, Wenatchee, and Spokane)
• QFC (U-dist, Bellevue, Broadway, and Redmond)
• Fred Meyer in Port Orchard

2 ounces of wine

In particular, there seems to be some (a lot of) complaint about the fact that samples need to be two ounces or less and a single person can’t drink more than four ounces in a single visit.

As a point of reference, here’s a 2 ounce wine pour. 4 ounces of wine isn’t a lot, but really… IT’S A TASTING! You’re not supposed to go to a wine tasting to get sloshed. You’re supposed to go to a wine tasting to TASTE WINE!

I won’t go on a rant about the WSLCB’s policies here, though feel free to do so in the comments. For now, I’m just disappointed that none of my local stores were selected for the pilot program.