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πŸ”₯The Rager

The Herbfarm

Twenty-Five Thousand Bottles Deep in Wine Country

Woodinville Β· Seattle Β· Pacific Northwest Β· Visit Website β†—

deep-cellarsplurge-worthyold-world-focuswine-dinner-events

Reviewed April 10, 2026

Wingman Metrics

List VarietyDeep & Eclectic
MarkupSteep
GlasswareVarietal Specific
StaffKnowledgeable & Friendly
Specials & DealsSet & Forget
Storage & TempProper

First Impression

The wine list at The Herbfarm doesn't arrive β€” it lands. Twenty-five thousand bottles housed in a proper cellar beneath a cottage in Woodinville wine country is a statement that very few restaurants in America can make. Before you've touched your first course, you already know this place takes wine as seriously as the nine courses coming your way.

Selection Deep Dive

The list leads with Washington and Oregon, which is exactly right given where you're sitting β€” Red Mountain, Walla Walla, and Willamette Valley all get serious real estate. But this isn't a regional vanity project: world classics are woven in with the kind of depth that only comes from decades of deliberate buying. The 2015 Upchurch Vineyard Counterpart from Red Mountain anchors the Washington selections as a showcase bottle, while the presence of a 2001 ChΓ’teau d'Yquem signals that the cellar reaches well beyond the Pacific Northwest when it counts. Gaps are hard to find when the collection is this size, but the average diner will feel the weight of the list more than its breadth β€” navigation is a team sport here, and the sommelier team earns their keep.

By the Glass

By-the-glass specifics aren't published, which tracks for a restaurant built almost entirely around multi-course tasting menus with wine pairings. The pairing program is the real play here β€” it's curated course-by-course and likely your best entry point into what the cellar actually does well. Asking for half-pours or swaps is absolutely worth attempting.

πŸ’°Best Value

2015 Upchurch Vineyard Counterpart, Red Mountain β€” null

For a bottle from one of Washington's most respected vineyard sites, this is the kind of wine that justifies the drive to Woodinville on its own. Red Mountain Cabernet at this age is hitting its stride, and within the context of a list that runs into rare French trophy bottles, it's the home-state pick that doesn't feel like settling.

πŸ’ŽHidden Gem

1946 Toro Albala Don Pedro XimΓ©nez Sherry

Most people at this table are going to ignore anything labeled Sherry and focus on the Burgundy or the Bordeaux. Their loss. A 1946 Don PX from Toro Albala is a genuinely rare artifact β€” concentrated, ancient, and nothing like the sticky dessert pour people are picturing. If it's available, ordering it is the move.

β›”Skip This

2001 ChΓ’teau d'Yquem

Look, d'Yquem is transcendent wine β€” no argument there. But at a restaurant operating at this price tier on top of a tasting menu already running several hundred dollars per head, the markup on a bottle this famous is going to be punishing. Unless you're celebrating something that warrants a four-figure bottle of Sauternes, let the sommelier steer you toward something from the cellar that delivers comparable wonder at a fraction of the trophy tax.

🍽️Perfect Pairing

2015 Upchurch Vineyard Counterpart, Red Mountain + Salmon Nation seasonal dish

Washington Cabernet from Red Mountain and Pacific salmon sounds like a mismatch on paper β€” it's not. The earthier, more restrained structure of the Counterpart plays against the richness of a well-prepared salmon preparation without bulldozing it, and the regional story they tell together is exactly the kind of thing The Herbfarm is built to deliver.

πŸ”₯ The Bottom Line

The Herbfarm is one of the few restaurants in the Pacific Northwest where the wine program is genuinely as ambitious as everything else on the table. Send your most wine-obsessed friend here without hesitation β€” and tell them to let the sommelier drive.

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