Experience Washington Wine with Shuttle Express



By Kori ~ May 23rd, 2011.

For those of you who live near or travel to Seattle, Washington, you are probably familiar with Shuttle Express as the exclusive share-ride provider for SeaTac Airport. What you may not know is that Shuttle Express also has a fleet of luxury vehicles and offers upscale wine tasting tours.

In addition to my continued wine writing here at Wine Peeps and for other wine publications, I am pleased to announce that I am now the Wine Consultant for Shuttle Express. Shuttle Express has been offering wine tours since 2008, but my task is to help improve and expand the wine tour program.

As a champion of Washington wine, I look forward to helping more people Experience Washington Wine! While we plan to expand our offerings to other areas in the future, today our wine tours focus on Woodinville Wine Country. Woodinville is a must-visit destination in Washington wine country. Home of the state’s oldest, largest, and most well-known wineries, Chateau Ste. Michelle and Columbia Winery, the Woodinville area is also home to over 90 wineries and tasting rooms, with new ones opening all of the time. Woodinville now boasts the second largest concentration of Washington wineries after Walla Walla and is located just 17 miles northeast of Seattle. In addition to the many wineries that are actually located in Woodinville, many wineries located in other parts of the state have opened tasting rooms there which now makes Woodinville Wine Country representative of the entire Washington wine industry.

Whether you live in Seattle and are looking for a fun outing or are entertaining out-of-town guests or clients, or you are visiting the Seattle area for vacation or work or to take an Alaskan cruise, we hope you will consider booking a tour to truly Experience Washington Wine with Shuttle Express. Arrange a private tour anytime or enjoy our Saturday public tour to Woodinville. And, rest assured, you will not be touring wine country in an airport shuttle van. Rather, you will be able to relax and enjoy the ride in one of our luxury vehicles, which includes limos, limo vans, and limo coaches with “U” shaped seating, among others.

While we are proud of our current wine tour offerings, we welcome your suggestions and ideas as we expand our wine tour program. What would you like to see offered on the tours? What days and times would you like to see tours available? Which wineries would you like to see as stops on the tours?

For you winery owners and tasting room managers, if you are interested in having your winery be a stop on one of our tours, please let me know. We look forward to partnering with you to make our tours beneficial for all parties involved, wineries, guests, and Shuttle Express.

If you have ideas, questions, or would like further information about the Experience Washington Wine with Shuttle Express tour program, please leave a comment or contact me directly: kori at winepeeps dot com.

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Cheers!


Filed under: American Wine, Announcements, Washington State Wine, Wine Tours, Wine Travel

Reader's Comments

  1. Rick G. | May 23rd, 2011 at 12:54 pm

    Kori,
    Congratulations on this new endeavor. It looks promising. If I ever wanted this service, I’d prefer something a bit more subtle than a stretch limo. Maybe a small SUV with decent rear seating, or a minivan or something. You could offer hybrids and market it as a green alternative to gas guzzling vehicles.

    Also, to be honest–I tend to skip wineries with stretch limos or larger buses. All too frequently the clientele on them have just as much interest in getting hammered as they do tasting wine. Not always, but I’ve seen it more than once. I applaud the fact they they are letting someone else do the driving, to be sure. It just shifts the dynamic in the tasting room, and not always in a good way.

    I will keep this option in mind, regardless!

  2. TheGourmetCoffeeGuy | May 23rd, 2011 at 8:27 pm

    Great idea! Will definitely consider it next time we are in your area. Wine tours are fun, especially when one does not need to be concerned about becoming a designated driver… Congratulations on your new endeavor, sounds like a winner.

  3. Kori | May 24th, 2011 at 3:16 pm

    Rick,
    Thanks for your kind words and sharing your experiences with some tour groups in the past. While some guests certainly are not as focused on tasting and learning about the wines as we would like them to be, our goal is to structure our tour offerings to appeal to those who would like to visit the wineries and tasting rooms for the right reasons. While stretch limos are a part of our luxury fleet, they are most often booked for private events/tours and are not typically used for our public wine tours. Most often, our luxury limo vans with roomy, comfortable leather captain chairs are used. I hope you will consider trying one of our tours in the future.

    CoffeeGuy,
    Thanks so much for the support. I do hope you’ll consider one of our tours when you are visiting the area.

    Cheers!

  4. Rick G. | May 25th, 2011 at 12:54 pm

    I live in Port Orchard. One option that some people might use is to offer rides from the ferry terminal downtown. You’d get some business from Bainbridge Island for sure! A 30 minute boat ride (1 hour for Bremerton), followed by a ride to taste wines sounds like a good way to spend a Saturday.

  5. Kori | May 25th, 2011 at 1:01 pm

    Rick,
    Great idea! Thanks so much for the suggestion. Cheers!