Novelty Hill - Januik

A destination winery experience on the West side of the Cascades, Novelty Hill - Januik, opened in Woodinville's winery touring district in June 2007. Home to two independent wineries, both share the same tasting room and the talents of the same acclaimed winemaker, Mike Januik.

The facility also hosts wine appreciation classes, cooking classes plus food and wine seminars along with winemaker dinners under the direction of Chef Charles Walpole, whose experience includes Seattle's Restaurant Mistral, Avenue One, 727 Pine and Salish Lodge.

Award-Winning Design

The winery's contemporary architecture and surrounding gardens honor wine's agrarian roots and the artistry of fine winemaking, while adding their own spin to the winemaking lifestyle with a bocce ball court, expansive gardens with water features, plus indoor and outdoor fireplaces on the patio and multi-terraced seating area.

The winery's design, which earned an Institute Honor Award in 2008 from the American Institute of Architects, invites you into a central corridor where you can look out over the two-story production floor into rooms with steel fermentation tanks and stacks of barrels. On the other side of the corridor is the tasting room. The winery also offers four private function rooms easily customized to individual group needs ranging from corporate meetings to celebratory events.

Grapes Hail from Columbia Valley

Novelty Hill is a small, independent winery delivering elegant, high quality wines from the winery's estate vineyard, Stillwater Creek, located on the Royal Slope of the Frenchman Hills in Columbia Valley. The Alberg family purchased this property more than two decades ago for its excellent growing potential and spent years identifying the ideal planting areas by studying weather patterns before planting in 2000.

Serving as a consultant on the project, Mike Januik's enthusiasm for the site prompted him to encourage the Albergs to start a winery and Mike has made Novelty Hill's wines right from the start. Novelty Hill's white wines include Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Roussanne, Viognier, plus Semillon, while the red wine focus is on Merlot, Syrah, Cabernet Sauvignon and Sangiovese.

Januik Winery was founded in 1999 by Mike himself who drew on his Columbia Valley winemaking experience dating back to 1984. The winery is dedicated to crafting high quality, limited release wines by working on a small scale with fruit from the state's best vineyards. Two single vineyard bottlings make up their Chardonnay offerings, one from Elerding Vineyard, and the other from Cold Creek Vineyard.

Januik's red wines are Merlot, Syrah, Cabernet Sauvignon, and a Reserve Red Blend. In addition to Columbia Valley bottlings of Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon, the winery also produces single vineyard wines, such as their Klipsun Vineyard Merlot and Ciel du Cheval Vineyard wines from Red Mountain. Their one Syrah wine is a single vineyard bottling from Lewis Vineyard.

A Master of Merlot

Described by The Wine Advocate as being at the "forefront of Washington State's producers," Mike was named one of the world's ten "Masters of Merlot" by Wine Enthusiast magazine and his wines have appeared on Wine Spectator's "Top 100" list ten times.