The Ravenna McCarthy & Schiering Wine Merchants (6500 Ravenna Ave NE) usually has free tastings on Saturdays, and this weekend is no exception.  From 11am-5pm they are sampling seven different varieties of 2008 Oregon Pinot Noirs. See the full selection here, at their weekly news page.

Now, a local free tasting of seven different Pinot Noirs is pretty great news. But the other wine event today promoted on the McC&S site is pretty darn fantastic, too.

There’s a WINERY opening in the Roosevelt/Ravenna neighborhood! And they have an open house today AND next Saturday, also from 11am-5pm.

Eight Bells Winery, in the heart of the audio/visual area of Roosevelt

Eight Bells Winery (6213B Roosevelt Way NE; 8bellswinery.com) is jointly owned and operated by three guys (Tim Bates, Andy Shepherd and Frank Michiels), one of whom (Tim) has been making wine on his own since 1980. Andy joined him in 1996, and Frank completed the trio in 2006 (came to watch, ended up fermenting 100 pounds of grapes in his own kitchen for the cause).  Read more about them on the Eight Bells Winery About Us page.

They do ask that you RSVP if you plan on attending either open house (rsvp [at] 8bellswinery.com).

Eight Bells will have samples of their Pinot Gris, Chardonnay, and Tempranillo (all 2009) for tasting and sales (read more about these wines here).

Also on display and for sale during the Eight Bells Winery open houses are paintings by Seattle artists Patty Ryan, Rita Marlowe, and Susan Hamilton. Read about these artists and see samples of their work on Eight Bells’ art page.

If those links aren’t enough, Eight Bells also has a facebook page, where you can see some pictures of the new winery’s interior.