Wednesday, May 7, 2008

Walla Walla Wine

Well we were off for the annual Spring wine release in Walla Walla Friday the 2nd of May. Our first stop was Northstar where they had a free open house and some live music. After we left Northstar we were off to one of our favorites Bergevin Lane for free tapas and some lovely wines and some cool jazz.

Saturday was another great day as we started at Leonetti and tasted the new release of Merlot and Cab Sauv. Our next stop was to visit Dusted Valley Vinters this winery was started by a couple of guys from Wisconsin, next it was Tertulia, the winemaker is from Duvall. After we left Tertulia, it just opened last year we were off to Pepperbridge - excellent wine but no goodies to eat. We then moved on to Va Piano Vineyards, it was lunch time and they always have the paninis for lunch. While we were there we had a conversation with one of the local limo drivers and he suggested that we try out Trust Cellars, so off we went. We had a very welcome surprise when we got to Trust we also found a very good wine at Chateau Rollat Winery. From there we went to Hence and then on to Waters and Gramercy. We finished the day at Whitman Cellars. It was a great day after we stopped and got some good cheese and some Salami Mole and proscuitta. The meats came from Salumi of Seattle and were unbelievable.

Sunday began with breakfast at Shari's since the line was too long at Clarette's our normal Sunday morning breakfast. After breakfast we headed for the airport to check out the wineries at that location. Our first stop was at Trio and at a winery in the same complex Adamant, we then went to Buty a really neat winery run by a young couple ( our first experience with this winery was a few years ago - all wineries are playing jazz or rock but not Buty --- they are playing the man in black; Johnny Cash!). We also sampled wines at Ensemble (very unique process - no vintage, but a blend of three vintages), 428 very interesting conversation with someone that had been in the wine industry in Califorinia, the last winery was Eleganti they offered a Merlot annd a strawberry wine. We then tried to make it to Stella Fino, we drove into Oregon only to find out that the tasting was in Milton-Freewater, we were looking forward to the Italian varietals but maybe next year. Out last stop was at Longshadow - a very pretentious winery, the wine needs to be cellared for at least 5 years to be drinkable. It will probably become one of the predominant wines in Washington and will command a huge amount of $$$$$