Walla Walla Wine Tasting

Our son, Craig and his girlfriend Lindsey, who works for a wine company, got a chance to take advantage of her company's bungalow over the weekend.  They invited Andy and I  to share the weekend with them and do a little wine tasting. 
   The bungalow is at the Waterbrook Winery just west of Walla Walla on Hwy 12.
Walla Walla is in southeastern Washington and is about fours hours from both Portland and Seattle. Walla Walla has become, I believe,the wine capital of the northwest.  About twenty years ago there were  two wineries and 50 acres of grapes, now there are over 100 wineries  and thousands of acres of grapes.
 Walla Walla has been transformed from a small farming community famous for it's onions to a community that embraces  the arts and culinary delights of the area and every tasting room is a architectural delight.
 The region's speciality are the red wines- Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Syrah, Malbec, Sangiovese, Cabernet Franc, and Tempranillo.  They also make white wines- Chardonnay, Reisling,Viognier, Semillon and Sauvignon Blanc. 
 
We arrived at the bungalow about lunchtime.   We enjoyed a light lunch, a little wine and  started our wine tasting trek.



Frenchtown School No 41

       Lindsey had a few places she wanted us to try.  The first one was called L'Ecole Winery it was west of Waterbrook in the town of Lowdon.  It is in an old renovated two story school house, complete with an school bell that you can ring to announce your arrival.  Our sommelier was awesome. He spent a great deal of time talking about where the grapes came from, the flavors that were pulled from the soil, and how the winds effect the taste and texture of the grape.   Through his instruction , I enhanced my aroma repertory to include the smell of leather and earth/ minerality.  When we got ready to leave I was ready to buy a case of everything we tasted, because he had taken so much time with us.  But I was reminded by my husband we had the day ahead of us and we couldn't spend all our money in one place, so I walked out with only a bottle of  Sauvignon Blanc/ Semillon  aged in oak and a Syrah.  I will be back for more.

    Our next stop was south of Walla Walla  at Water's Winery a modern  unique tasting room.  Inside they had huge three liter bottles you could buy with the engravings etched into the label.  We were the only ones there, but shortly after the tasting room filled with other  tasters.  I bought a Rosanne/Viognier blend.
   Next stop was a mile up the roadto Amavi, which is built into the side of the hill and has a beautiful view of the surrounding country side and Blue Mountains.  We sampled a Rose' and then several different Cabernet from 2009, and 2010.  I picked up a 2009 Cab.

After Amavi's,  we made a quick stop at Safeway to pick up some steaks to grill and salad for dinner.  Our last stop for the evening-Waterbrook Winery. Some evenings Waterbrook offers tacos with their wine tasting.  We hit the jackpot. Since Lindsey is an employee of the company, they made sure we were taken care of with a big platter of tacos.  They were the best!!! After tasting their wines I walked away with three bottles of Reisling and I bought two bottles of Malbec  to send to our son, Andrew.
    Since they were closing for the night they gave us a couple of  their open bottles and we took them back and enjoyed a grilled steak dinner and then a game of hearts.
    Sunday morning we woke up hungry, ready for a good breakfast.  We checked out Urbanspoon and found a great restaurant called Clarette's Restaurant We all ordered omelets and the vegetables were all fresh and barely cooked.  We were not disappointed.  Will go there again for breakfast.
    After breakfast we headed back to the bungalow, packed up and headed for home.  It was definitely a five star weekend.  Not only did we get to spend time with our son, which is always fun, but Lindsey was great hostess and knows her wineries. Thank you Lindsey.  I came away very impressed with the Walla Walla area and plan on returning.