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- zenda2 - 08-25-2001

Leaving KC in 3 hours to visit old friends in Portland and the Tri-Cities area of Washington. Planned to visit several Oregon wineries (King, Elk Cove, WillaKenzie) and then take a slow drive up the Columbia valley, stopping at Hedges, CCrest, Wolfe, Hogue...will yank some fishlips between sips. I can think of worse ways to spend 2 weeks.
Thanks for all the nice info on here, it's been helpful.


- zenda2 - 09-09-2001

I had a great time touring thru the Columbia, Yakima and Walla Walla area of Eastern Washington the past few weeks. Just ahead of harvest, the grapes were fat and just this side of ripe, miles of 'em, lovely to behold, and lovely to consider the ocean of good wine they'll soon make. I met some swell folks in Walla Walla, Pasco and out on Red Mountain. Between the lovely pour-crew, and the winemakers preparing for the harvest, I was thankful for the time they were able to spend schmoozing. My old college pal is a brewer in Pasco, we took cases of his fabulous beer around to a lot of wineries to swap for wine. The winemakers were happy to see him just before the long hot days of harvest. As my pal says, 'It requires a lot of really good beer to make really good wine'. I enjoyed myself, had great tours and tastings, got some excellent bargains following in his wake, and think I got in ahead of the 'tourist boom' for the region. Suspect I won't be able to do this on such a shoestring budget in just a few years.

In case anyone is asking, you can't go wrong visiting Walla Walla, Red Mountain, the Yakima and Columbia valley the first few weeks of September. Just be SURE you keep the gas tank full..it's a long, long way to anywhere out there! And if you're ever looking for a cold brew while in the region, Ice Harbor Brewery makes the good beer that makes the good wine possible!


- winoweenie - 09-10-2001

Hi Zenda and welcome back to the board. Sounds like you had a ball. I love the Hedges Red Mtn Cabs. Really tasty stuff. Have meeny bottles from the 93, 94, and 97 vintages. I learned you have to be patient wif' dem' lil' buggers. Raise a rib for me the next time you're at Bryants. WW


- zenda2 - 09-10-2001

Thanks for the welcome back, I'll do the rib thing for you, WW, I was missing my bar-b-que by the time I got home. Had a lot of grilled salmon out west, tho, and that made up for it. They're having a record-setting salmon run up the Columbia this fall.

I've got some Hedges reds in the cellar, but unfortunately missed out on tasting at Hedges new Red Mountain facility...we stopped by their tasting room, but they were closed early that day. Serious metallic banging from inside indicated to me that some harvest equipment was probably getting fine-tuned. As any farmboy knows, finetuning harvest equipment involves increasing the size of the hammers ;^)>

I walked around their nicely landscaped grounds halfway up the mountain, oohed and ahhed at the view and the particularly excellent grapes, then drove down the hill to Kiona and Terra Blanca, where a good time was had by all. Wish I could just do this for a living!


- Bucko - 09-10-2001

Terra Blanca is up and coming. Their new Syrah is quite nice.