We had visits to four wineries on this day but stumbled into an antique shop in downtown Prosser that turned out to be our fifth winery tasting room visit of the day. We began the day at Hogue Cellars, one of the Yakima Valley’s largest producers. Hogue was sold several years ago and eventually was acquired by Constellation. The production facility is a five-minute drive from the tasting room. Hogue is an example of the reason that people interested in wine should travel to tasting rooms. Two of their four tiers of wine are only sold and tasted in the tasting room.

Our next stop was Hinzerling. This was one of the first wineries in the valley. They began by making Riesling but changed their plans as other wineries opened and also made Riesling wines. Hinzerling began to concentrate on a dessert wine portfolio and now has several port-styled wines and sherry-styled wines. Expect a rustic tasting room experience.

Back to Vintner’s village, we visited Thurston Wolfe Winery. The facility has a spacious tasting room, patio and production facility. You will be warmly greeted by a friendly dog that is genuinely happy that you are visiting. Wine travelers will have an opportunity to taste some of the less common varieties offered in Washington.

Back across town, we visited Chinook. Ask about the name and think about your opinion of the wine bottle label. The tasting room is not fancy and has a feel like being in one’s house. Taste wines that reflect the Yakima Valley.

On the way to dinner we went into an antique store and discovered a winery tasting room, Dumb Blonde Wine. We meet Connie who poured wines from the tasting counter amongst many antiques. Connie was responsible for the artwork on the labels and her daughter Carly is the winemaker. It won’t take long to discover the friendliness and that wines with blonds on the label are white, brunettes are reds and a redhead is a rosé. The wine and antique combination is interesting. Take time to visit the downtown area and discover Dumb Blonde Wine.

Cheers,
Terry

For numerous fall wine events taking place through the end of September and the first weekend of October, check out the Wine Trail Traveler online calendar .

In addition find out about Laurello Vineyards‘  “Wine for the Cure” on Thursdays. Pizza (Tuscan-style) cheese pizza and a salad are only $7. Money raised is donated to Making Strides against Breast Cancer. Laurello Vineyards is located in Geneva, Ohio.

Entertainment at Laurello Vineyards on Friday night will be by Steve Howell and on Saturday look forward to 2 Aces. The pizza special this weekend is made with mild Italian sausage.

Fall is a great time to visit wine tasting rooms located at wineries. Challenge your senses and sniff the area looking for the various scents of crushed grapes and fermentation. Enjoy the soft voices of wine lovers discussing wines. Taste some wines from earlier vintages. If possible do a vertical tasting and compare the wines.

Most of all share your joy.

Cheers! Kathy

This is our busiest day in Prosser. We are visiting several wineries: Desert Wind, Mercer Estate, Willow Crest, Milbrandt and  Gamache Vintners. Desert Wind is a destination site. The winery has a production facility, tasting room and retail area, restaurant and four suites for overnight guests. Desert Wind has a sister winery, Duck Pond Cellars, in Oregon. Try there Ruah blend.

Mercer Estates is located off Interstate 82 in another area of several wineries. From the road one drives around an acre of Pinot Gris to the parking area. The winery and tasting room facility was positioned so people can see the views in every direction. Outdoors, beautifully landscaped areas are next to the winery and vineyards. Pathways encourage  you to walk amongst the many rose bushes out into the vineyard. The large tasting room provides a tasting bar and chairs and tables.

Willow Crest Winery is in Prosser’s other wine park, Vintner’s Village. The winery production area has a small tasting room and retail area and a large patio area perfect for warm weather sitting and taking in the area while having a glass of wine.

Milbrandt is an impressive facility. The large Tuscan styled facility has a courtyard where visitors can spend part of their day sipping wine while reading a book. The tasting room is large with a three-section tasting counter. A fireplace at one end of the tasting room is the focal point of a living room with a sofa and chairs. It looks like a living room in someone house giving the tasting room a cozy comfortable feel.

Gamache Vintners is owned and operated by ob and Roger Gamache who are winegrowers in the region. They emphasize that wine is made in the vineyard and hired a winemaker that knew how to make wines where the grape expresses itself. The large tasting room has a curved counter and plenty of room to discover wine related items in the retail area.

A long day of wine tasting came to a close. Prosser is a must visit wine region that should be on the wine travelers radar.

Cheers,
Terry

We drove from the Mercer family in the Horse Heaven Hills AVA past numerous vineyards on our way to the wineries in the Prosser area. The first stop was Snoqualmie Vineyards and then on to Pontin Del Roza. The afternoon had visits to Airfield Estates and Martinez & Martinez.

Snoqualmie is a large production facility making several hundred thousand cases. Grapes, sourced from the three regional AVA’s are used to make numerous wines. As trucks enter the facility a special machine measures the brix level of the grapes as well as the pH and TA. The winemaker immediately knows if the quality of the grapes based on those measures is up to par. We toured the facility and tried several of the wines. Although Snoqualmie is a large facility, the tasting room is small and has a personal appeal.

Our second stop for the day was at a smaller winery. Pontin Del Roza is owned and operated by the Pontin family where Scott is a third generation winemaker with family roots back to the Piedmont wine region of Italy. No wonder he has Italian varietal grapes growing on the 200 acres of vineyards. The modern interior of the wine tasting room has a pleasant fell including a fireplace with sofa and cushioned chairs.

Next we drove a few minutes to Airfield Estates on Merlot Drive in Vintner’s Village. This village is a community of wineries and tasting rooms and a wine traveler’s delight. Notice the model airplane built from wine barrels near the entrance to the Airfield Estates building. The tasting room is modern with an elegant appearance. There is plenty of room to spread out. Glass walls on one side of the tasting room provide visitors with views of two barrel storage rooms. One immediately gets the sense that wine is made here.

Our last wine stop was Martinez & Martinez located in the Winemakers Loft, a facility that houses several wineries. Martinez & Martinez occupies a small tasting room with the winery behind the tasting room. Visitors can taste wines crafted in small lots.  Ask about how the two Martinez families have made a dream come true.

Our first day was a delight. The wineries varied in size as did the tasting rooms and wines. We’re looking forward to a second day of discovering what the Prosser region can offer to wine travelers.

Cheers,

Terry

On our Monday drive to Prosser we stopped at Hood River to check out some of the tasting rooms in the downtown area. We found on-street parking right next to Naked Winery. Although we arrived in the morning, there were several couples that found the Naked Winery tasting room and tried their wines. Try wines with suggestive titles including the words: missionary, penetration, foreplay and orgasmic. There is also clothing that can be purchased. We fed the meter for the on-street car parking and ambled to Springhouse Cellar.

Of the tasting rooms in the downtown Hood River area, only two have wineries in the same building. Springhouse Winery is one of those. The large space has a L-shaped tasting room. Notice that the wines are on tap, thus saving to total energy footprint by not having to use as many bottles. Springhouse Winery also has a reusable bottle for the local patrons. They can purchase the bottle and have it filled with wine. Afterwards, they can return with the bottle and have it refilled again.

The other downtown Hood River tasting room to have the winery onsite is Stoltz. We drove to Stoltz thinking that we could park closer to the winery and feed the meter less cash. We parked the rental car in front of the winery. Stoltz has taken residence in what once was the mansion on the hill, one of the oldest buildings in Hood River. For decades the building was used as a funeral home. Now it is home to other spirits and some believe that it may be haunted. If so, the spirit doesn’t bother the present owner or winemaker. I wonder what happens to the angel’s share?

After a few hours in Hood River, we headed off to Prosser one hundred miles away. After the double digit rains that we have had on the East Coast during the last four weeks, it was nice to see the high desert. After turning off of Washington Rt 14, we noticed a sign for the Horse Heaven Hills AVA. Surrounding the sign was desert with its brush. It didn’t look as though grapes could grow here. However we stood in New Zealand’s Gimblett Gravels and knew that grapes could handle the high desert. After traveling a few minutes we passed green oases of vineyards surrounded by the light yellow tones of the earth. Tomorrow it’s off to some Prosser tasting rooms.

Cheers,
Terry

Last evening we walked to a restaurant a few blocks from our son’s house in Portland, Oregon. Navarre is a small and busy restaurant located on North East 28th Avenue between Couch and Burnside. The restaurant has an extensive wine list, mostly French with a few wines from Italy, Spain and the United States. Since there were six of us we decided to order small plates of food. The food is served family style and is passed around the table for all to sample and enjoy. For the wine we went with a red blend from Italy that was lighter bodied. We had several foods that we wanted the wine to pair with.

Our food plates included tuna in a tomato sauce, lamb that was slowly cooked and tender, steak slices paired with lemon slices, a potato casserole, A combination of cooked greens, an arugula salad and olives and mushrooms. At first there is a tendency to keep everything separated on your plate. After a time, however, the foods begin to mix together and soon you have an assortment of tastes. The wonderful thing is that they all blended nicely together.

The wine selected was a 2009 Cabanon Augurio. This was quite a blend including Bonarda, Barbera, Merlot, a Cabernet, Pinot Noir and Syrah. The wine was fruity and slightly sweet. The name “Augurio” means “good omen” and the wine lived up to its name pairing well with the tuna dish and the lamb. It was a bit challenged to pair with the steak, however if you doused the steak with lemon juice and then had the wine the pairing was better. For the wide assortment of foods on the table the wine from Lombardia, Italy matched well where a bolder red would have overpowered some of the dishes.

We had a delightful time at Navarre Restaurant. They work with a csa and the specials on the menu are made with food that is delivered during the week. Both the small and large plates are based on Italian, French and Spanish cuisines.

Cheers,
Terry

Ever since meeting Linda and Don Mercer on last November’s trip to New Zealand wineries, we’ve looked for an opportunity to visit them in Prosser. The opportunity came the last week of September. We were in Portland anxiously awaiting the arrival of our second grand child. This time it is a girl. Our plan was to fly out to Portland, Oregon from the East Coast in late September then be in Portland when Clara decides to put in an appearance.

We also wanted to visit wineries and Prosser has a concentration of wineries to visit. Last year we made it to Seattle, Woodinville and Walla Walla. On Monday we’re stopping in Hood River to visit three tasting rooms on the Oregon side of the Columbia River. Then from Tuesday through Friday we’ll visit several of the wineries in and near Prosser.

Another expectation is to visit Eric and Lori of Aprés Vin. They own a grape seed oil company and specialize in varietal grape seed oils and infused varietal grape seed oils. We have cooked with these oils for a couple years and enjoy the aromas and tastes. Since we are launching a new companion website in January about cheese, wine vinegar and olive & grape seed oils, the trip will give us an excellent opportunity to see the process from pumice after pressing the wine or juice to oil extraction. This isn’t our first encounter with grape seed oil. Our first indoctrination came at Joseph’s Estate Wines in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario. Dr. Joseph Pohorly makes grape seed oil from grape seeds and touts the medicinal value of the oil. Both Joseph’s Estates and Aprés Vin also make grape flour. Aprés Vin makes varietal grape flour. Wine enthusiasts can enjoy a Merlot with a dish cooked in Merlot grape seed oil and a bread made with Merlot flour. Many other varietal oils and flours are also available.

Another interest are the wineries grouped close together near the Prosser airport. We visited several wineries grouped close together near the airport in Walla Walla. The wineries near the Prosser airport call their area Vintner’s Village with one structure called the Winemaker’s loft. We are looking forward to writing about the village and loft.

Cheers,
Terry

I took interest in the recent Virginia LOVE champagne for wineries. Few wineries took part in the contest and the big winner was Blenheim Winery in Charlottesville. Actually they garnered over 3,000 votes during the one-day contest while other wineries gathered between 5 and a couple hundred votes. It was an overwhelming victory that prompted some to write that Blenheim Winery won because Dave Matthews, owner, asked people to vote for it. Comments were curious. Obviously Dave Matthews has some name recognition even though one voter asked who was he. As far as the winery goes, unless someone told you the winery was owned by Dave Mathews you may never know.

A visit to the winery is wonderful. A large glass floor permits visitors to observe the winery operations below. The tasting counters are against a glass wall overlooking vineyards. Throughout the tasting room there is little if any evidence that the owner is the Dave Matthews of the Dave Mathews Band. You’ll notice some of his artwork on some wine bottle labels, but only if you knew that Dave is also an artist.

There are other wineries that are named for famous people. Often the rich and famous are not afraid to use their name for the winery. Think Gretzky in Ontario. That winery has name recognition and if it were allowed in the Virginia contest it could easily have managed thousands of votes simply for those who love “the Great One.” Another winery with name recognition is Francis Ford Coppola Winery. The director has many wine enthusiasts who order his wines. Name recognition helps in a popularity contest.

Was the Virginia Love contest a popularity contest? Perhaps, but on the other side Blenheim Winery has a wonderful tasting room and is visitor friendly. Although the winery is owned by Dave Matthews, he doesn’t use his fame to influence the winemaking at Blenheim. He simply told the winemaker to make the best wine she can. Blenheim won the contest and that’s OK.

Cheers,
Terry

Listed below are numerous wine events with links to the related winery website. Enjoy visiting a winery this week. If you have the opportunity consider visiting the West Virginia’s Heritage Mountain Arts & Crafts Festival near Harpers Ferry this weekend. We visited the festival earlier this year and it was delightful with a number of West Virginia wineries represented and many, many arts and crafts vendors. Occasionally an artist was working and creating art at the festival.

Cheers! Kathy

Thursday, September 22

Chateau Chantal, Michigan
Event: Muskegon Grape Escape
Website Information

Ferrante Winery & Ristorante, Ohio
Event: Raspberry Blanc & Cranberry Blanc Release Party
Website Information

Friday, September 23

Chateau Chantal, Michigan
Event: Wine Dinner
Website Information

Ferrante Winery & Ristorante, Ohio
Entertainment: Uncharted Course
Website Information

Pearmund Cellars,Virginia
Event: TGIF
Website Information

The Winery at LaGrange, Virginia
Movies: “Clerks”
Website Information

Saturday, September 24

Cava Winery & Vineyard, New Jersey
Event: Pizza & wine on the patio
Website Information

Ferrante Winery & Ristorante, Ohio
Entertainment: Afternoon-Mike Woytila / Evening- Mac & Leah
Website Information

The Winery at LaGrange, Virginia
Entertainment: Damon and Dave
Website Information

Three Fox Vineyards, Virginia
Event: 5th Annual LUCY STOMP!
Website Information

Sunday, September 25

Blue Ridge Vineyard, Virginia
Event: Sounds of Summer-Justin Prillaman
Website Information

Cava Winery & Vineyard, New Jersey
Event: Pizza & wine on the patio
Website Information

Chateau Chantal, Michigan
Event: Fireside Jazz at Sunset
Website Information

DelFosse Winery, Virginia
Event: Wine Club Member Appreciation Day- Vineyard Series Tour-Veraison-Concert-BBQ
Website Information

Ferrante Winery & Ristorante, Ohio
Entertainment: Stan Miller
Website Information

Three Fox Vineyards, Virginia
Event: Feast of Saint Bernard
Website Information

Wednesday, September 28

Chateau Chantal, Michigan
Event: Wine Dinner
Website Information

We received an email from DuCard Vineyards in Virginia about a contest sponsored by Virginia is for Lovers organization. The winery has entered a contest for winning a special “LOVE” sculpture to display at their vineyard during the month of October. This sculpture captures the essence of the slogan “Virginia is for Lovers.” More than 20 wineries are competing for the opportunity to have this large sculpture at their winery.

This is a today only event and anyone on Facebook can vote for his or her favorite winery until 5pm. Visit Facebook to vote for your favorite Virginia winery. Twenty plus wineries have chosen to take part in this special event. Vote at http://blog.virginia.org/2011/09/vote-today-and-bring-love-to-a-virginia-winery-this-october/  . Vote now as the contest ends at 5pm today.

Visitors to the winning winery of this contest will want to take photos at the LOVE artwork and post it on Facebook at their photos of the LOVE sculpture and post it on Facebook’s Virginia is for Lovers. You can also use Twitter with the hashtag #LOVEVA

Wineries participating in the event:

King Family Vineyards
West Wind Farm Vineyard & Winery
Weston Farm Vineyard & Winery
Sans Soucy Vineyards
Philip Carter Winery
Jefferson Vineyards
Hickory Hill Vineyards
Attimo Winery
Doukenie Winery
Cardinal Point Vineyard & Winery
Prince Michel Vineyard and Winery
Lost Creek Winery
Zephaniah Farm Vineyard
DuCard Vineyards
29 Vines
White Rock Vineyards & Winery
Saude Creek Vineyards
Rebec Winery
Pearmund Cellars
Bluemont Vineyard
Chatham Vineyards
Blenheim Vineyards
CrossKeys Vineyards

Remember to vote for your favorite Virginia winery before 5pm today! October is Virginia Wine Month so visit your favorite Virginia wineries this month or explore wineries you haven’t had a chance to get to yet. Virginia is home to almost 200 wineries and more are being added each year.

Cheers! Kathy