Didn't know much about Washington State wines, but we'd had a few good ones thanks to wines tastings at the club. So after a lot of research we found that the Walla Walla Valley was the place to go to taste the most red wines without driving too much. And we were right.
We arrived on Thursday afternoon and set up camp at Blue Valley RV park. It was just on the other side of the big 4 lane highway from the downtown area. There was even a nice walking path from the campground to downtown. Of course we didn't use it since Martha's foot is acting up again. Plus it's hard to carry cases of wine that far.
We did have time for 2 tastings at a couple of wineries. We talked with the visitor center lady about her opinion on destination wineries around town. Dozens of the wineries don't have tasting rooms except downtown. That's good for hitting a lot of them, but we like tasting out at the winery surrounded by fields of grapes. With over 100 wineries in the area there is a lot to taste. The first winery we stopped at was Amavi on the south side of town about 2 miles from the Oregon border. Beautiful location on a hill overlooking some of their fields of grapes and around the corner from their sister winery. Everything we tasted at Amavi was good and we bought a cab for supper. On to the sister winery Pepper Bridge. They also had great reds, but they started at $65 a bottle. So we just paid for a $12 tasting and moved along.
Back at camp we met a RV neighbor lady, Karen, who was a full timer. Her husband was in software and worked out of the RV and she worked part time at Tero Estates winery tasting room downtown. Since she worked on Saturdays, we put that on the list for Saturday's tastings.
On Friday, we started at the Walla Walla Community College which has a winemaking program. The students learn all aspects of the wine business and they even run the tasting room. The college owns their own vineyards around town and in the higher altitudes surrounding the valley. We likes all their wines some had won awards and got a 91 from Wine Spectator Magazine. Some of the graduates had gone on to be well respected winemakers in the valley.
After a pizza for lunch we went back out to the south side and tried the wines a Saviah. We talked them into opening a Cabernet Franc after we tasted their current choices and it was good enough for us to buy a couple of bottles.
All of the wineries are good about recommending other wineries to try in the area. Saviah sent us to Windmill Winery just over the border in Oregon. It's still part of the Walla Walla AVA. Loved their Petit Verdot and Cabernet Franc.
Back at the RV park we met the new folks next door who were from New Zealand. Passed our newly found wine knowledge on to them. First time we've met someone who lives a long way from the USA, but owns and stores an RV here so they can RV over here every year. He was a former world champion speedboat racer and comes over for the races and touring.
On Saturday morning we went to Walla Walla Vintners and talked with the owner/winemaker. Everything we tasted was wonderful. Had to buy a lot, plus he ships to NC. We were the only folks there when we got there, but it got crowded soon. A limo arrived with a bunch of ladies and the driver talked with me about his very old Pontiac. He had stretched it into a limo to hold 8-10. Photos are on Flickr.
After lunch we hit a few more downtown tasting rooms including Karen's Tero Estates and another one she recommended.
This is the place to come tasted big bold red wines.
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