Lost and found in Washington Wine Country

I'm a little behind the times with this post as the Great Eastern Washington Wine Tour ended a couple of weeks ago. However, with another swell trip coming up (which I'll certainly want to blog about at some point), I want to recap the five terrific days I spent, along with a good friend, travelling through Yakima and Walla Walla to taste and learn about Washington wine. (This may be more in the form of bullet points than narrative, time being short.) You can see a few more photos here.

Day 1. To Yakima, via Cle Elum. Lunch at the Cottage Cafe, dessert from the Cle Elum Bakery, widely reputed to have the best tollhouse cookies in the state. At lunch we decided we'd lose fewer things if we stuck reflective tape on them(I had panicked because I couldn't find my glasses)so we made a detour to Cle Elum Farm & Home Supply to buy lovely rolls of bright yellow reflective tape.

Yakima is not particularly charming, but we enjoyed visiting tasting rooms for Kana and Donitelia, bought our first wine at Kana (or I did, anyway), and had a tasty dinner at the Barrel House restaurant with a nice glass of wine, of course. Can't remember what I had, but it went down well.

Day 2. Ah, the wine. We started working our way through the Yakima Valley beginning with the Rattlesnake Hills. You can only do so much in a day and you do have to pace yourself. So, based on recommendations and some prior knowledge, we visited

Piety Flats (see above)
Tefft Cellars
Alexandra Nicole (Bought my most expensive bottle here, Destiny Red Table Wine, a reserve that was smooth and rich.)
Kestrel (features imported cheeses that make the wine taste even better)
Terra Blanca (huge tasting room, beautiful setting -- we ate our picnic lunch here)

Then on to the area East of Walla Walla and two very well known wineries:

L'Ecole No. 41
Woodward Canyon

Driving in to Walla Walla you see some of the Palouse for the first time. We stayed at the gorgeously renovated Marcus Whitman Hotel, walked around the extra-charming downtown, and had dinner (delicious!) at 26 Brix. I remember having a glass of Rulo Syrah that went down very well indeed. Walla Walla Wine Region, I gather, is particularly known for Syrahs and they are proving addictive, to me at least.

Day 3. Next day took us to some of the tasting rooms that dot downtown, especially Waterbrook, which features straightforward, good value wines. Nice art there, too. More than one tasting room host in the Yakima Valley told us that wine folks in Walla Walla were "snooty," which was mostly not our experience. I gather there is a great rivalry going on, but I think each area definitely has something to offer.

Later, we drove south of town to visit Rulo, Saviah, and Pepper Bridge. Pepper Bridge was the only let down, since they charge an $8 tasting fee. It's refundable, but bottles start at $40. I guess the fee was just beyond my price point or something, but it irked me. We didn't stay, but I have to say the setting was beautiful.

We had dinner the second night at the hard-to-get-into, not fancy, but damned good Creektown Cafe. I had some viognier, another wine that is popular among these vintners, but new to me, along with a delicate seafood dish. And it was pretty fun to have so much attention from the host/owner, who was crazy about my perfume. (It's Cefiro from Floris, if you must know.)

Other highlights from Walla Walla:

A morning walk that looped through the Whitman College campus, Wildwood Park and Pioneer Park. The aviary was a completely unexpected treat.

A visit to the fabulous Colville Street Patisserie. (OK, OK, it was more than one visit.)

Shopping along Main Street. Even Macy's has better stuff here, I swear!

Day 4. North through Waitsburg and Dayton into the Palouse and up to Pullman to stay with friends before heading home. We had hoped to eat at the Whoopemup Hollow Cafe in Waitsburg, but were stymied because they were not open for lunch. We landed at the Weinhard Cafe in Dayton instead. It had a nice, funky vibe, the food was better than good and we coulda had wine with lunch there, too, but we didn't.

Rolled in to Pullman around 4, where we were treated to a warm and relaxing stay and given an opportunity to open couple of bottles of the wine we'd been accumulating. Pulled pork for dinner, along with homemade dessert (rhubarb custard bars, yum) plus a spectacular chocolate caramel torte from the patisserie in Walla Walla.

Day 5. A rather long haul home, but we made good time. Good grief, what am I going to do with all this wine?!