Clousie

We'll be spending 2 days in the Woodinville, WA and 2 in Yakima area. Visiting wineries is one of the main points for choosing these areas, but also interested in anything else that may be interesting to visit. Appears that the Yakima valley runs south to Prosser so wineries are spread out further here.

Please list some of your favorite wineries in these areas. Any that are unique or special in some way would be most appealing or one where we could have a nice lunch.

easytraveler

Nice lunch, if picnic then definitely the Chateau St Michelle grounds.

We're from California and the wines of Washington are a different story, even from the wines of Oregon. There's a bit too much marketing and advertising for our tastes. There seems to be a certain need to overvalue some wines/wineries in order to promote the wine industry in Washington.

There are some smaller wineries that produce decent wines, but none that we found that we would keep for several years.

Maybe your experiences will be different. Certainly hope so!

NewbE

I know it's not on your itinerary, OP, but I am hearing constant buzz about Walla Walla wineries.

boom_boom

Columbia Crest has nice facilities and some decent wine, I think less than a hour from Prosser. I bought some Cabs from Kestrel near Prosser and held on to them for at least 5 years and they aged just fine. I felt they had at least another 5 years of good drinking. Also enjoyed the wines from Apex Cellars, but haven't aged any.
In Woodinville, St. Michelle is worth a stop, a nice tour, good picnic grounds and pretty good wine.

Dayle

I was just looking in here because I was considering a long weekend to the Walla Walla area. Opinions? Is the wine worth it? I've been tasting in the Dundee Hills area of Oregon and found some Pino Noir I liked. Then, last year, the Jacksonville/Applegate Valley area which I thought was great!

Any recommendations for me too? Any places to stay?

Thanks everyone. I'll follow this discussion.

Clousie

We debated about going to Walla Walla and although there seems to be some good press on the area, we unfortunately had to eliminate something. Can't go to the west coast without actually spending time on the coast for a few days.

I'm surprised that there haven't been many favorable responses about Washington wines/wineries. We're not great conneusores (know I'm not even close in spelling, since "edit" won't give me the correct spelling or in drinking wine) but we like to experience new wines in a fun setting. Still looking for suggestions in Woodinville or Yakima Valley. Will also be traveling from Hood River, OR to Mt Hood through a valley that seems to have wineries. So if anyone has comments on those, send them over.

sunbum1944

In the Columbia Gorge area on the Washington side) is Maryhill Winery- beautiful views overlooking the river, I think they serve some food and they have an amphitheater where live concerts are performed.

http://www.maryhillwinery.com

There is an interesting art museum close by and a replica of Stonehenge- has an interesting history

Dayle

clousie,

I'm so glad you asked! I did a home exchange in Parkdale (the valley you mention) a few years ago and just loved this little farming community. There are several wineries right in the valley. I visited 4 of them, but most are open on a limited basis - like weekends only, or by appointment. I'm sorry I don't remember any of them because I live in Utah and can't get their wine anyway, so I just enjoyed the tasting and bought a couple bottles to drink while I was in town. There was one I wanted to visit (Italain style winemaking), but it was by appointment only and I wasn't able to reach them.

If you stop in the visitors center in Hood River, they have a winery map.

Be sure to take time to drive around the Parkdale valley. There are nice winery grounds, and a couple of good places to have lunch.

Don't miss those heavenly blueberries!

Have fun!

easytraveler

Clousie: If I may make a suggestion?

Choose the small wineries that will be open the day you will be in the area. We found those to be the best.

I did extensive research, using "expert's opinions" and crisscrossing different reviews. Most of the big wineries have big advertising budgets. We found most of them to be disappointing.

In fact, some of the supposedly "great" wines tasted younger than even the wines we would taste on our barreltasting (i.e., as yet unbottled) wine trips to Sonoma County. Maybe the "real stuff" is being offered to those critics or those who are willing to pay high prices for those wines and what is being poured in the wineries is the cheap stuff. I certainly hope not, but in many an instance we found a wine not to live up to its hype.

Or maybe it's just a difference in taste buds. Ours are more attuned to California wines.

Believe you me, we certainly didn't want to end up with such a result in Washington, as we're used to filling up the trunk of the car with new purchases to be enjoyed later in the year or even years later.

Hope you find what you're looking for or get a few really good recommendations!

Dayle

easytraveler,

So do you have any wineries in the Walla Walla area to recommend? Or NOT recommend? Maybe I won't go there if the wine is not that good. The lodging prices around Walla Wall are awfully high so the question is, is it worth it?

easytraveler

Dayle: I'll have to look up my trip notes from last fall, but my recollection is: not really. However, we didn't go to too many wineries in the Walla Walla area. I remember seeing the bright yellow doorway to the much-vaulted Cayuse winery. It was, of course, closed. We have tasted a lot of wines in our collective lifetimes. I personally have broken bread in the homes of some of our locals who think nothing of opening a $200 bottle of wine for lunch, so Cayuse has to be exceptional. Personally, I think, it's just hype, it's "unavailability" makes it sound better than its actual taste. There have been some negative reviews of its wines from those who have tasted them.

So, are there no good vineyards in the general Walla Walla area? Hard to tell. Wine tasting is such an individual thing and one year's production can be so different from another year's.

I'd say that you're not getting much input because this entire area of Washington wines is relatively unexplored territory. As you can see, I'm trying hard not to prejudice you in your choice, but I have to be honest and give you input on our experiences. Wine production in Washington is still a young industry with many enthusiastic experimenters who are not afraid to try a different kind of wine/grape if their first choice did not quite work out. Some of the smaller vineyards are producing amazing stuff given how little time they've been at it. It's like Washington State as a whole is still trying to find its niche, the way Oregon did with Pinot Noir or the Okanagan Valley did with ice wine. Give them five or ten years and there'll be some truly memorable wines that will be produced.

Since you have only two days in Yakima, I'd suggest not wasting your time driving to Walla Walla. Some/many of the wineries in other parts of Washington do have tasting room facilities only in the Woodinville area. Thus, make certain the the winery that you will visit in the Yakima area doesn't already have a tasting room in Woodinville.

Winetasting is fun! You can't go wrong! Enjoy!

Clousie

Thanks, Dayle, for the comments on Parkdale Valley. Will take time to meander around it. You mentioned places to eat. Any suggestions. I had read about Elliot Glacier Public House, but it's now a brewery. Great views are mentioned though so may need to get a brew on the deck there.

Thanks, too easy traveler. We do enjoy finding the fun, perhaps funky or unique wineries so that's why I asked. I'd say we're more into the experience of the moment than discovering great wines. Buy bottles that we can enjoy sitting outside that evening. Since we're from NJ it's difficult to carry many home and unfortunately, impossible, to have them sent.

A funny aside to that...wine can be sent to Pennsylvania. On a visit to the Finger Lakes, 3 couples each sent a case to a 90 year old friend in PA. As each case arrived on different days, she had to sign for it. By the third case, she said the Fed Ex man began to give her strange looks. Too bad we hadn't sent more.

Dayle

easytraveler,
Thanks for the comments.

Clousie,
The last time I visited Napa (about 5 years ago) I ended up with a case of wine that I could not ship home to Utah. So instead I shipped it to my best friend's fiance in Albuquerque. We were all getting together in Moab a couple weeks later and he was driving up, so he kindly smuggled my wine to me - it was very good.

I will say that will be my last trip to Napa. I was absolutely shocked at the prices on wines that were just so-so. The really good ones I could not afford - $125+.....I did find a few that I felt were good value and those were the ones I bought!