Our first stop at Pacific Rim. A large California winery Pacific Rim decided to move a major part of their wine production facilities up to this region to buy, grow and bottle our local grapes. Read their story to find out why, something about our wonderful terra.
Scott Kopf the Lab Manager/Enologist teaches us about his job. He takes us right into his laboratory, hands us some glasses and proceeds to take us around the warehouse tasting little sips of great vats of wine in progress.
We tried a Riesling, Chien Blanc, and a wonderful Raspberry Port. The port was just a little experiment they were trying out. One of the great advantages of visiting these local wineries I am finding out is that many of the designer wines never hit the major markets. They can only be purchased directly from the winery. We have his name and he has ours, and when they go to bottle that heavenly stuff, we are on the call list for one of the first cases off the production line. Fun way to start our morning.
We then head off to Processor for some shopping. We visited a local sweet shop called Chukar Cherries. They had everything you could think of to do with cherries and chocolate, and then some. I tasted a cherry chutney, and cherry salsa that were unique and special.
We headed across the street for a stop at Bonnie's Vine and Gift Shop and a tasting. We have tasting rooms around here, like Seattle has coffee shops...they are everywhere.
Today we were after some of the unique and lesser known wineries. So out we headed to find a a small winery called Pontin Del Roza
At Vine Heart we stopped to taste some wine, and had a most excellent picnic on a lovely fall day.
Our last stop at the Cozy Rose Inn.
Just a note on behalf of the Inn. True to their promise I was able to book a room on a Thursday night at the last minute for half price for my husband's birthday treat. We stayed at the house next door on the top floor.We had a lovely breakfast served to us in front of the fireplace the next morning. Jennie, Marks wife turned out to be a kindred soul on many levels. They have a wonderful B&B.
