Columbia Crest...Best Wine Tour of the Year!

I think we should make this an annual event! Our spring tour to Columbia Crest was just simply outstanding. As the largest winery in Washington State we tend to overlook this giant in the land. Big is not always better. Well in this case it most certainly is! Did you know they have 6 tiers of wine? Most of us are familiar with the Two Vine, Grand Estates and H3...but there is so much more to this great winery.

As special guests on an amazing tour of this mammoth facility

This was a diagram of the bottling line...it was huge!

WWW were treated at the end of our tour with a special tasting of a champagne called Luxe which is only sold to the restaurant industry. As we all took our first sip our eyes opened wide as our palettes were opened up to new levels of delight. I bought two bottles. The best champagne I have ever tasted, and even though you may say what do I know about champagne?   Well not too much...ha ha, but we did taste 24 different bottles in November and I learned what I did not like. (Check out our adventure on Bubbly Day) We were then treated to several wines from the Grand Estates collection and then the H3 goodies. What came next was a special treat. As we were on the tour we passed by a few private tastings going on.

I was able to catch a quick picture of "Ray Einberger whose 2005 Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon became the first Washington wine to be named ‘Wine of the Year’ by Wine Spectator in 2009."   while he was conducting a tasting with a dignitary from India.

Waltor Clore Reserve

Our tour guide Michelle Getchell  said, why let the opened bottles from the Waltor Clore Reserve collection go to waste?  She then ran down to the winery and gathered the open bottles for us from the private tasting and to our great delight shared these bottles with our group. I was actually floored by the hospitality we received on this trip.  Just one example of this was a new gal that I had invited to join us who was fairly new to wine tasting and was only into tasting a few light white wines.

Head White Winemaker Laura Surge sharing her vast knowledge and enthusiasm with our gals.

Well that did not even begin to daunt Winemaker Laura Surge for one second. Next thing I knew she was setting my friend up at a special tasting to give her palette a chance to discover the wonders of Columbia Crest white wines. I had to take a peek at what was going on when I myself discovered the delicious white Grand Estates Moscato which I then purchased for our Easter brunch.  Really...I was so impressed. Then to top off the whole event we were as a group treated to a very special discount and I am telling you what~ our WWW did not disappoint. We bought their wine by the case load.