Trent Ball Yakima Valley Community College Agriculture Program, Chair Vineyard and Winery Technology

March 15 trip to Y.V.C.C.

Red Wine and Chocolate

Our February get together had a focus on red wine and chocolate. We did a blind tasting with 12 bottles of wine. Wow!

Serious wine tasting going on here.  Legs, no legs, long finish, hint of cherry, let me just taste that one more time  :)

Bonnie got drawn in when we all got excited about a certain syrah that she had brought. Her Barnard Griffin 2007 Syrah came in second place! Their 2007 Cabernet came in third. We were all very impressed with our local Richland winery.

There was food tasting

chocolate sipping

and glass tipping

The big surprise was our number one first place winner!

Hard Row to Hoe   Cabernet Franc
2006 Riverbend Vineyard Wahluke Slope

A delicious and smooth offering that will penetrate your palate leaving you lusting for more. 

 This was a chance bottle gifted to Marsha from her neighbors.

 Of the four newest Washington appellations authorized within the Columbia Valley AVA, the Wahluke Slope may hold the most untapped potential. An 81,000-acre triangular slice of desolate scrubland, it is nestled above the Columbia River in south-central Washington, and wins high marks for the way its concentrated heat ripens Merlot and Cabernet Franc.

Thanks Marsha for taking all the great pictures!

Feb. Red Wine & Chocolate

We had a fabulous day at MaryAnn's house. There were 12 wines and as many appetizers- groan- All SO delicious! We're going to have to start a WWW Cookbook! Who wants to type the recipes? Maybe we could sell them to pay for our wine trip to Hawaii!!!

Just a minute while I unbutton my pants- oh-sorry.

For those of you unable to come today, we had a blind tasting. The # 1 winner was HARD ROW TO HOE, CABERNET FRANC 2006, the majority of the grapes were from the Riverbend Vineyard, Wahluke Slope. Here's what the Columbian said about it:

"This Cabernet Franc is a beautifully complex wine that has cherry, pipe tobacco, green peppercorns, strawberry, and cocoa flavors opening to a broad palate and firm tannins."
We also had fun reading the label- now we have to go to Lake Chelan to get the whole story on the label.
We also had some Barnard Griffin winners. If anyone wrote them down, please let me know the runners up.

Lunch at Milbrandt Winery

Caroline, Gayle, Cindy & Marsha

Paine and Nancy at the milking machine

Quality Controls & Production Managers

WHAT A DAY!

Julie & John McDonald at their first event

Brett & Karen are hard workers.

Good job Karen!

What a Day!

I was so blessed by all the guys and gals that showed up on Saturday to help with bottling 653 bottles of wine (according to my husbands calculations). I know this was such a blessing to John to be able to meet so many of you and to sell two barrels of his wine. He sent me a truly thankful text last night.

John's surprise gift from Marsha...her famous blue cheese pecan appetizers.

As for us, it was such a unique opportunity to see and experience so much of the process it takes to produce a bottle of wine. Maybe our next big venture should be planting a vineyard...hehehe...apparently you never know what can happen to a seemingly innocent group of women who were just setting out to explore the wine region around their community....

Michelle Bell's amazing signature footwear for the day.

My pictures did not turn out very good with the lighting and my cheap snap and shoot...so I had a little fun with them to document part of the day. Many more pictures I am sure will be forth coming.

A big thanks again to all, and especially Gayle our fearless leader, her helpers (you know who you are) and of course Mr. John Gabriel. Also one big thank you to Mike Andrews of Coyote Canyon for sharing his facilities with us for the day. And bless the gal pouring in the front for putting up with all our hoopla.

Our new baby

Our first wine was blended today. I think we all did pretty well for first timers. We came up with this formula:

67% Sangiovese in a French Oak (#108) barrel from the Elerding Vineyard in Horse Heaven Hills.

30% Cabernet Sauvignon In an American Oak (#111) From Smasne Vineyard in H.H.H.

3% Syrah (#104) from Kestrel Vineyards, H.H.H.

I love the picture of MaryAnn and all of us with our noses in the Cab barrels. The Cab had a coffee/tobacco smell that we couldn't get enough of.

I think we'll have to have a party next August when we can open our first bottles.

A BIG thank you to Jimee and Cindy who took all our photos to commemorate this event.

Another BIG thanks to Muscat Pat for the excellent job printing our labels.

John was a wonderful host and teacher and we can't wait to work with him again in the future.

Karen & Yvonne, Nancy & Linda