Balboa

Balboa, a spur of the moment stop, is where we had lunch....Gayle called a few minutes before we descended to ask permission to have our picnic lunch in their tasting room - the weather was too cold to have it where we had originally planned. Not only were we welcomed, but they moved their bistro patio tables and chairs inside for us....all in about 5 minutes! This was a really fun stop and their wines were voted "fav of the day" by many. Thanks, guys!!

  

Saviah

Traditionally, lavendar is planted at the ends of the rows of grape vines to attract bees for pollenation and to ward off unwanted insects.

Longshadow

Monday, May 10th

We stepped it up and went to FIVE wineries & a chocolate boutique in one day. We definitely needed to pace ourselves.

1. Don Carlo
2. Petits Noirs FABULOUS chocolate
3. Va Piano
4. Balboa ~ picnic here
5. Saviah Cellars
6. LongShadows

Catie McIntyre Walker joined the 11 of us ( she's the Wild Woman of Walla Walla) See her blog link ~ Through The Walla Walla Grapevines.

This Month's Wineries: Upland Estates & Goose Ridge

The wineries Gayle chose for us to visit this month were incredible! We started with Upland Estates located on Snipes Mtn, Washington's 10th AVA. While we were tasting several of their wines, proprietor Todd Newhouse, shared with us some of the truly remarkable history of this family owned and operated winery. This is a picture of one of the vinifera grapevines planted by William B. Bridgman in 1917 and is the actual vine used on their label today. It kind of looks like the Keeper-of-the-Vineyard to me..... Established in 1934, Upland was the first winery in Washington to commercially produce fortified wine - the wine we drink today. For more history about this award winning winery and the mountain on which it sits, visit http://www.uplandwinery.com/

The view from atop Snipes Mountain. Approximately 800 acres are devoted to wine grapes used in Upland's wines and in 20 other wineries. An additional 500 acres are devoted to cherries, apricots, nectarines, peaches, prunes, pears, apples, juice grapes, and table grapes.

The fruit trees are all in bloom - beautiful!

Our ubiquitous dust devils. They're actually pretty cool to watch. All of a sudden they'd appear...then just as quickly...poof...they're gone!

 

"Hmmmm, I wonder if I could do something like this...."

It's wild to think that these vines are almost 100 years old and still producing!! I bet they're really spooky looking in the dark...with a full moon....


Goose Ridge was our last stop. Their new facility is beautiful - to the left there's a big fireplace (they had a fire going for us) with big comfy leather furniture in front of it, in the center there's several pub tables with bar stools around them and the tasting room is to the right. Everyone brought an appetizer/salad/desert to share and as usual it was awesome!

Gordon of DAVENLORE entertaining behind the bar

Cork Art