saturday (6/28) :: day 2
Day 2 begin with brief trips back to Dunham and K to pick up some bottles we had purchased the day before. (Yes, me and Pat bought a lot of wine on this trip). Pat's dad even ended up giving us one of the amazingly labeled Malbecs from K, Score! After our pickups we drove up in to the hills to visit Pepper Bridge Winery. We sat out on their lovely deck for quite a while listening to live music and sampling wine and frites from their on-site food cart, which was actually run by culinary students as a class project. (Walla Walla, previously unknown to me, is actually a large college town as well). Once we finished up there we went to the nearby Va Piano Vineyards to see what they had to offer. This little chateau was the perfect and quiet (aside from us) place to spend the rest of the afternoon. They even had a toy box with hula hoops, which were probably intended to entertain children, but I wanted to test out my mad skills and see if I could multitask with a glass of wine. It was tough, but I was successful, much to the entrainment of those around me. I have no shame.
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| [[ the beautiful grounds of pepperbridge. live music. exploring the area. wheat fields at va piano. my mad hula hooping skills. i spy a family of deer. ]] |
Again we went back to the house when we were finished to rest up and change for dinner, which was at a cute little Mediterranean restaurant downtown called Saffron. This was definitely my favorite meal. We had the octopus to begin with and then me and Pat tried the ling cod with mussels and the lamb tagine for dinner, and of course some more wine. Everything was amazing!! We got back to the house much earlier Saturday night and hung out by the fire pit on the property watching the sunset until we decided it was time for bed.
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| [[ amazing dinner at saffron. more wine. pat's lamb tagine. my ling cod with mussels. leaving downtown. the grape vines at our vacation rental. sunset. fire pit. bedtime. ]] |
sunday (6/29) :: day 3
On Sunday we started out at Three Rivers which had a giant tasting room and beautiful grounds where you could even play a little golf. I loved their steel chardonnay and Pat loved the oak, so we ended up buying a few bottles of each. After our first stop we went to Woodward Canyon, which is where we planned to spend most of our day. We sat outside of the little restaurant first and enjoyed some lunch and their red table wine. We all shared a flatbread and me and Pat had the pulled pork sandwich and hen. When we finished eating we all made our way to the tasting room to try some flights and then ended up sitting outside and enjoying a bottle of chardonnay in their garden.
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| [[ the garden grounds of woodward canyon. a delicious and super fresh lunch. stray kittens wandering around the property. exploring the area. me and my babe on a beautiful day. kitties! ]] |
Next door there was an old school house that intrigued me, so we ended up making our way over there next to snoop around and found that another winery L'Ecole No 41 had taken over and had converted one of the rooms into a tasting area. We sampled their offerings and I took home a bottle of their semillon. Finally we went to Waterbrook, which unlike any of the other wineries was in a very modern and new building. Here we discovered a great tip... when tasting lots of wine bring sparkling water with you because it completely cleans your palette. This was especially helpful for all of us at this point. Me and Pat stood inside and went through different flights while his parents sat outside with their dogs. We ended up leaving with a few bottles of their cab franc, which we got to taste only by mistake because the bottle had been accidentally opened earlier in the day.
After Waterbrook we all went back to the house, made dinner, and just relaxed for the rest of the evening.
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| [[ silly and true coasters at three rivers. farm house. the old school house. waterbrook. surf and turf for dinner at the rental. ]] |
