Cayuse Weekend in Walla Walla

This past April, our wine loving group made the trek from Portland out to Walla Walla for "Cayuse Weekend". We went last year also, but one (large) difference this year was the fact that yours truly finally made it onto the Cayuse Vineyards mailing list, after a 7 year (!!!) wait. This means I get to buy wine from the winery, and get to attend release weekend tastings. I didn't get to pick up any wine this year, as the 2012's were still in barrel, but next year I'll get my first allocation: 1 3-pack of 2012 En Cerise Vineyard Syrah. YES!!!

Note: If you haven't signed up for the Cayuse Wait List, I would HIGHLY recommend that you do, as well as Baron's second label, No Girls Wines. 

Back to the weekend! We hit Cayuse on Friday, after a quick lunch at The Worm Ranch, and a palate-cleansing tasting at Basel Cellars. In addtion to meeting founder/owner/winemaker Christophe Baron, who was extremely nice and quite fun to chat with, we tasted through barrel samples of the 2012 lineup, paired with some delicious hors d'oeuvres. Here are the wines:

• 2011 God Only Knows Grenache
• 2012 Camaspelo (84% Cabernet Sauvignon, 16% Merlot)
• 2012 Cailloux Vineyard Syrah
• 2012 En Chamberlin Vineyard Syrah
• 2012 En Cerise Vineyard Syrah
• 2012 Bionic Frog Syrah
• 2011 Armada Vineyard Syrah
• 2012 Impulsivo Tempranillo

All were amazing and, although very, very young, drinking quite well. I'm quite sure they had been decanted for some time. The Impulsivo was locked up pretty tightly, and several 2011 wines were included due to the un-readiness of their 2012 versions. 

The snacks served all came from estate-raised livestock. Here's the list:

• Cucumber with Olive Tapenade
• Slow-Roasted Lamb on Chickpea Crisp
• Rosemary & Thyme Lamb Meatball with Arrabiatta Sauce
• Chevre and Thyme Gougeres
• Country Pate and Cherry Gastrique

All were delicious, although I avoided the pate/cherry thing (I don't like either ingredient), with my favorite being the lamb meatballs. So good with the wines! 

Other wineries we visited over the weekend were Sleight of Hand Cellars (epic Grenache party Friday night), El Corazon (epic "Pants Optional" party Saturday night), Rasa Vineyards (epic wines, ALWAYS), Mark Ryan Winery (epic carnitas tacos), Charles Smith/K Vintners, Reynvaan Vineyards, and Cadaretta Winery. A great weekend, tasty dinner at T. Maccarones, extremely fun and laid back. We missed a lot of wineries this trip, but made up for it with the higher amount of fun. If you haven't visited Walla Walla, I really think you need to plan it! 

Holiday Barrel Tasting Weekend - Day 1

I recently took a weekend trip to Walla Walla for the Holiday Barrel Tasting weekend event, December 3-5. And finally got my girlfriend, Kristina, to come along, and see some of where I spent a lot of growing up. The 3 1/2 hour drive from Portland was uneventful, even with snow on the side of the highway. Once we pulled into the outskirt towns of Walla Walla, we made our first stop: L'Ecole No. 41 in Lowden, just west of Walla Walla on Hwy. 12. While all of their wines were delicious, we especially loved the 2008 Walla Walla Valley Estate Syrah, and the 2007 Perigee and Apogee Bordeaux blends. The barrel samples here were 2009 Perigee and 2009 Apogee.

Our group had all driven out from Portland the day before, and were already deep into wine country, so we decided to meet up with them south of town, at Basel Cellars. Of course we had to drive past my grandparent's old place on Wallula Road (wow, has it fallen apart since they sold it 20 years ago!), since it was on the way. We were the first at Basel Cellars, and proceeded to start the tasting. I think we were the only customers in the tasting room! Stand-outs at Basel Cellars were the 2006 Columbia Valley Syrah, 2007 Walla Walla Valley Estate Syrah, 2006 Basel Cellars Merriment Bordeaux blend, and the 2008 Cabernet Franc. We got a private tour of the winery, which used to be a huge garage for collectible cars and motorcycles. A very cool operation there. Upon returning to the tasting room, we met up with our group, and got to taste the barrel samples, a 2008 Cabernet Sauvignon, and (I think) Merlot. Much wine was purchased, for me, the 2006 Syrah.

After Basel, we raced over to Gramercy Cellars before they closed. I love MS Greg Harrington's wines, and we got to try a new one this night: The 2008 "Lower East" Cabernet Sauvignon (which gave the standard Gramercy Cab a run for it's money!), basically juice from the regular bottling that didn't quite make the cut. The 2008 regular Cab must be amazing, because the Lower East was damn tasty! The stand-out wine for me was the "Inigo Montoya" (My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die.) Tempranillo. I can't remember the barrel sample here (2009 Syrah?), but I liked it a lot. Along with Gramercy, we got to taste Substance (fun website!) wines too. My favorites here were the Malbec and Syrah. I don't recall any barrel samples from Substance.

While everyone was tasting away, I boogied over to Waters Winery to taste through their Syrah line-up. I recalled from our Labor Day trip that I really, really liked one of the Syrah's, but not which one. Turns out, they are ALL amazing, but the meaty, stinky 2007 Forgotten Hills Vineyard Syrah. Wow, what a wine. I went home with 2 bottles of this treasure. Barrel samples were the 2009 Forgotten Hills Syrah and 2009 Walla Walla Cabernet Sauvignon.

After tasting, we all headed into Walla Walla to our hotel, the Walla Walla Best Western, to freshen up and prepare for our dinner at T. Maccarones (we had to go back, after our stellar meal last trip). Great food, as always, and an amazing server (Nikki, I'm talking to you!). Although my favorite wine from last time, the Adamant Cellars Syrah, was out of stock, we ended up bringing a couple of our own bottles to enjoy.

After dinner, we walked around downtown (in 20+ degree weather, no less) before heading over to the Sapolil Cellars Tasting Room for some live music and a glass of their tasty Syrah, before stumbling back to the hotel for the night.

Read about our Day 2 and Day 3 adventures next!

Walla Walla Wine Tasting - Day 3

Be sure to read about our Day 1 and Day 2 adventures first!

Day 3 started off much like Day 2, except that the boys rolled into town and had breakfast at a delightful little cafe called Someone's In The Kitchen. Good food, great coffee and stellar service! Even still, with the hangovers we were rockin' that morning, a trip to Starbuck's for more coffee was definitely in order. Dave and Des took off for home later that morning, so it was a nice 4 person group to go tasting, this time down south of town where most of the area's vineyards and wineries are located.

First stop was the beautiful Basel Cellars. What a gorgeous winery! It has to be seen to be believed...great wines too! Lisa was still a little hungover, so she didn't taste but Trish, Woody and I enjoyed their entire line. The 2006 Syrah was my favorite, and on sale to boot, so I grabbed 2 bottles. I could have sat in the sun and drank in the gorgeous view all day, but more wineries beckoned! Tasting fee: $5 (waived with my bottle purchase).

Next stop was on JB George Road, at Saviah Cellars. While the wines here I'm usually a big fan of, they only had 5 wines open to taste, and just one Syrah, "The Jack", which was corked! I couldn't believe they were pouring this wine, and that none of the annoying, overweight, drunks tasting there picked up on the flaw. TCA was slight, but quite noticeable all in our group. The 2008 Une Vallée was my favorite in the lineup, but overpriced. Sorry guys, but the experience there was not a good one for us. Tasting fee: $0.

Right next door to Saviah Cellars is Waters Winery and Gramercy Cellars. Another beautiful winery, and we spent much longer here than we had originally planned, just because it was so cool to hang out there. They excel in Syrah at Waters, and of the 4 on offer (Columbia Valley, Loess, Forgotten Hills, and Pepper Bridge), my favorite was the Forgotten Hills. Amazingly funky and barnyard-y, the wine was delicious! Unfortunately, the 21 Grams red wine that is a high-end project by Waters and Gramercy together, was not being tasted. Tasting fee: $5.

Sharing the same facility is Gramercy Cellars, which requires a tasting appointment (we didn't have one). However, we were lucky enough to catch Matt, who was running the tastings, after a group left (one of the group members had THE WORST comb-over I've ever seen, starting from his neckline and going up over the top of his head. Truly amazing...), and Matt gave us a tasting appt. for a couple hours later.

We motored on, in search of Northstar Winery, and their much-lauded Merlot. I think they were having a wine club event or something, because the place was packed. Very cool tasting bar too. Anyway, the wines were all good, but nothing really stood out for me. The Merlot's were both tasting great, but a bit too high in price for me at that point. Tasting fee: $10.

Back to Gramercy Cellars for our tasting. Gramercy is another new winery in the area that is making a big splash, and rightly so. I had previously tasted their wines, and met winemaker/founder Greg Harrington, at Storyteller Wine Company in Portland, so I was no stranger, but wow, all of the wines blew me away. We tasted the new releases: 2008 Syrah, 2008 "Third Man" Grenache blend, 2008 "Inigo Montoya" (as in, "My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die.") Tempranillo, and 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon. I loved the Cab best, but since I already had a bottle (thanks Trish!), I picked up the Third Man. Regrettably, the John Lewis Reserve Syrah was not yet released. Tasting fee: $0.

Our next stop was Trust Cellars, over on Merlot Dr. Nice little tasting room, with an sweet view of the Blue Mtns. And of course, great wines! My favorite was the 2008 Walla Walla Valley Syrah, and I brought home a bottle. Tasting fee: $0.

About this time, I got a call from Gramercy Cellars, advising me that I had left my debit card there (oops!) so we decided to head back, but not before making a final winery stop at Va Piano Vineyards. While the winery was pretty cool, there was a fly infestation that was annoying, and the wines while good, were probably not tasting so well for us, after trying so many prior. At any rate, I wasn't very impressed and didn't have any money anyway, since my debit card was over at Gramercy. So we tasted through quickly, and left. Tasting fee: $0.

Back to camp to freshen up, and the out to dinner at T. Maccarone's for an excellent meal and killer bottle of Adamant Cellars Syrah ($28), and then to the Green Lantern Tavern, known locally as "The Green", or just "Green". Best bar in Walla Walla. Lisa schooled some guys at pool while the rest of us looked on, and enjoyed our drinks. We tried to go back to Sapolil Cellars for Syrah and live music, but they were closed, so we called it a night.

Headed home the following afternoon, after one hell of a chilly night camping. We broke camp, loaded up the Disco and rolled west, stopping at Reininger Winery again, to taste through their line up and buy some more Rosé. The drive home was long but interesting, what with all the wind turbines and the river, but long it was. We're planning to head back for Holiday Barrel Tasting the first weekend in December. Should be a great time!