Taste the Terroir on Red Mountain
COL SOLARE, BENTON CITY
More than 10,000 years ago the Missoula Floods swept through the rocky landscape of Red Mountain, leaving behind nutrient-rich top-soil deposits and forging gently rolling slopes that tend to be warmer and receive more sunlight than other parts of the Columbia Valley. Italy’s famed winemaker Piero Antinori was so impressed with the unique terroir, he joined forces with Ste Michelle Wine Estates to create Col Solare, Italian for “shining hill.”
“We’re focused on creating wines with concentrated flavors, aromatics, and supple tannins,” says resident winemaker Marcus Notaro. “In Italy, that’s achieved by not overmanipulating the grapes. That’s an approach we’ve adopted.”
Through the end of September Col Solare is hosting Saturday Sole, where, sans appointment, you can sip recent and cellared “library” vintages by the glass or flight. After that tastings are arranged by appointment only, but it’s worth planning ahead to sample these gorgeous wines while watching the sun slip behind the horizon. 50207 Antinori Rd, Benton City, 509-588-6806; colsolare.com
BE SURE TO SIP The Wine Advocate consistently bestows an impressive 90 points upon the cabernet sauvignon.
WHEN TO GO Through September, stop by the winery on Saturdays from noon to 9pm.
Sip Through Storytime
PORTTEUS VINEYARDS AND WINERY, ZILLAH
Belly up to the bar at Portteus, in the dense vineyards of Rattlesnake Hills, and owner Paul Portteus will ply you with samples of his acclaimed wines while he explains, not for the first time, why he snubbed California to set up shop in Yakima Valley.
The year was 1978 and Portteus had just sold his small Puget Sound music store chain Penny Lane Records. Already an amateur winemaker, he headed off to Napa to scout vineyard land. But the buzz about Washington’s budding wine industry drew him to Yakima instead. He ended up planting eight acres of wine grapes in 1981, a few years before the state’s first wine appellation received federal recognition, and Portteus Winery became Washington’s fourteenth vino maker. Red-wine lovers have been making the long and dusty drive ever since. 5201 Highland Drive, Zillah, 509-829-6970; portteus.com
BE SURE TO SIP The 2006 Old Vine cabernet sauvignon, produced from Portteus’s oldest vineyard block, recently won top honors in both the Seattle Wine Awards and Northwest Wine Summit.
WHILE YOU’RE THERE Don’t miss quirky Paradisos del Sol winery, or its giant wall of recycled wine bottles, just up the road on Highland Drive.
Slow Down in Walla Walla
ABEJA WINERY, WALLA WALLA
The scene outside the window of your room at the Inn at Abeja Winery plays like a shot from a Terrence Malick film. Wheat whips the air. The sky goes golden in the abating sunlight. A deer picks its way through the gardens as a bird lights on a grape vine. You reach for the field guide and binoculars, provided by the inn. You identify the feathered wayfarer—a yellow-breasted chat, say—then telescope your gaze out across the winery’s 35 acres. Fully-restored, century-old buildings—barn, carriage house, chicken coop—wed agrarian romance with twenty-first-century wine tourism.
Converted from an old wheat and dairy farm and opened in 2000, Abeja (Spanish for “bee”) is an eight-minute drive from Walla Walla. To visit the winery, you have to sign up as an overnight guest of the inn; the staff will greet you with a glass of cabernet sauvignon upon check-in. Your room may be the chicken coop—fully redesigned and refurbished, of course, with a wide-screen TV, WiFi, and a plush queen-size bed—or the bunk house, where, decades ago, farm hands slept off the harvest’s assault on their muscles.
Breakfast is in the former dairy barn, where the servers orbit the guests—up to 14 at a time—with plates of eggs. It’s also the site of the wine tastings, open to inn guests only. There Molly Galt (her title is marketing and public relations but she seems to do a little of everything) will ask you about you. How else will she know whether to pour the 2007 syrah or the 2008 voignier? “It’s not the kind of tasting room where you pop in and try some wine,” Galt says. “There’s so much you can talk about based on guests’ interests.”
So talk. Listen. Taste. 2014 Mill Creek Rd, Walla Walla, 509-522-1234; abeja.net
BE SURE TO SIP Abeja’s viognier has the acid to help it hold up against all kinds of food, making it a great pairing wine.
WHEN TO GO November 5 and 6 is the Abeja Autumn Celebration, a party to celebrate the release of its renowned cabernet sauvignon. Mailing-list members and guests of the inn are invited.
Published: September 2010
Portteus…..YES!
You guys removed all the comments from the 100 Best Washington Wines article… why did you do that? But aren’t… you are in the kitchen serving up your processes and methodologies that your journalists use to create work presented in YOUR magazine…I realize it is hard to take criticism however comments provide objective feedback and questions that deserve to be aired…it is rather shortsided and dare I suggest ….cowardly…
Delete them here and they will just show up on another article, perhaps totally unreated to wine…
The 100 Best Washington wines is getting all of the debate over method but this article is the more puzzling of the two for me. There are lots of reasons why to visit a winery. Of course there is the opportunity to taste the wine but it is also the opportunities to experience the wine making process, to enjoy stellar views, to experience the terroir, to enjoy concerts large and small, to enjoy a romantic picnic, to experience events that become treasured memories.
I read the article twice but I am still confused about why some of these particular wineries were chosen. I think it would have been much more helpful to readers to hear suggestions specifically about the best place to picnic, to visit on a day trip, to experience crush, to do barrel tastings, to catch the best views, the most welcoming family wineries, the most family and dog friendly etc. Oh yeah, better not forget the wine, like the wineries that have special reserve or library tastings.
No one mentioned the Prosser Wine & Food Fair!! Coming up pretty soon in early August. SO MUCH FUN! With amazing wine from all the local vineyards in WA’s beautiful wine country. I went last year with friends and we are definitely trying to go again.
Check out the Pontin Del Roza vineyard too; they are now pretty much my standard I hold other wines to! Red or white you will love their creations… :)
Portteus has been my favorite for years, last visit every single bottle was over the top good. This lead to several cases being bought. I enjoyed the 2007 estate bottle of reserve red wine last night and am still thinking about the rich deep flavors…Delish!