Welcome,
|
| Request Activation |
The way things are going in Washington these days, the above headline needs a bit more information - because it seems like a Walla Walla winery is opening a second tasting room in Woodinville about every other week.
ROHNERT PARK, Calif. — Northwest wineries fared well at the 2010 Grand Harvest Awards, an international wine competition staged by Vineyard & Winery Management magazine.
In addition to stunning scenery and great seafood, Port Angeles also offers some excellent opportunities for wine touring.
There are eight wineries in the Port Angeles-Sequim-Port Townsend area, each worth a visit. I stopped at two during a fall jaunt around the Olympic Peninsula, the long-established Camaraderie Cellars and the relatively new Harbinger Cellars just outside Port Angeles.
Camaraderie Cellars was making its 17th vintage at the winery complex, which looks like something that would grace the pages of Sunset Magazine with its beautiful grounds sporting colorful floral displays and the lush greenery of the Olympic Peninsula.
It’s a friendly place where you are greeted by owners Don and Vicki Corson. Don is the winemaker and crafts traditional bordeaux blends but also makes other reds, including Tempranillo and Syrah.
The Corsons will gladly describe for visitors the peninsula’s places to see such as the vista from Hurricane Ridge and scenic Lake Crescent.
They also have a tasting room at Seattle’s Pike Place Market.
Camaraderie Cellars 2005 Trinquer, Washington State $17.50 -- The name is from the word for the tinkling of glass and this wine will tickle your palate. It’s a dry, delicious fruity blend of Sauvignon blanc, Semillon and Viognier and a perfect match for crab cakes.
Camaraderie Cellars, 2006 Malbec, Yakima Valley, Crawford Vineyards, $20 -- Generally, Malbec doesn’t excite me, but this one did with its delicious jam flavors of wild raspberries. I’d try it with game birds or a Cornish game hen with raspberry sauce.
The winery is off Highway 101 west of town at 334 Bensen Road. www.camaraderiecellars.com
Harbinger Cellars
Sarah Gagnon, winemaker and proprietor at Harbinger, comes from a pioneer Olympic Peninsula family and grew up to be a professional kayaker. She also decided to become a winemaker and learned her trade at Olympic Cellars before starting Harbinger Cellars.
True to her roots, she makes a couple of west-side wines, including a raspberry and a Madeleine Angevine and Siegerebbe blend. However, I was particularly impressed with what she does with east-side grapes.
Harbinger Winery 2007 Rose de Lemberger, Red Mountain, Kiona Vineyards, $16.99 -- This dry, crisp, strawberrylike rose is a perfect match for a salmon fresh caught in the Straits of Juan de Fuca.
Harbinger Winery 2007 Dynamo white, Washington State, $13.99 -- This is an intense aromatic Riesling-Sauvignon Blanc blend with inviting fruity flavors to go with a plate of cheeses. The winery is at 2358 Highway 101 just west of Port Angeles. www.harbingerwinery.com.
* Bob Woehler, a retired Herald reporter, has been writing about Northwest wines since 1978. He can be reached via e-mail at bwoehler@charter.net.
Wine Press Northwest is pleased to be able to offer its users the opportunity to make comments and hold conversations online. However, the interactive nature of the internet makes it impracticable for our staff to monitor each and every posting.
Since WinePressNW.com does not control user submitted statements, we cannot promise that readers will not occasionally find offensive or inaccurate comments posted on our website. In addition, we remind anyone interested in making an online comment that responsibility for statements posted lies with the person submitting the comment, not Wine Press Northwest.
If you find a comment offensive, clicking on exclamation icon will flag the comment for review by the administrators, we are counting on the good judgment of all our readers to help us.
Print
E-Mail