Wednesday, Mar. 18, 2009

Woehler on Wine: Tagaris Winery and Taverna

By Bob Woehler, Wine Press Northwest tasting editor

RICHLAND Tagaris Winery and Taverna in Richland offers a place where you can get authentic Greek gyros and a bargain wine to boot.

All of Tagaris' second-label Eliseo Silva wines are in the $10 range and match well with the lunch and dinner menus. These wines also have been getting some well-deserved kudos from a variety of writers.

Tagaris is among those unique wineries with a full-service restaurant and tasting room.

Frank Roth, 27, makes the wines, while chef Frank Chullino, 34, turns out flat bread delicacies and salads with a Greek or Mediterranean flair. Eliseo Silva is a longtime vineyard manager for Mike Taggares, owner of the operation.

Roth also makes the Tagaris "T" lineup of wines, which are in the $20 to $30 range. But since I'm on a bargain hunt I'll go for the $10 stuff.

I think lunch is an excellent time to visit the winery. The food matches are by Chullino.

-- Eliseo Silva 2006 Sauvignon Blanc, Columbia Valley -- Delicious grapefruit with a rich mouth feel. Excellent with Caesar salad with shrimp.

-- Eliseo Silva 2007 white Riesling, Columbia Valley -- Has sweet orchard fruit aromas and flavors with good acids. Goes well with rock shrimp and chorizo sausage flat bread.

-- Eliseo Silva 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon, Columbia Valley -- Good spicy oak and peppers with Bing cherry flavors. Try with ground spicy lamb Gyros with Greek-style yogurt.

-- Eliseo Silva 2007 La rosa de Syrah, Columbia Valley -- Won a gold at an international judging. Dark cherries, oak spice and juicy mouth feel. Goes with an open-faced meatball sandwich on Focaccia bread.

-- Eliseo Silva -- 2005 Merlot, Columbia Valley -- Chocolate and smooth blackberries. Matches with an open-face pulled pork sandwich with house made barbecue sauce.

-- Tagaris 2006 dry Riesling, Columbia Valley, $18 -- This fits my pocketbook. Aromas of jasmine with crisp apple and tropical flavors. Matched with homemade chicken salad with crisp Fuji apples and pecans wrapped in naan bread, a yeast-raised East Indian flatbread.

*Bob Woehler has been writing about Pacific Northwest wines since 1978. E-mail him at bwoehler@charter.net or check out his past columns at www.winepressnw.com.