Mike and I toured the Yakima Valley wine country a little bit this weekend while camping at the Yakima Sportsman State Park. Again, it was a last-minute trip, and since no other campgrounds were available, we settled on camping in Yakima and immediately planned our wine touring route...Yakima has an average of 300 days of sun! 300 DAYS OF SUN! We figured wine and sun couldn't be all that bad.We set up camp late Friday night at the state park. When we arrived, we were a little shocked to discover that the campground is basically in the middle of town! And it's not next to a body of water! Not impressed. Most of the campsites were open, with very little privacy and very little to keep yourself entertained. We had to venture way outside the campground to find entertainment. It felt really weird cause it was like we were visiting Yakima, but in a campground, not in a hotel. And Yakima isn't the nicest town to visit - the town is really small, and mostly run down. But, after a little breakfast the next morning and swimming at the Yakima public pool (with a huge water slide), we headed down Highway 82 at last to the clusters of wineries located on the Rattlesnake Hills Wine Trail. (The real attraction to Yakima, in my opinion).
Our first stop, Maison de Padgett Winery, had tacky labels and extremely sweet wines, however, I was most impressed by the winemaker's story... after working in the Costco warehouse for 15 years, he decided to purchase a small winery in Yakima and learned in five months how to make wine. (See! It is possible!) We cringed a bit at the coffee-flavored sweet port, decided against buying any bottles, took some pictures in their beautiful gardens and headed on our way...
The next stop was nothing more than a little house, but by far my favorite place--Paradisos de Sol. Their wine philosophy was "Sip, sip, bite, dump." The "bite" included a small snack they had to accompany their wines... artichoke and crab dip to accompany two white wines, bleu ribbon dip to accompany three of their reds, flaming pears to accompany a dessert wine and my favorite--a pairing of roasted marshmallow with Botrytis Riesling, the rarest form of wine in the world!
Next we moved on to SilverLake Winery (also located in Woodinville), where the gentlemen pouring our wine did us well. We ended up sampling at least 10 different wines. Because we told him we were new, he let us try the differences between a red - the same wine made in a barrel and a steel cast, and a white - same wine, but one made in a barrel and a steel cast. Then he also used a "smelling kit" to teach us how to pick the flavors out of a wine, which is my new goal. I struggled with picking blueberry out of a Chenin Blanc, but I just about flew to the moon when I finally smelled the "apricot" listed in a riesling at the next winery...Final Verdict: Won't go back. We loved the wine tasting, and would stop there again, but the state park was one of the worst we've seen. We'd rather camp somewhere with a little more privacy and a lake or river to swim in!
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