Washington Wine Country's Top Sites

Following the vine through the glorious Pacific Northwest

Wine lovers who enjoy sipping through wine country need to put Washington State on their short list. With over 700 wineries and counting, there’s a bounty of wonderful, mostly Bordeaux-style wines and many are distributed in Chicago.

Begin your trip by spending at least a day in culturally dynamic Seattle before heading to Woodinville, the wine region closest to the city. Our arrival coincided with the 24th annual Auction Washington Gala, held at wine behemoth Chateau Ste. Michelle, with proceeds benefiting Seattle Children’s Hospital.

With a winemaker at each table, we sat with Jamie Brown of Walla Walla’s Water’s Winery. The 47-year-old musician-turned-winemaker has enough personality to light up a room of 500 people, but his stunning Bordeaux-style wines speak volumes about his craftsmanship.

Just 90 miles east of Seattle is Swiftwater Cellars, a destination winery, restaurant and event facility located in the Suncadia Resort in Cle Elum. The luxurious property produces premium wines, including a proprietary red, pinot noir and syrah, each bursting with ripe fruit. The veteran winemaking team of Linda Trotta and Tony Rynders also oversee the No. 9 line of wines, which pays homage to the last working coal mine formerly on the property.

Up Highway 82 is the town of Prosser, located in the Yakima Valley and home to the striking adobe-style Desert Wind Winery. With just four luxury guest rooms adjacent to the tasting room, it was a fabulous base for wine visits. Each well-appointed room has a balcony and includes a lovely European breakfast and a bottle of their most prized ruah, a merlot-based wine from grapes of the Wahluke Slope.

Nearby is Kestrel Vintners, where winemaker Flint Nelson produces a stellar four tiers of wines of great value. You can ship these wines home, too. Red Mountain, the most coveted American Viticultural Area (AVA), is a short 25-minute drive east, at the Benton City exit. Kiona Winery, the longest standing family-operated winery, planted some of the very first vineyards in the region back in 1975.

Founder John Williams features a line-up of award-winning estate chardonnay along with fruit-forward cabernet and merlot. Down the road sits Fidelitas Winery, a boutique winery where owner/winemaker Charlie Hoppes and his wife Terri whirl enological wine magic “faithful to cabernet sauvignon, loyal to Bordeaux winemaking techniques and true to Washington’s unique terrior,” he says.

Up the hill is Hightower Cellars, where Kelly Hightower and winemaker-husband Tim have run their own show since 2002. While they’ve planted 10 acres of vineyards, they still source grapes from the Horse Heaven Hills and Walla Walla Valley AVA’s to create diversity and complexity in their handcrafted cabernet- and merlot-based wines.

The last stop in Red Mountain is at acclaimed Col Solare, a Chateau Ste. Michelle partnership with Tuscany’s Marchesi Antinori launched in 1995. Winemaker Marcus Notaro’s passion for cabernet shines in his 2007 Col Solare blend of 75 percent cabernet savignon, 20 percent merlot and 5 percent cabernet franc. This modern facility is new to the region, completed in 2007, in an effort to capture the true essence of Washington fruit.

With my daughter starting college at Whitman College, my journey culminated in sweet yet sophisticated Walla Walla. The town is dotted with tasting rooms, from Sleight of Hand Cellars, Spring Valley Vineyards, Charles Smith Wines and Da Ma Wines, with Waterbrook’s Northwest inspired tasting room on Highway 12 as you enter town. I split my stay between the historic Marcus Whitman Hotel and the charming Fat Duck Inn, where owner Alexa Palmer keeps the beautifully remodeled inn, just blocks from downtown.

Fortunate timing again: I landed an invitation to the harvest party at Spring Valley Vineyard, a farm dating back to the mid-1800s, mostly dedicated to wheat wines. The five-mile jaw-dropping drive was like a trip through like the Mojave Desert but with endless miles of rolling wheat fields. Washington wines deserve a place on your table and in your cellar. They are not in the shadow of California; rather, they show elegant distinction.

To find out where you can puchase some of the wines mentioned here in Chicago, visit www.TCWmag.com/blogs/wine-ing women.

Tagged as: wine & spirits, Wine-ing Woman, Washington State and wine tasting