More Tasting in Walla Walla

So after a wonderful lunch at the Green Spoon I stopped at the new Maison Bleue tasting room which just opened up last weekend (perfect timing eh?).

Maison Bleue is a winery started in Proser that specializes in Rhone style blends. I tasted a variety of their wines including the whites and a Mourvèdre rose that was really nice. What impressed me most was the 2010 Le Midi Grenache from the Boushey Vineyard in the Yakima Valley. The wine had lovely fruit on the outset with a good balance of pepper that made this a pleasure to drink (so much so I had to order a couple bottles to ship home!). And to show was a fun small town community Walla Walla is, here I met Dawn, the tasting room manager who was trained by Julie Titus, the tasting room manager at Seven Hills and Brandon who was formerly the tasting room manager at L'Ecole, and as we were tasting who should walk through the door but Jaime from L'Ecole! Small world indeed!

Next off to Rotie, on the recommendation of the folks at L'Ecole and Seven Hills, a great producer of Rhone style blends. Tried a number of their basic blends, and the "Little G" (100% Grenache) and "Northern Blend" (95% Syrah and 5% Viognier) were very nice indeed, but I ended up ordering a couple bottles of the 2010 Swordfight, not just because of the cool name but because its a blend of Syrah (75%) and Mourvèdre (25%) that I think will taste fantastic! Cheers!