Friday, July 2, 2021

Walla Walla Wine Tasting Vacation - Day 2

Well, it's a tough job, but somebody has to do it!  Vacationing that is...today I started out by going to the Fort Walla Walla Museum, seeing some wonderful exhibits on the history of Walla Walla and the settlements here from pioneer days just after Lewis and Clark made their expedition.  And then it was down to the serious business of wine tasting.  I started the afternoon at Seven Hills Winery, one of my long-time favorites going back to my very first trip to Walla Walla in 2001.  

Seven Hills tasting room

I had a wonderful time tasting some wines that I already had in my cellar, like the 2016 Seven Hills Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon which is drinking even more beautifully now than in 2019.  I was hosted wonderfully by Emma, and then Julie came out to have a nice conversation with me, and we had a chance to do a side-by-side tasting of the 2018 Pentad with the 2019 Pentad from the barrel.  The new vintage is very interesting and will make an intriguing wine by the time it's released.

Barrel tasting the 2019 Pentad alongside the 2018

We then chatted about some of the changes coming to the winery with a new restaurant that will soon open, replacing Whitehouse Crawford, which closed during Covid.  This will provide some nice opportunities to combine more food and wine pairings in the future.

Seven Hills barrel room

When I finished at Seven Hills, it was off to see Mary Darby at DaMa Wines.  Mary is always a pleasure to talk with, and good conversation makes hours seems like minutes, and of course sipping on wine during that time may have helped the time go fast!

The DaMa Winery tasting room

Of course, sipping on wine and enjoying good conversation makes distractions an acute hazard, which is why I ended up leaving with a half dozen tamales from the tamale lady that stopped by.  What in the world am I going to do with tamales with another week and 4,000 miles to go?  Well, I don't have an answer to that, but I can confirm those were some of the most delicious tamales I've had!

Some delicious tamales!

Cheers!

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