My OperaWashington Wine
Sunday, June 25, 2006 4:10:47 PM
From: Seattle, WA
To: Yakima, WA
Miles: 256
MPG: 45.6
Staying in Seattle, we HAD to stop for a Starbucks before starting the day. Jon ordered a bagel and was told :You mean a “Chonga Bagel?” “Um, whatever” was th reply, not knowing what a “Chonga Bagel” was, but figuring it should be OK. “And a medium coffee” he added. “That’s a Grande!” replied the pimply faced teen-ager behind the counter. Just a tad pretentious about there coffee around here.
Leaving Seattle and heading east for the first time this trip, we came to Yakima valley and toured about 6 wineries and one cheese plant.
One of the first ones we hit, Paradisos del Sol, was sort of the West Coast version of Bully Hill. The wine was… well, it was. But the people there were great. And the atmosphere, although certainly not what one would expect from a winery, did have its highpoints, namely a ‘pumpful’ of chicks, a few funky chickens, and a dog.
The big find of the day was the Manchego Real winery. Following the signs, we pulled into a rather industrial looking area and could not find the tasting room to save our lives. Finally Jon broke down and did something very un-dude - walked into what can only be described as a plant office and asked the woman working there for directions. She took us around the back, opened up the door to what looked like a loading dock, and started the tasting. Best wine we had all day, and in rather interesting surroundings. Never judge a winery from its cover.
We were also pleasantly surprised by Alexandria Nicole Cellars, which was in a strip mall.
Having finally had so much wine that we could not begin to tell the difference and were getting dangerously close to buying cases of who knows what, we called it a day and detoured to the Darigold cheese factory. Producing 170,000 pounds of yellow cheddar a day, in 40 lb blocks, apparently they are the contractors for “gub’ment cheese.”
We passed on the tasting, opting instead for a few tacos at El Mejor Taquito (lots of Mexican immigrants in this town and, therefore, some great roadside tacos) to tide us over ‘til dinner.
The public art in Yakima Valley was also impressive.
For diner, we passed on all of the Mexican places and went to the “high end” place in town, which was a brewery. Possibly the worst food of the trip thus far. It was to food what the Nebraska winery was to wine. Lesson of the day – when in the Yakima valley, always stick with the Mexican options.
To: Yakima, WA
Miles: 256
MPG: 45.6
Staying in Seattle, we HAD to stop for a Starbucks before starting the day. Jon ordered a bagel and was told :You mean a “Chonga Bagel?” “Um, whatever” was th reply, not knowing what a “Chonga Bagel” was, but figuring it should be OK. “And a medium coffee” he added. “That’s a Grande!” replied the pimply faced teen-ager behind the counter. Just a tad pretentious about there coffee around here.
Leaving Seattle and heading east for the first time this trip, we came to Yakima valley and toured about 6 wineries and one cheese plant.
One of the first ones we hit, Paradisos del Sol, was sort of the West Coast version of Bully Hill. The wine was… well, it was. But the people there were great. And the atmosphere, although certainly not what one would expect from a winery, did have its highpoints, namely a ‘pumpful’ of chicks, a few funky chickens, and a dog.
The big find of the day was the Manchego Real winery. Following the signs, we pulled into a rather industrial looking area and could not find the tasting room to save our lives. Finally Jon broke down and did something very un-dude - walked into what can only be described as a plant office and asked the woman working there for directions. She took us around the back, opened up the door to what looked like a loading dock, and started the tasting. Best wine we had all day, and in rather interesting surroundings. Never judge a winery from its cover.
We were also pleasantly surprised by Alexandria Nicole Cellars, which was in a strip mall.
Having finally had so much wine that we could not begin to tell the difference and were getting dangerously close to buying cases of who knows what, we called it a day and detoured to the Darigold cheese factory. Producing 170,000 pounds of yellow cheddar a day, in 40 lb blocks, apparently they are the contractors for “gub’ment cheese.”
We passed on the tasting, opting instead for a few tacos at El Mejor Taquito (lots of Mexican immigrants in this town and, therefore, some great roadside tacos) to tide us over ‘til dinner.
The public art in Yakima Valley was also impressive.
For diner, we passed on all of the Mexican places and went to the “high end” place in town, which was a brewery. Possibly the worst food of the trip thus far. It was to food what the Nebraska winery was to wine. Lesson of the day – when in the Yakima valley, always stick with the Mexican options.
