I know I’ve only been publishing picture after picture from this great trip. I haven’t told you ANYTHING on why I’m here and what’s up with Washington state. Well, I won’t today either but I’ll give you a short background on todays tour.

Washington state is ranked second nationally in wine production and has over 500 wineries. The wine country share the same latitude as Burgundy and Bordeaux in France. Yakima Valley is one of nine regions and it’s primary grape varieties are Chardonnay, Riesling, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Syrah.

Wine touring in WA has been on my itinerary before I even had one. Yakima is a convenient choice as it’s only a 2,5 hour drive from Seattle. A very scenic and spectacular drive starting with lush green mountains with snow on top through the Cascades. Just 1,5 hours later the Douglas Firs are gone and replaced by sandy canyons, gravel roads and 35 C (95 F). I’m melting and tasting my way through the valley, getting more and more concerned about luggage issues as I loading the car with bottles…

Yakima Valley winery map - my picks. Washington Wine Commission, website.

Tags: seattle, Travel, wining/dining

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 2nd, 2008 at 8:39 am and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.