Today Bill & I continue our tedious task of researching Washington State wines for our upcoming Pacific Northwest Wine List. Today’s tastings, with our friend and one of our suppliers David, will concentrate primarily on the white varietals; chardonnays, sauvignon blancs, voigneirs, white blends, dry Rieslings and possibly a pinot blanc or something David will surprise us with.
There’s only so much time in the day, and after a ten hour stint of paperwork and running up and down our three floors of dining checking on guest’s, to be expected to take on the additional labors of wine tasting is unfair, don’t you think? BUT, in our endless quest for the best local quality and the freshest of the fresh, I guess I’ll cave in and participate. I can’t leave ALL the hard stuff to Bill.
After Kristie and I spent 3 days in Walla Walla visiting tons of wineries recently, tasting our way through endless recommendations from other restaurateurs and friends, my manila folder of wine info has expanded to three separate collections of wine lists, business cards, contacts and bottle notes. Time to get a bigger binder I believe.
Next up, after more tastings with Bill, visits to the Columbia Valley for that regions best, down to Oregon to investigate Pinot Noirs as well as “going to school” on vendors, collectors and people way smarter than myself regarding wine, we should have our new list out by the first or second week of January.
Three tiers of the best Pacific Northwest wines available, from the best “house wines” to interesting unique moderate wines by the glass (or bottles, of course) to the more celebratory wines for special occasions and once in a blue moon drinking (we’re not talking “wine-snob wines,” we’re talking great deals for wines that beat out wines costing five times the price).
So, please contribute any suggestions YOU may have by emailing me via our web site that you are currently on and we’ll take on the laborious task of tasting that one (or two or three…) and maybe we’ll be able to find space on the list for it without busting the walls of refrigerated inventory, space being our biggest constraint!
Cheers to all through the holidays, in 2014, and always as you live the moments that make up the whole!
~Mark