This weekend's wine wanderings

This weekend we set out to discover a new winery or two. We had hoped to visit Vartanyan Estates, one of the area's newest wineries, but when we arrived there was no one around. That's ok, we'll try again! The tasting room is still under construction, but it looks like it'll be a really nice establishment, with estate vineyards to boot. You don't always see that in this region.

Next we wandered to downtown Bellingham to find Whatcom Winemakers, a store where you can make your own wine. This business idea has been popular in Canada for many years, and it's finally taking hold in the U.S. You select the wine you'd like to make, and the winery/store takes care of everything for you. You can be as involved -- or uninvolved -- in the process as you want. Prices average out to about $7-$10 per bottle. (Hint: if you save wine bottles, you can reuse them to bottle your own wine! Now there's a new take on recycling!) I hear that this is how a lot of winemakers get their start - using "kit wines", "you brew" stores, and the like. Sounds pretty fun to me!

On Sunday morning we got a call from Ken Peck of Dakota Creek Winery in Blaine. "We're crushing and pressing Chardonnay today... want to come and help?" Um... yeah! We've been waiting for a chance to help out with crush for a while. Despite torrential rains, we had an enjoyable and educational day. Luckily, Ken and Jill have a great "cave" that they've built to serve as a barrel room, and they were able to set up the crusher and press in there, out of the weather.

(Above: Alan shoveling grapes into the crusher/destemmer.)

Having grown up in Yakima, surrounded by apple orchards, I've had quite a bit of experience pressing apple cider. I was very surprised that the fresh Chardonnay grape juice tasted so much like cider! In fact, the whole crushing and pressing process reminded me a lot of cider pressing - 1) grind up the fruit, or in this case, remove the grapes from the stems, 2) press the "mash" to get the juice out. Man, are the results delicious!

I can't wait to taste the finished product. You should be excited about it too! In the meantime, drive out to Dakota Creek for a taste of last year's outstanding wines. (It's a good idea to call ahead to make sure someone will be around, especially during this busy time of year.)

Happy "wining"!