Lessons in Wine Tasting

My friend, Rose returned recently from her bout of teaching in the wilds of Alaska. Joking, joking, but really, it is true. She and he husband Lee spent the better part of the last school year in the middle of nowhere Alaska. They have returned to the lower 48 to thaw out for the summer, even though it largely hasn't felt like summer here, yet. 

I hadn't seen Rose yet, so yesterday we decided to whisk away and spend a day doing something neither of us has fully done. We went wine tasting. We didn't know what wineries we wanted to go to, we just got in the car and went. We ended up going to three different wineries and enjoyed our time and the beautiful scenery, and sometimes the wine (neither of us are red wine drinkers and we were in red wine country). It was a growth opportunity...and I tried many wines I wouldn't have otherwise. And, we decided we would fully photo document our adventure...this means lots of pictures...

I loved the rolling hills of Dundee Wine Country.

Us before heading in at stop #1. Erath Winery. Not super impressed.

Bottles purchased at end of #1:   0

Stop #2. Maresh Red Hills Winery. More impressed. Beautiful grounds. More down to earth folks manning the wines.

They had a beautiful back deck with amazing views of those beautiful rolling hills.

Traipsing through the vines. 

The Maresh grounds were spotted with old equipment. Fun to see.

I love the ability I have to push a button and change my camera from color to B & W. Just adds something.

Pu

 Bottles purchased at end of #2:   2 (one by each of us)

This was the funnest shaped/branched tree!

 Amazing views of the valley.

 I could live right here, in this spot, with this view...

 ...or this view...

Stop #3 (our final winery stop): Laurel Ridge. Most impressed. The views weren't as phenomenal since it is in the valley, it was closing, but the gentleman was so gracious in talking to us and the wine was the best (in our opinion) and the was based solely on the fact that they had more whites. Thank goodness we were ending on a good note!

Rose even helped the guy with the thing....the register receipt tape. 

Outside in the sun (on a day when rain had been forecast). And what a glorious day it was.

 Bottles purchased at end of #3:   2 (one by each of us)

Total bottles purchased: 4 and they were all amazing tasters, so I hope I'm still as impressed when we crack into them.

At the end of our fun filled winery tour we stopped for an okay dinner in Newberg...we would have gone elsewhere if we hadn't been so hungry. Then we stopped for ice cream at Burgerville before heading home. Like I said, a glorious day.