Cougar Crest was a “must” given that we are all in our thirties and loved the photo op provided by the bronze sculpture of a cougar when you first enter the tasting room. Rrrrawwwnnrr, or something. Mike Dunham himself took us for a tour of the barrel rooms at Dunham Cellars, with one of the darling Dunham dogs in tow. We enjoyed a very cozy tasting at Buty, meaning the room was tiny and there were a lot of people in there with us.
As the day wore on, our driver, John, grew more and more entertained, and although he didn’t say much, we think he was having a pretty good time. Or he just wanted us to shut up. Either way, we were wine-tasting, so who cares! We were stunned by the beauty of Abeja’s grounds, and all immediately proclaimed, in slightly slurred tones, that we were going to be married there! Or that we just wanted someone to be married there, as long as we were invited to the ceremony!
I believe it was there, at Abeja (our fourth winery, mind you), that we all started discussing what type of dog we think we’d be. Again, fourth winery. The general consensus was that our group included a Jack Russell terrier (small and tenacious), an Australian Shepherd (the one who planned the trip), an Irish Setter (red hair and lanky), an Afghan Hound (the hair), a Chocolate Lab (obedient and faithful), and Labradoodle (dark, curly hair). We wanted to change the Jack Russell to a pit bull, but she pointed out that she “really wasn’t that loyal.”
K Vintners bore the brunt of our festive wine-induced reveling ... did summmbody say Riesling? But, thankfully, they have a reputation for being fairly edgy and sassy. We were all a little past edgy and sassy after our third taste at K, where everything tasted great! It’s like juice! Driver John herded us back into the van and back to the Walla Walla house, where we proceeded to plow through the remains of our cheese, meats, and bread lunches, as well as all of the car snacks from the drive out, and finally, the contents of the once-lovely gift basket that had been left by the owners of the house. Ahhhh, wine-tasting. So refined.
The following day we bid a fond farewell to the cute little Craftsman, and the bikes, and the charming town of Walla Walla, and drove back across the rolling hills of Eastern Washington to Seattle. Summing up our weekend with a collective dramatic wave of our arms, we exclaimed, “Walla!”
