Seattle, WA

It was nearly a year ago that I first stayed at the Seattle Westin Downtown. While the room itself was lovely my overall stay was disappointing. As we exited the hotel elevator we were greeted by what appeared to be a large pile of dog poo and a big extraction fan. Fortunately it turned out to be a large pile of chocolate covered raisins but nonetheless the pile remained in front of our hotel room for two days before I complained and it was finally removed. We weren’t so lucky with the big extraction fan. That sat outside our door until the day we left.

When I returned home I wrote about my experience and forwarded my entry to the management at the Westin. In return I received a very nice email from the Hotel Manager, Andrea Norton. She wrote:

Ms. Myers

Thank you for sending me the link to your review of our hotel. I was disappointed and embarrassed that we failed you in so many ways.

Please accept my sincere apologies. I have shared all your comments (positive and negative) with the appropriate departments.

I hope you will afford us an opportunity to regain your confidence and patronage. Should your travels bring you back to the Seattle area, please do not hesitate to call me directly so I may personally attend to your reservation and stay.

Be well,

Andrea Norton
Hotel Manager, The Westin Seattle

In a day when customer service seems at an all time low and few companies bother to acknowledge customer complaints, it was refreshing to receive acknowledgment and an apology. Common courtesy goes a very long way in my book.

It was for that very reason that I took Andrea up on her offer and gave the Westin a second chance. Sadly our return to Seattle was due to a death in the family. We decided to end our trip on a happy note by staying downtown and spending a week enjoying our favorite city. In other words, I was entrusting a very important trip to Ms Norton and the staff of the Westin.

Thankfully, our trust was well placed. From the moment of our arrival the staff did their very best to make our stay comfortable and enjoyable. We had a great view the last time we stayed at the Westin but this time the view was magnificent. We opened our curtains to find the Space Needle right in the center of our window with the Olympic peninsula spread out before us. It was breathtaking. Why am I telling you when I can show you?

Our luggage followed quickly behind us along with a cart carrying chocolate covered strawberries, cheese, sliced pears and nuts. We’d mentioned to the desk manager who checked us in that we’d brought a case and a half of wine with us from the Yakima Valley. He thoughtfully sent the tray up to go with our wine.

I was somewhat embarrassed to learn that nearly every staff member I encountered had actually read my last review. One told me, “We’ve made a lot of changes. Your review was a good wake-up call. It’s our goal to have you leave feeling better than when you arrived.”

A couple of days into our stay I received a note from Andrea asking how our stay was going. I told her everything was going great and if I were to complain about anything, and this would be a minor issue, it was that I was unable to make a decent cup of tea in my room. You see, I grew up in England and I drink a good 10 cups of tea a day. In the old days you used to get a small coffee pot that you could run water through and get an ok cup of tea. Not great, mind you, but tolerable. Nowadays they tend to have pod pots. I ran water through the pod at least a dozen times and still bits of coffee were floating in my cup. I gave up.

Andrea kindly had a proper tea kettle delivered to my room. Unfortunately, it didn’t quite work correctly but I greatly appreciated the effort. The next morning I rang downstairs and asked if they could send me another one. When I returned to the room at the end of the day there was a new tea kettle and my message light was blinking. It seems that the hotel didn’t have another tea kettle, so they bought me one.

They bought me a new tea kettle!

I felt rather bad about that so I emailed Andrea and apologized for being such a pain in the tookus. Her reply, “That is how great service should be.”

In fact, that is exactly how great the service was at the Westin.

So, to Andrea, Cameron and the rest of the wonderful staff I’d like to take this opportunity to say Thank You! for exceeding our expectations. Thank You! for caring about the experience of two people all the way from Austin, Tx. We very much look forward to our next stay at the Westin.

Seattle, Downtown, Westin, Review, Hats Off, Hotels

Flying Fish
2234 1st Ave
Seattle, WA 98121
(206) 728-8595

After a long day spent walking all over downtown Seattle and an afternoon spent stuffing our faces with dozens of fresh oysters at Elliott’s Oyster House, I wasn’t terribly hungry for a big dinner. I was looking around for a place where we could get a light dinner when I stumbled across the website for the Flying Fish. Their menu sporting “small plates” sounded like just the ticket. We called ahead and were told we wouldn’t need reservations and so we left the hotel and walked to the restaurant.

The Flying Fish is located in an area of Seattle known as “Belltown”, a trendy neighborhood filled with nightclubs, restaurants, art galleries and boutiques. It was a lovely evening for a walk, which helped to invigorate our appetite.

The restaurant is painted in bright colors with interesting art and a view into the bustling kitchen. We were seated immediately at a cozy booth where we perused the menu while sipping a lovely glass of Cabernet Savignon from the Bonair Winery in the Yakima Valley. A winery I toured and reviewed nearly a year ago.

After much consideration we settled on two “small plates”, the Thai crab cakes and the calamari. In addition we chose a platter of sister-in-law mussels which came with a chili lime dipping sauce.

The calamari was perfectly prepared. It simply melted in our mouths and both the honey jalapeño mayonnaise and cilantro oil were excellent accompaniments. The Thai crab cakes came with a lemongrass mayonnaise and were delicious.

The real show stopper though, was the sister-in-law mussels. It was love at first bite. I’ve eaten many a bowl of mussels but none like these. These little babies had been steamed in a Thai ginger and lemongrass concoction and came with a chili lime dipping sauce that made me weak in the knees. It was that good. The waiter was kind enough to tell us what was in the dipping sauce and gave us an idea of what went into the steam. I shipped a few pounds of mussels back to Austin and when I got home I gave it a go. I was quite pleased with the results and if it’s not the exact same recipe it’s close enough!

If you’re local to Seattle, or visiting, don’t miss the Flying Fish. The service was excellent. The food was divine! If you’re not local, do try my recipe, you’ll love it!

Seattle, Belltown, restaurant, review, downtown, seafood, Thai, Asian, mussels, small plates

The Piety Flats wine tasting room is one of the most charming wine tasting rooms I’ve ever visited. Located in the historic Donald Fruit and Mercantile, the building dates back to 1911. Inside you’ll find that the charm doesn’t end at the door. Store shelves are packed with delicacies, many of which are produced locally. From honey to chocolates to gourmet cheeses, they’ve got it all. If you plan to make a day of it want to grab a bottle of wine with cheese and crackers, this would be the place to stop. They even provide the picnic benches and grassy area if you’d prefer to spread out a blanket. If you have room after all your goodies, you can enjoy a peach sundae to top off your meal. Perfect for a sunny day.

We made it by Piety Flats on a slow day which gave us an opportunity to stay a spell and chat with co-owner Kris Russi, who was as delightful as her tasting room. Our conversation spanned politics, Europe, the locals and of course, wine. It was Kris who solved our dilemma of how to get our wine safely home. By the time we hit Piety Flats our wine purchases had exceeded a dozen bottles and we’d begun to wonder how much wine we’d be allowed on the plane and how we’d box it up. Kris told us about the wine boxes and inserts which, lucky for us, they happened to sell. The inserts allowed us to transport the wine laying on it’s side, which is the best way, of course and were made of a sturdy plastic that stacked, with each layer holding 3 bottles and each box holding a dozen bottles of pretty much any size and shape. The boxes weren’t terribly expensive and all our wine survived the ride home so they were worth every penny.

We’d been to Piety Flats two years prior but didn’t find anything that we loved enough to cart the bottles back to Texas. This time around we found the wines much more to our liking. Whether the wines were just better or our palettes improved, it’s hard to say but we enjoyed many of their wines. Their Syrah was full-bodied and intense with a lovely oak finish. The Late Harvest Viognier tasted of pineapple and apricots, lovely and crisp. My personal favorite was the Black Muscat, sweet but not cloying. I was also a big fan of their Cabernet-Port, a rich ruby port that is very satisfying.

All in all a great stop on the Rattlesnake Hills Wine Trail. Don’t miss it!

Piety Flats Winery and Mercantile
2560 Donald-Wapato Road
Wapato, WA 98951
Tel. (509) 877-3115
Info: info@pietyflatswinery.com

Part One in this series
Part Two in this series
Part Three in this series
Part Four in this series

Rattlesnake Hills, Wine, Review, Trail, wineries, Yakima Valley, Piety Flats, vineyards, Washington, Tasting, Ruby Port, Portteus Port, Donald, Mercantile, Wapato, Weekend, Trips, Seattle, Day

28201 Redondo Beach Drive S.
Des Moines, WA 98198
Restaurant (253) 946-0636
Tacoma Direct Line (253) 272-0607
Fax (253) 946-5099
Directions
Restaurant Reservations Online

If I could only make one restaurant while in Seattle, Salty’s would be the one. There is something about being on the beach that make any day feel like a holiday. Most of the year Redondo is a quiet beach and being there feels peaceful. The water is gorgeous and there are seabirds flying overhead, the gentle sound of waves hitting the beach. Combine that with brunch and eating out on the deck and you’ve got a great combination.

Normally I’m not a fan of buffets. Who wants unlimited quantities of bad food? I don’t understand the American attraction to buffets. Why is it we feel like more is better? Give me quality over quantity any day of the week. I make an exception for Salty’s brunch. The food is top notch, the service is impeccable and you are never rushed. There are two rooms of food. One area has all the hot foods. If you don’t find anything there to make you happy they’ll make you waffles, fruit crepes or Eggs Benedict, to order! All this while sipping mimosas!

On the hot buffet you’ll find things like cheese blintzes, French toast, potatoes O’Brien, a roast beef carving station, hickory smoked bacon and kielbasa sausage. Oh, and don’t forget the clam chowder. Salty’s has the very best clam chowder. Near the soup tureen will be a bottle of sherry, splash a bit on top for extra goodness. If you’ve never had clam chowder with a splash of sherry on top you really must try it, it’s fantastic!

If you’re a seafood lover, however, the cold food station has got it going on! If you’re visiting Seattle and you’re not eating seafood, you should have your head examined. On the cold buffet you’ll find oysters on the half shell, mounds and mounds of Dungeness Crab, peel and eat shrimp, bagels and lox and several types of salads.

When you’ve exhausted all that and you’re looking for something to satisfy your sweet tooth you’ll find fresh fruits, a chocolate fountain, a full dessert table featuring cakes, pies, Crème Brulée, muffins and pastries and more!

I can’t remember how much the brunch cost but it seems like it’s around $35 a person. That may seem a bit steep but it’s well worth it.

If you’re watching your pennies though, go to Salty’s during Early Bird! Early Bird specials runs from 3pm - 6pm, Monday-Thursday and Sundays from 4:30pm - 6pm. This is one of the best values for top quality food that you’ll get. They have a complete meal for $19.95 that includes your entrée, soup or salad, coffee/tea/cola, bread and dessert. You get a choice of six entrées and three desserts. The Salty’s White Chocolate Mousse cake is fantastic.

Salty’s also offers an excellent lunch menu. You won’t pay any more for lunch at Salty’s than you would at a Macaroni Grill caliber restaurant and you’re eating local delicious seafood. Again, I cannot recommend the clam chowder enough!

Their dinner menu is nothing short of impressive. This is a place where many business executives take clients to impress them. I know this because it’s where my company took clients and it’s where many vendors took me. Prices range from around $12 to $50, depending on what you order.

Whichever option you choose just don’t miss this wonderful restaurant! Although I have been to the Salty’s at Alki and it is just as wonderful, I have a soft spot for Redondo having lived nearby and having been there so often.

Check out another Seattle favourite, Elliot’s Oyster House.

restaurants, Seattle, review, Salty’s, Redondo, Alki, brunch, lunch, dinner, early bird, seafood, Crème Brulée

Serious Pie

316 Virginia St., Seattle
Phone: 206-838-7388
Hours: 11 a.m.-11 p.m. Mondays-Saturdays, 4-10 p.m. Sundays.
No Reservations
All major credit cards accepted

Each day as I headed downtown I found myself passing the Serious Pie. I’d peer through the window at the beautiful pizza’s on the various tables and think to myself, “I have got to try that!” And so it came to pass that one day I just happened to have some free time and so I grabbed Chip and we headed across the street to check out the latest restaurant by entrepreneurs Tom Douglas, owner of the Dahlia Lounge and Lola’s.

With all the wonderful breads Tom produces at his bakery that go out to his various restaurants and other retail sites, it was just a matter of time before a pizza restaurant evolved. Tom is serious about wanting his “pies” to be simple with a serious eye toward good toppings.

The seating area has long, tall wooden table that give the restaurant a warm cozy feeling. Tumbled stone, wrought iron fixtures and a timber frame only add to that feeling. The staff was friendly and welcoming as they sat us behind the kitchen area giving us a great view where we could watch the pizzas being built and cut.

Here I am, waiting on my “pie”:

See that window on the left? It was full of gorgeous loaves of bread.

We decided to start with a salad. I don’t even remember exactly what was in the salad but I do remember that it was seriously yummy!

The pizza had home made sausage pancetta, onion and asiago cheese. The crust was thin and delicious with visible holes if you viewed it from the side (that’s a good thing!).

I’m sad to say that I was much too full to order dessert. That’s a shame because they had a lemon tiramisu. Intriguing! That will have to wait until next time, I suppose!

In the mood for seafood? Check out my review of Elliot’s Oyster House.

pizza, pie, serious, tom douglas, serious pie, restaurant, review, seattle

I was browsing through the Seattle Mystery Bookstore a few weeks ago and mentioned to the cashier that I enjoy reading local authors. Spotting a Charlaine Harris’ vampire book in my hands, she quickly directed me to local author, Yasmine Galenorn and her Sisters of the Moon series.

I was delighted to find that the books are not only written by a local author but they also take place in Seattle. It’s always fun to read a book that is set in an area you’re familiar with, isn’t it? That is one of several reasons that I love Dick Francis. His books take place in an area of England where I grew up.

The Sisters of the Moon series revolves around the three D’Artigo sisters. The sisters are part Faerie and part human, one a werekitty, one a vampire and one a witch. The three sisters have been sent Earthside as Otherworld Intelligence operatives to “keep an eye on things”. As generally happens in a mystery, a murder occurs, and the sisters must figure out what’s going on and solve the murders on their own. The Faerie Realm is having problems of it’s own and has no time to help them.

The book was a bit reminiscent of Laurell K Hamilton without being nearly as sexual. If you like Charlaine Harris and you’re looking for a light read with some fun characters, this book would definitely meet that criteria.

Book, Yasmine Galenorn, Witchling, Sisters of the Moon, review, Seattle, local, author, fantasy, mystery, faerie, D’Artigo, sisters, Seattle Mystery Bookstore

Elliott’s Oyster House
1201 Alaskan Way, Pier 56
Seattle, WA 98101
206-623-4340

Is it proper to call it a restaurant review if the only thing you ate was the oysters? Well, if you’re going to call yourself an Oyster House then it seems right somehow to make it all about the oysters.

I can’t tell you the number of times we sat outside of Elliott’s Oyster House, eating steamed clams from Steamer’s on Pier 56 while being completely clueless to the fact that we were sitting next to one of the best Oyster Houses on the planet. While we’re unlikely to stop going to Steamer’s on any given trip to Seattle, we’ll never again fail to stop in at Elliott’s Oyster House.

How little we knew when we stepped into Elliott’s for the first time. We had no idea, for example, that Fortune Magazine had rated it one of the top 5 Oyster bars in the United States. What greeted us on our first trip was an impressive oyster bar which it turns out is 21 feet long! 21 feet of gleaming silver with tiers of trays filled with oysters lovingly nestled in ice. Surrounding the oysters an array of trophies, most of them attributable to Master Oyster Shucker, David Leck.

David has won many competitions, some based on speed. Check this out:

Before going to Elliot’s I’d had oysters and I knew I liked them but I knew nothing about the different types of oysters and sadly, I’d never had a minionette sauce. What a stroke of luck it was for us to not only discover Elliott’s but to sit down at the oyster bar with David shucking oysters. Because we were interested in the varieties of oysters and how they compared, David took the time to educate us and allow us to try out the various oysters he had on hand. In fact he spoiled us rotten. He may have spoiled us for oysters anywhere else while he was at it. My favorites were the Kumakoto Oysters, a small deep-cupped variety with a pretty fluted edge. They were small but flavourful with a delicate, slightly sweet flavour.

Back in Austin, Tx, we’d only eaten oysters with horseradish, ketchup and hot sauce. Man do I feel like a heathen now. One of the things I noticed about the oysters David served us was just how fresh they were and how much liquor they had. The iciness of the champagne mignonette sauce made for a perfect accoutrement.

After we’d eaten our fill of oysters, David mentioned to us that they had a Happy Hour on Mondays from 3-6 and that the oysters were .50 cents apiece to start with and gradually increased in price. Well that sounded like too good of a deal to pass up so on Monday, our last day in town, we returned to gorge ourselves happily on raw oysters. We managed to eat 6 dozen!

With the taste still fresh in our mouths, we returned to Texas. A few days later, craving more oysters, we made our way to Quality Seafood, undoubtedly the best seafood store in Austin but sadly they just couldn’t compare to the wonderful oysters we had at Elliott’s. This is not meant as a slam agains Quality Seafood, they are excellent and we’re very lucky to have them in Austin! Ah well, back to horseradish, ketchup and hot sauce. Don’t worry Seattle, we’ll be back!

Eliott’s Oyster House, Elliott’s, Oysters, Kumamoto, David Leck, Oyster Bar, Seattle, Pier 56, Master Oyster Shucker, Quality Seafood, Austin, minionette, champagne

The Westin Seattle
1900 5th Avenue
Seattle, Washington 98101
Phone: (206) 728-1000
Fax: (206) 728-2259
Email: washi@westin.com

Pros: Great location, wonderful views, comfy beds and linens, bus stop right out front, close proximity to restaurants and coffee shops that offer free wi-fi

Cons: Poor housekeeping, no free wi-fi, $16 a day for High Speed Internet (might be a pro for business travelers), $32-35 a day for parking. Forgive me, but I’d much rather spend my money enjoying Seattle’s fabulous seafood!

In general, when visiting Seattle, we stay with family. This visit we’d already spent a week in Spokane at a family wedding and a week in the Yakima Valley staying with family and touring the Rattlesnake Hills Wine trail. In light of that, we decided to be a little selfish and enjoy our favorite city without familial obligations and therefore we booked a hotel. Our criteria for the hotel was centered around a desire to be downtown, right in the middle of everything and of course, we didn’t want to stay in a dive.

My first choice was Pensione Nichols Bed and Breakfast. Situated in Pike’s Place Market, the location was appealing, the price good, and it just looked like a neat place to stay. Sadly, they were booked. With a little help from Priceline, I managed to get a very good price for The Westin, in downtown Seattle. The Westin is supposed to be a very upscale hotel and we were very excited to stay there.

We arrived on a gorgeous summer day, the weather more like what we would normally expect in Austin, but hadn’t seen so far this summer. Located on 5th and Stewart, the Westin stands tall, offering spectacular views of Lake Union, Puget Sound, the Olympic Peninsula and the Cascade mountain ranges. As we are familiar with Seattle, finding the hotel was not a problem. Finding the hotel reception area and the parking garage turned out to be a bit more challenging.

If I’d taken the time to look at the Hotel’s website prior to our arrival, I might have noticed this message:

Highway Construction

From August 10, 2007 to August 29, 2007, please allow extra time if you are traveling north on Interstate 5 into Seattle. Interstate 5 will be undergoing extensive construction during these dates and will be reduced to two or three lanes during the daytime, and at times just one lane overnight. Please contact the hotel for further information.

Eventually we managed to valet park and unload the car and we headed inside to register. The nice lady at the desk offered us a choice of rooms, one with a view and one without. We, of course, chose the view, and oh what a glorious view! We looked up the rates for the daily parking and discovered it was $35 a day. Ouch. Self-parking was discounted to all of $32 a day.

We found the elevator and headed up to our room. As we got off the elevator and rounded the corner we were greeted by a large pile of what I can only describe as looking like animal feces. Sitting next to it was a large air blower/moisture control unit, the kind they use to dry wet spots on carpets. We walked around it gingerly and entered our room which was located right next to the mess. Shortly afterward the bellhop arrived with the cart containing our luggage. After he left we noticed he’d dragged some of the mess into our room. We bent down for a closer inspection and discovered that the dark pellets weren’t poo at all but rather, raisins. I was relieved but hoped that the bellhop would report the mess.

The room itself was very nice with beautiful white duvets and bedding on the dark wood queen beds. There was a desk situated in front of the big picture window, a television and armoire at the foot of one bed and a chair and tea/coffee making service at the foot of the other bed. There was also a tempting array of snacks that could be had for an exorbitant price. We’d declined a key to the mini-bar for a reason. Why pay an arm and a leg for snacks when you’re within walking distance of a drug store on one side and a nice little deli/store to the other?

We unpacked our bags and left to find some food, once again stepping over the mess. We wandered down to the waterfront and had our usual first-night-in-Seattle meal of steamed mussels and crab cakes at Steamers, where we sat outside and enjoyed the beauty of the water while people watching. We returned to our room a few hours later, walked past the raisin mess and relaxed in our room for the rest of the evening. I tried to connect to the hotels wi-fi only to discover that they charge $16 a day. Since even the cheapest of motels offer free wi-fi these days, I was too miffed to pay it so I cadged off someone else who didn’t have their connection locked down. It was slow but free.

The next morning we slept in, fetched some breakfast rolls from the cafe downstairs and headed out around 11:30am. As we left we noticed a card that allowed us to pick our room cleaning time so we chose noon-2pm as we figured we’d be out and about by noon and unlikely to return before 2pm. We stopped in at the Serious Pie just down the street for a seriously yummy lunch of pizza and salad. More about that later. We wandered around town for a bit then headed back to our room to grab the laptop and camera. We stepped off the elevator, rounded the corner and stepped past the raisin mess. It was about 2:30p. Our room was still not clean. We’d only turned in the card a few hours earlier so that was no big deal. We returned to our room about 6pm, our room was cleaned but still the raisins remained. The room cleaning was minimal. They’d replaced the towels and made the bed. That’s it. They had not bothered to replenish the teabags, cups, or Splenda that I’d used. Great, just great.

Finally I called down to the front desk and complained. It had been a full 24 hours. Maids, bellhops and guests had walked through the halls and still they hadn’t cleaned up the mess. I wondered if the rest of the guests thought it was dog poo, too. If so, were they as put off as me?

The next day we once again left the room around 11:30 and returned around 3pm to drop stuff off before heading out again. The raisins were finally gone but the air blower remained in the hallway until our last day. That’s nearly 5 days of walking past it for those of you counting and trust me, I was counting. At 3pm our room remained uncleaned. What was the point of filling out the card requesting a specific cleaning time? I’d left a note for the maid asking them for more cups, stir sticks and Splenda. Although they did replace the cups and stir sticks they left me a mere 3 packets of Splenda. Gee, thanks, do you really think you could spare them?

This became the pattern. The room was never cleaned before 3pm. They never left me more than 3 packets of Splenda no matter how many notes I left them. They never did more than the bare minimum of cleaning which meant they replaced the towels and made the beds each day. They didn’t even clear empty shampoo/conditioner bottles from the shower nor give us clean water glasses. The room was never unacceptably dirty and the room was nice but having said that, I’ve had better housekeeping at a Best Western or a Holiday Inn. I expected much better from The Westin and I was very disappointed. Did I complain? No, I did not. As I mentioned, the room was acceptably clean, the housekeeping just didn’t impress me. It certainly wasn’t bad enough to complain about and risk having a disgruntled maid use my toothbrush to clean the toilet. I will, however, be forwarding them a copy of my review. It’s unlikely I’ll stay there again. My friend’s mother recommends the Sheraton next time. We’ll see.

Update: In which the Seattle Westin redeems itself!

Read my other reviews

Seattle, Westin, The Westin, The Westin Seattle, Downtown, hotel, housekeeping, review, Serious Pie, complaint, raisins

Two links I want to pass on before I forget. One is a link to some wine tour packages for the Yakima Valley. They are very reasonably priced but then it’s not a real fancy area. It’s mostly a lot of nice country folk. There is an opportunity there for an enterprising person to set up a nice B&B and perhaps offer a bus tour that takes you around to each winery.

The second is a link to “Go Taste Wine”, a website that maintains a calendar of Washington Wine Festivals & Events.

Next on our stop is:

Portteus Vineyards
5201 Highland Drive,
P.O. Box 1444, Zillah 98953
Hours: Daily 10-5
509.829.6970
Fee: Free for the first 7 wines, $1 for each additional wine & their port

The drive into Portteus Vineyards was undoubtedly my favourite and takes you right through the vineyard. They have a beautiful new tasting room with a helpful and knowledgeable wine steward.

Portteus boasts that they have been the “red-wine lovers destination for over 20 years!” which was enough to tempt us into their wine tasting room. Not that we need a lot of encouragement. Right off the bat I noted that they had 3 red wines priced at $10. Even more impressive is that they were all decent wines. We decided to just go for it and try all their red wines as well as their port. There really wasn’t a bad wine in the bunch. Their 2004 Rattlesnake Ridge Syrah was particularly nice and well priced so we bought a bottle. The passport deal for Portteus was half price on their 2004 Estate Bottled Reserve Red Wine so we gave it a try and found it to be a nice full-bodied red wine so we bought a bottle of that as well.

Finally, we tried their 2003 Portteus Port. Oh baby! I could have sat sipping that port all day. It’s a ruby port with lovely complex layers that just roll across your tongue. It starts off sweet on your tongue but it doesn’t end there, it goes on to many more layers of flavour.

Part One in this series
Part Two in this series
Part Three in this series
Part Five in this series

Rattlesnake Hills, Rattlesnake Hills Wine Trail, wineries, Yakima Valley, Portteus Vineyards, Portteus, 2004 Rattlesnake Ridge Syrah, wine, vineyards, Washington, Go Taste Wine, Washington Wine Festivals & Events, red-wine lovers, Ruby Port, Portteus Port, Wine Tour Packages

Once a part of the Columbia Valley appellation, the Yakima Valley appellation was determined to be a distinct appellation in 1983 and became authorized as an official American Viticultural Area (AVA/appellation). An appellation is a geographical-based term used to distinguish where the grapes for a given wine are grown. Appellation rules are governed by the country in which the wine is produced. In the United States appellations are governed by the American Viticultural Area (AVA) The Yakima Valley AVA was the first AVA to be established in the state of Washington.

Although the Yakima Valley is a booming wine region currently making headlines, vineyards aren’t exactly new to the region. In fact, the first vines are said to have been planted in 1869! People who are not native to Washington state are often surprised to learn that Eastern Washington is semi-arid desert. The combination of sunshine, volcanic enriched soil and the benefits of an early established irrigation system makes it the Yakima Valley an area ripe for farming. On average the Yakima Valley region has 300 days of sunshine a year, a far cry from it’s western sister cities! Apparently that nets them approximately 200 growing days per year. Volcanic soil is said to be twice as productive as regular soil. In addition, the desert nights are up to 40% cooler thereby helping to preserve the acids while the daytime heat develops the sugars. That’s rather hard combination to beat. There are places in the Valley where you can stand at four corners and see four different crops growing, apples, hops, grapes, corn. Speaking of corn, I’ve never had better sweet corn than in Yakima Valley. In fact, the county ranks first in the nation in the production of apples, winter pears, fruit trees, hops, and mint, with pears, grapes, cherries, peaches, and apricots also coming in as major crops. As a final note, the Yakima Valley shares the same latitude as the Bordeaux region in France.

Now that you’ve had your history lesson for the day, let’s talk about my visit to Bonair Winery.

Bonair Winery
500 South Bonair Road, Zillah 98953
800.882.8939
509.829.6027
Fax: 509.829.6410
www.bonairwine.com
winemaker@bonairwine.com
Hours: Daily 10-5. Winter hours daily 10-4:30

The thing that first attracted me to Bonair was the simple fact that they make mead. That’s fairly non-traditional and I just had to try it! I was surprised to find that the folks at Bonair had carved out a little European-looking villa. One side looking very German and the other looking more Italian all with a beautiful little pond, complete with ducks! There was even the sweetest baby gosling.

The second thing that caught my attention was that they served tapas, and I was hungry. A hungry diabetic is a not a pretty sight. The Bonair Winery produces grapes from two vineyards, the Château Puryear Vineyard and the Morrison Vineyard. Planted in 1968, the Morrison Vineyard is the oldest of the Rattlesnake Hills vineyards. I started with the Sweet Mead, but I didn’t find it to be all that sweet, nor to my liking. Their Riesling, however, was just lovely, with silky pear undertones. I liked it so well that I bought a bottle! Next I tried the Bonny Bonair, a dryish Pinot Noir that was fruity, light and ideal for a summer luncheon. Finally we tried the ports. Oddly, they carry a white port! I’d never heard of a white port so of course we had to try it. The Yakima Valley Gewurztraminer White Port was certainly interesting and nice but for me it lacked the complex flavours of a ruby or a tawny port. Their Cabernet Franc Port, on the other hand is a rich and complex ruby port that I’d welcome on my table any day of the week.

With the tasting out of the way we shared a tapas plate of summer sausages and cheeses and settled onto their patio to watch the ducks, sip a glass of Bonnie Bonair and relax.

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Rattlesnake Hills, Rattlesnake Hills Wine Trail, wineries, Yakima Valley, Bonair Winery, Bonair, Morrison Vineyard, mead, wine, vineyards, Washington, ducks, duck pond, tapas