It seems to be becoming a tradition that Donna and Stan come to Washington for a wine country trip over Labor Day weekend. This year that tradition held true. Last year we spent the holiday weekend in the Yakima Valley wine country , but mixed it up a bit and headed further east to Walla Walla this past weekend.
{Gorgeous wine country – this is the view from one of the wineries we visited in Walla Walla}
Donna and Stan arrived late Thursday evening and the rest is a blurry memory……..
Just kidding! 🙂 Well, sort of… The theme of the weekend was wine. Good wine, to be exact. We had gotten several recommendations of wineries to visit from Henri, one of the owners of Bottlehouse, our neighborhood wine bar, and we tried to hit as many as possible. Here is a recap of our amazing weekend…
{On our way to Walla Walla we stopped in Yakima at Two Mountain Winery, where we are wine club members, to pick up our latest release and do a tasting. Basically all of the wineries we went to were dog friendly so Jackson got to come along on the trip too!}
{Because one stop in Yakima en route to Walla Walla isn’t enough we stopped at Cultura and decided we better just join their wine club too… And snag seven bottles of wine while we were at it… Hey, I told you the theme of the weekend was drinking good wine…}
{We eventually made it to Walla Walla and this was our home base. “The Barn” is the home we rented for the long weekend and this vacation rental was the best we have ever stayed in!}
{We were so happy staying here that we didn’t even go out for dinner once! We are so grateful to the Holbrook family for their attention to detail and willingness to rent out The Barn.}
{After a filling breakfast on Saturday we headed out to downtown Walla Walla to start our day of drinking. The first stop was Gramercy Cellars. The winemaker was just named the best in the state by Seattle Magazine! They had very big, old-style wines that were fantastic.}
{Halfway through our day and just before lunch at Olive Marketplace we stopped at Trust Cellars, which ended up being one of our favorites of the weekend. We were so excited to learn that Trust has a tasting room in Woodinville, just 25 minutes from Seattle, so we can go drink wine here more often!}
{The last stop of the day was El Corazon, the party winery… and just like my mother in-law, the winemaker clearly knows how to have a good time! The music selection here was very up-beat, the drinks were flowing, and the volume was cranked up. It’s clear that this is the place to let loose.}Â
{Here is us at El Corazon having a good time… Please note that to save my MIL’s reputation, I omitted a few photos here…}
{Our evenings were spent hanging out at The Barn, grilling, playing cards, relaxing and, you guessed it, drinking more wine… We are so thankful that Alex’s parents come visit as often as they do and that they are able to kick back, relax and decompress.}
{Did you think we were done?? We’re just getting started… Day two in Walla Walla started at Va Piano, another favorite of the weekend… We enjoyed our second day more in some respects, due to the fact that we were visiting the vineyards instead of the tasting rooms in town, and we hired a driver to take us around, which allowed Alex to not have to worry about his consumption.}
{Va Piano wins for facade, view and vineyard.}
{Jackson came with us on Sunday and loved running through the vines at Va Piano.}
{Yet another favorite was Sleight of Hands. Alex and I had tried some of their wines previously and remembered why we loved them so much. An added bonus was that the tasting room was awesome! The space was decorated in old rock albums, as well as posters of magicians that inspired the names of their wines and wine labels. They sure know how to have fun AND make incredible wines.}
{We really liked the ambiance at Balboa!}
{Everyone got ID’d!}
{As it turned out, we saved the best for last! Many of us agreed that our favorite winery of the whole weekend was the winery that we visited at the very end that was walking distance from The Barn… Dusted Valley Winery. The wines were out of this world! And with that, came a hefty price tag… We had lunch here by way of Andrae’s food truck and that just sealed the deal… Plus, Dusted Valley, too, has a tasting room in Woodinville!}
{After a long day of being a winery dog, Jackson came back and passed out for the evening. Too much work I guess!}
{We had SUCH a great weekend – thank you Donna and Stan for being such good company and for providing an opportunity for us to take this trip… I hope we’ll be able to go back to Walla Walla soon!}