Wine & Food Pairings in Walla Walla

When we're in Walla Walla (about half the time) Lynn and I usually eat fairly simply as we have a lot to do - my winery visits, Lynn's Audubon group, etc. This quarter, we're also taking courses at the Walla Walla Community College Quest Program.

Much of my cooking is done on the barbecue. I'll pick up beef steaks or lamb chops at Thundering Hooves (all grass fed, no antibiotics). With these, we've enjoyed the following wines: '07 L'Ecole No. 41 Estate Syrah, Seven Hills, '06 Glencorrie Cabernet Sauvignon, Walla Walla Valley, '07 Sleight of Hand Levitation Syrah (great with T-Bones), '07 Bergevin Lane "The Princess" Syrah.

Sometimes, I'll grill chicken, especially thighs (tastier than breasts). With these, we've had '07 Walla Walla Vintners Merlot or Sangiovese, '07 Adamant Cellars "Nalin" Red Blend, '07 Bergevin Lane Couse Creek Pinot Noir.

For an easy to prepare dinner, I'll get a rotisserie chicken from Super 1 and have one of these: '07 Isenhower Road Less Travelled Cabernet Franc, '06 Bunchgrass Triolet Red Blend, '07 Adamant Cellars Spofford Station Merlot, or others. With pizza, we've had '07 Sleight of Hand Spellbinder Red and '07 Patit Creek or '07 Trio Vintners Zinfandel.

With the leftover breasts from the roaster, we'll make chicken salad for lunch to go with '08 Bergevin Lane Calico White, '08 Amavi Semillon or '08 Sleight of Hand Magician Gewurztraminer/Riesling.

Often, for lunch, we'll have bread, cheese, prosciutto and salami from Damon Burke's Salumerie Cesario. With goat cheese, we've liked '08 Sweet Valley Viognier, '08 SuLei Roussanne and '08 Patit Creek Chardonnay. With sheep's or cow's milk cheeses, we've had '06 Woodward Canyon Merlot, '06 aMaurice Malbec and '07 Trust Walla Walla Syrah.

Back to grilling, sometimes I'll do shrimp and/or scallops on skewers (using my all-purpose marinade - see my 14 September blog). These have paired nicely: '08 aMaurice Viognier, '08 Forgeron Roussanne and '08 Woodward Canyon Estate Sauvignon Blanc.

In a future blog, I'll do food and wine pairings in Seattle.

Harvest 2009 Under Way at Robison Ranch Cellars

Last Wednesday, Lynn and I helped crush Merlot at Robison Ranch with Ruth and Brad Riordan. We helped man the grape conveyer belt to pick out bruised or over/under ripe grapes; nearly all the grapes were ripe and sound and thus then went into the crusher-stemmer and then to the vat. On Thursday, we helped crush Semillion, and then on Friday, I helped Brad press the Semillon and put it into the fermentation vat. Tomorrow (Tuesday) I will help crush grapes from the Dwelley vineyard.

Two Bargains from Barnard Griffin at Esquin

For October, Esquin has two of Rob Griffin's wines on sale at terrific prices: the '08 Chardonnay (17.5/20 points) at $7.99 and the '06 Merlot (18/20 points) at $10.99.