Part of my education, this late in life, is to learn what wines I enjoy most as well as learn to discriminate the nuances of wine so that I can describe a wine's flavor and its impact on my palate. Recently I had my first experience at wine tasting while returning from our trip to Alaska. We were almost home, on the Washington side of the Columbia river at Maryhill and proceeding west along Washington State highway #14. We stopped at a small winery, Cascade Cliffs, and indulged in my first ever wine tasting experience at a winery. All I can say is, "It was great." The winery was small enough that the manager (not the owner) described the 5 wines available that day for tasting. I very much enjoyed experiencing varieties I would otherwise not have tried and one in particular caught my fancy, and the price was right, so I bought it.
We also stopped at Maryhill winery and I tried their wine tasting varieties. They were generous in their samples, but I wasn't nearly as impressed with the wines as I was with Cascade Cliffs, yet Maryhill is a larger winery and much more well known.
Tonight for dinner I opened a Chianti from Italy - Gabbiano Chianti Classico 2007 - that I bought on sale at Safeway. Normally 8.99 a bottle, Safeway had a 30% off sale, so I took the opportunity to buy 12 bottles of various varieties. The Chianti is a keeper. It was great with the grass feed beef steak we had for dinner, but I think the "spiciness" of this somewhat dry wine would be awesome with pasta or pizza. I'll look for this wine again!
Isn't education fun!
