Tip #2: Eat. Just like with the water, make sure you have food available, and don’t rely on or expect wineries or tasting rooms to feed you. You’ll need more than a cracker.
We returned downtown wanting to ensure we were near the cafes and restaurants. We’d already eaten our snacks, and we weren’t done tasting. A quick stop at Salumiere Cesario for bread and cheese, a slice of pizza from Sweet Basil, or sushi from Aloha, all quick and easy food fixes if needed.
The downtown area hosts more tasting rooms than I would recommend visiting in a day. That can be good or bad depending on how you feel about stumbling down Main Street at 5:00 p.m. The oldest in town, Waterbrook, is in the Land Title Plaza at the intersection of Main and First Street. Waterbrook is widely distributed and is the third largest winery in the state. Perhaps because of the valley’s love affair with boutique wineries, Waterbrook is sometimes overlooked. But there’s a treat in the tasting room. The WB Primarius line is not widely available, and you can try it in the tasting room. The 2003 Meritage is my favorite. Complex, well balanced, an expertly made wine. The tasting room is also an art gallery with excellent selections on display, generally featuring local artists.
East on Main Street you’ll find something else special. DaMa Wines is fun, just plain fun. And sexy. Dawn (Da) Kammer and Mary (Ma) Derby joined forces in make an exceptionally appealing wine venture. The labels have beautiful paintings of elegant female forms. The front display window is full of green grass. Mary and Dawn are absolutely hilarious while being totally serious about making quality wine. A portion of all profits from DaMa goes to charities helping and supporting women and children. There will be more on DaMa in later posts.
As I walked into Trey Busch’s new Sleight of Hand tasting room, he was showing some visitors a clip from YouTube where he can be seen standing at the edge of the stage at a Pearl Jam concert. If you are interested, Trey is happy to discuss his passions: wine and Pearl Jam. In Sleight of Hand Cellars he has combined them. The labels are great. The Spellbinder 2005 red blend is a great value at $18/bottle. It’s nice to see a talented winemaker who is keeping his prices low. Some, and I won’t name names, are setting pretty high prices for wineries that have yet to prove themselves. I don’t think I’m ready to pay $40/bottle on futures after only a first release. The point is, The Spellbinder is great value.
There are more tips that must wait for tomorrow.
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