Winery/Vineyard Tour

Some couples in our church organized a wonderful tour on Saturday. A friend and member of our church, Bill, owns a number of vineyards and has sold his grapes to wineries for years. Now he is just getting into the wine-making business. He took us to his under-construction winery, Pacific Rim. (They are doing only Reislings for the moment. Reislings match well with Asian cuisine, hence the name "Pac Rim".) Then we drove to his 1800 acre Wallula vineyard on the Columbia river. He has owned the land since 1996 but still only has about half of it under cultivation. It is extremely time consuming to set up all the trellises. Bill marks every single row himself. He said if he has to look at it for the next 30 years, he wants only himself to blame if it is crooked. It is incredible, even in overcast, windy conditions. We also enjoyed a picnic lunch while we were there. What an amazing time! (I told Lloyd that I felt like a nerd because I had the urge to take notes. I learned so much about grapes, wine, and the area - so cool!)