A Day in the Yakima Valley


I recently took a jaunt over the cascades to the Yakima area intent on visiting a few wineries. I left Seattle at 9 am and found myself in Yakima by 11, not bad. First stop was the Visitor Information Center right off the highway in Yakima where they provided me with a handy map of the Yakima Valley wineries. Before leaving Yakima I had lunch downtown at a cute little bakery called Essencia and then walked two blocks over to my first winery, Donitella. The winery is in a small space in a strip center, cute and quaint. Wines were of the Italian variety and I tasted several that were quite good. I walked out with a bottle of Katie Mae.

To my surprise many of the wineries lie just southeast of Yakima in Wapato and Zillah so that's where I headed. About 7 miles down on I-82 I took the Wapato Exit and made a stop at Sageland, a beautiful winery with a lovely gift shop and barrel room just off the highway.

With my trusty map in hand, I realized there were three more wineries within just about 5 miles of where I was so I headed south. Part of the fun of this trip was this fun little winery hunt. Next stop was Windy Point. This winery sits up on a hill and you actually drive through their vineyard to get to it. It has a contemporary design and a large commercial kitchen. We were actually greeted by the owner and winemaker Liz who chatted with us right there in the kitchen while pouring us delicious tastes of her Cabernet Franc and beautiful red blends.

On the way back to I-82 we stopped by Piety Flats which is a winery that looks like a country general store. The store was full of flavored jams, rubs for meats, huckleberry candy, gift items, you name it. Here we tried an interesting Muscato that I just had to take home.

I truly never knew that such treasures and an entire wine country was lying just on the other side of the Cascades only two hours from Seattle. And did I mention that the sun was shining?
Published 15-09-2006 11:14 by washwine []
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Comments

washwine said:

Yes, I love Sagelands too. It's my favorite

September 15, 2006 3:31 PM
fresh1 said:

My favorite place is Essencia, great goodies and homey food. Perfect while I'm traveling tasting wines.

October 20, 2006 12:37 PM
Jackie said:

Right down the road from Sagelands is also Windy Point Winery, Masset and Piety Flats, all within about 5 miles of each other in Wapato. A great little area just down the road from Yakima.

October 26, 2006 12:47 PM
Hoa said:
This is neat!
October 29, 2006 11:58 PM

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