Day Two - Walla Walla Wine Tour

Caught the shuttle at 8:00 with Neal and Phyllis for a short ride to Bacon And Eggs and breakfast. And it was a good one. Located in downtown Walla Walla it was a typical old building in an old part of town. That's not a negative. In fact, it's a positive. Old buildings, old architecture, wide streets and lots of wine testing rooms.

Today will be a wine day. 11:00 will see the six of us starting a guided wine tour, which will include lunch and I'm sure significant wine purchases.

Well, our driver Jarred showed up right on time in what looked like a new, large Ford van. This ex-marine, ex-security something and musician really made our day. Great driver, good sense of humor and very knowledgable about the area and wineries. Among his many jobs he carried out all our purchases and safely tucked them away in cases. I say cases because Neal and I filled two.

Ann had set us to visit five wineries, but because we ran a little ahead of schedule Jarred snuck in a sixth. Along the way we visited Amavi Winery, Pepper Bridge Winery, Basel Cellars, Tranche Cellars, Seven Hills Winery and Three Rivers Winery. The high point of the tour was lunch at Basel Cellars. Jarred had brought along a lunch from a place in Walla Walla that was clearly a 10. Laid out on a large plank were six kinds of meat, five kinds of cheese, bread, eight or ten different kinds of vegetables and, of course, grapes. The six of us shared a bottle of Basel Cellars Claret. Excellent. We have already talked about returning next year and once again getting together with Jarred.

We finished up the day with drinks and finger food at the Marcus Whitman Hotel Vineyard Lounge. All in all a great day. Tomorrow we have another tour, this one a tour of downtown restaurants.

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