As I’m making my way home from Minneapolis, Minnesota on a Wednesday morning (from a business trip), my wife asks if I’d be up for some wine tasting when I arrived home.  What was I to do?  My answer was, “If I must honey….if I must!”  So we went straight from the airport to the wineries!  It was a B-line to Prosser to engage in some mid-week wine tasting.

Our first stop was the Walter Clore Wine & Culinary Center.  Shae was our tasting host and she did an outstanding job of walking us through the offerings.  The Columbia Valley was this month’s AVA of choice, but they have changed their approach and are now tasting wines outside of the identified AVA as well, to round out their tasting list.  The tasting included a Rosé, a Riesling, a Cabernet Sauvignon, a red blend, and a Merlot.  As a bonus, we were able to try a 2003 Lawrelin Cabernet Sauvignon crafted by Kendall Mix!  This was 16 years old…a rare treat to say the least!

During our chat with Shae, we noticed a laminated copy of Gordon Taylor’s finished version of the Prosser Winery/Varietal Sheet.  I spoke with Gordon a few months ago up at his tasting room (Daven Lore Winery) and he was excited about the evolution of this matrix he was crafting.  It’s finally done, and it looks fantastic!  Congratulations Gordon!  Nicely done.  We were provided a copy at the Walter Clore Center to take home – Thank you Shae!

Our next stop was Airfield Winery in the Prosser Wine Village.  We hadn’t visited Airfield for about a year and my wife was looking for a sweet white wine for these hot summer days.  We hit the motherlode here!  The tasting was extensive, and the variety of whites and reds crafted at Airfield is really diverse.  My wife fell in love with the 2018 Riesling, and decided to buy a case for her sweet stash back home!  As a parting gift, my wife bought me a bottle of the Reserve 2015 Cabernet Sauvignon…which I enjoyed.

By this time, we had generated quite the appetite, so we ended our wine escapade at Casa Mia in Richland, where the salad, bread and olive oil, and the Tortellini in a white cream sauce really hit the spot!  Bon Appétit!