Local Vintners Roll Out Spring Barrels

In California’s Napa Valley, this country’s most famous wine country, it’s possible to drive down a stretch of Highway 29 and hit a dozen wineries. Before lunch.

Touring the wine country in Washington will probably never be such a bingo-bango-bongo propostion. The wineries are spread out from Seattle to Walla Walla. In our area, the six wineries reach from the foothills of Mount Spokane to Garden Springs in West Spokane.

I wanted to see if it was possible to hit all the Spokane wineries in one afternoon - something a lot of folks might attempt during this weekend’s special spring barrel tasting.

During that annual event, vintners invite visitors to sip samples out of oak barrels in which the wines are aged. It’s a tasty exercise that helps wine drinkers understand the flavors these barrels add to a chardonnay or cabernet.

The good news is that a tour can be done. Even with a stop for a picnic lunch. The not-so-good news is that one of the places was closed during our recent tour, so we fudged and hit five out of six. (It turns out Knipprath Cellars is open only Thursdays through Sundays.)

I enlisted a designated driver and we set out on a marathon tasting last week.

First stop: Mountain Dome, Washington’s premier sparkling wine producer, is usually open by appointment only. The family that runs the winery have day jobs, too.

Don’t mistake this operation for a hobby, though. Everything at the facility is first-class, from the spectacular view to the special machine from France that will be demonstrated during the barrel tasting.

(That machine is used to remove - or disgorge - the spent yeast that has settled in the neck of the bottle of bubbly during a portion of the winemaking process called secondary fermentation.)

The rather complicated business of creating a sparkler out of still wine becomes a lot more clear when members of the Manz family walk visitors through the steps.

“My Dad gives great tours. He really helps people understand what goes into making sparkling wine,” said Erik Manz, 23, now Mountain Dome’s assistant winemaker.

At the bare-bones tasting bar, visitors are rewarded for making the trek with samples from the ‘93 vintage brut, a picnic-perfect nonvintage sparkler and the drier-than-it-looks brut rose. They also sell a couple of older vintages of the brut, not available anywhere else.

Next stop: Arbor Crest, which has one of the finest tasting rooms in the state.

At the top of a long and winding road, past the stone entry, the grounds burst with colorful flowers of spring. The cherry trees were in bloom last week and soon, the grapevines on the property will send out tender new leaves.

Near the historic house that serves as a tasting room, there are a few picnic tables and classical music piped over a stereo system.

Inside, Angie Tamm runs the tasting room and thoughtfully offers up a beautiful brass spitoon purchased in Bordeaux.

Like baseball, it’s perfectly acceptable to spit when tasting wine. In fact, it’s recommended when you’re hitting more than one winery.

You can still taste the wine by smelling it first, sipping it and swishing it around in your mouth. (Listerine never felt so good.) If you spit it out at this point, there’s enough wine left behind for your tastebuds to decide whether it’s thumbs up or thumbs down.

Most wineries have dump buckets on their counter, but serious tasters usually bring along a cup they can inconspicuously expectorate.

At Arbor Crest’s barrel tasting, they’ll dip into the ‘98 chardonnay and cabernet sauvignon. Samples from a variety of foods from the gift shop will also be offered.

Take a picnic and enjoy the view of the Valley and beyond.

Then, bring your gold card and your shopping list to Latah Creek. That winery - cashing in on the flow of traffic from the Valley Mall - has expanded its gift selection dramatically in the past few years.

“Mike is getting annoyed,” said Ellena Conway, wife of winemaker Mike Conway.

Fortunatley, Ellena has good taste, stocking shelves that spill into the tank room with such diverse dry goods as frames, candles, ceramic pots and lamps, birdhouses, gourmet foods and chocolates spiked with cabernet.

There’s even an area dedicated to creating custom gift baskets.

During this weekend’s event, callers can bottle their own lemberger with a custom label that they can sign. Visitors can also taste reds from the barrel, including the lemberger, the cabernet sauvignon and merlot.

There will also be a lavish spread of goodies such as a refreshing salad dressed with a ginger vinaigrette made by The Coeur d’Alene Dressing Company.

After leaving Latah Creek, we headed west on Montgomery and jogged over to Trent. Knipprath relocated its facility from its downtown spot to the old Hales Ale brewery near Felts Field.

You’d have to know what you were looking for because the old brick building still has the Hales sign up.

We knocked. Nobody was in.

Back in downtown Spokane, Caterina will be tasting chardonnay out of several types of oak barrels including Vosges, Nevers and Allier.

These French oak containers come from different forests and add different flavors to the wine. See if you can taste the subtle differences.

Caterina’s got a fine selection of gifts, a nice patio for al fresco dining (weather permitting) and plays an eclectic selection of music in the cavernous tasting room.

Take note: The winery won’t open until after 1 p.m. on Saturday because the Junior Lilac Parade participants line up out on Washington, so the entrance to the winery will be blocked.

We had started this tasting excursion around 11:30 and it was 4 when we arrived at Worden, our last stop.

This is the area’s most visible winery right off the Interstate, so it gets a lot of visitors from out of the area.

That afternoon last week, there was a couple from Canada who stopped in to sample. The woman warned the person pouring: “I’m not a connoisseur.”

You need never apologize for not being a wine geek.

Tasting various wines at the source is one of the best ways to learn what you like.

At Worden, they’ll be taking visitors up to the winery’s barrel room to taste the chardonnay and merlot from the most recent vintage, the 1998.

And this is your chance to meet the Worden’s newest winemaker, Theirry Merlet. A native of Brittany, the 23-year-old Merlet earned his enology degree at the prestigious University of Bordeaux.

All wineries will be open special hours this weekend, from 11 a.m. until 5 p.m.

Happy touring.

Graphic/Map: The Wineries of Spokane

WINERY TOURING Six Spokane wineries will be open special hours this weekend for a special spring barrel tasting. Hours are from 11 a.m. until 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday (except Caterina, which will not open until 1 p.m. Saturday due to the Junior Lilac Parade).