Spend a Sunday evening with wine, music, scenery
It’s an idyllic setting for a Sunday evening: lovely grounds, good wine, great music and, above all, a spectacular view.
Sundays at Arbor Crest Winery are the kind of secret you want to share only with good friends. The Spokane Valley’s most prominent National Historic Monument occupies the storied Riblet Mansion, which looks out from a vantage point that allows you to overlook the clog of road construction and take in the splendor of our hometown.
Sunday the winery begins its weekly concert series, showcasing local talent. No outside alcohol is allowed; however the winery does sell its own products by the bottle and by the glass.
New this year is the availability of catered food – both dinner and desert.
“We’ve got a great lineup of talent this year,” special events director Jill Rider said. “It’s really going to be fun. The sunsets here are wonderful, the view is just great – this is just a wonderful way to enjoy a Sunday evening. We have plenty of parking and we’ve always tried to add to the grounds every year and it’s all landscaped so beautifully.”
In past years, concertgoers would bring a picnic up to the beautifully manicured grounds and enjoy their meal with the music. Add in the menu and you have a complete experience.
“The first menu includes a char-grilled chicken and vegetable kabob with a pasta salad,” Rider said. “You’ll have a choice of three different sauces to go with it. And it comes with a red wine strawberry compote.”
A number of desserts are available as well, but Rider has a suggestion of her own. “We have a great Riesling and some wonderful red wines that go well with chocolate,” she said.
Sunday night’s entertainment will be a blues concert by Doghouse Boyz. The Father’s Day concert will be from The Honeybuckets. There is no cost for the concert, however the winery restricts admission to adults 21 and over.
“A lot of people think that this is a great place for the whole family to come for an event like Father’s Day,” Rider said. “It is, but we don’t allow anyone under 21 up here. That’s a location issue, not an alcohol issue. Because of how we sit up on the cliff, we don’t want to risk having a child wander off where they shouldn’t go.
“It’s just been a worry for us. When we have weddings up here, which we do frequently, we have security on site to watch out for the children.”
The lineup for the remainder of the summer is available from the winery’s Web site, www.alcyontech.com/arborcrest.
Reaching the winery is easy. Drive north on Argonne Road (the bridge is now open so traffic flows smoothly over the Spokane River) to Upriver Drive. Turn east on Upriver for a mile, where the road forks. Take the left fork and follow Fruithill Drive as it winds up the hill. At the summit make a sharp right turn onto Arbor Crest’s private drive.