Vintage views
The Spokane Valley boasts many and various hubs of activity. A Sunday night at the Arbor Crest Cliff House is different, though. It’s a hub, but a hub of leisure.
Sitting above the Spokane River, the winery has one of the area’s most expansive vistas – now panning two cities, Spokane and Spokane Valley, and stretching across two states.
The view alone draws visitors to the winery by the tens of thousands every year.
But summer Sunday evenings are special. Beginning at mid-afternoon, hundreds arrive for a relaxed few hours with live music that starts at 5:30 p.m. This summer, the series is known as the Sterling Savings Bank Sunday Sunset Concerts.
Since it was built in 1924, the Riblet Mansion has overlooked the Spokane Valley from its cliff-top promontory. For much of that time the view most people have had of the former home of inventor Royal Newton Riblet is the one looking up at the three-story Florentine home, sitting like a Monopoly house far above Boardwalk and Park Place.
In 1985 the National Historic Landmark building was purchased by Arbor Crest, and customers were invited to drive up North Fruithill Road to the winery’s tasting room. Today, the lush, whimsical grounds, with its cherry orchard, grape vineyard and giant checkerboard, provide an Old World backdrop for award-winning winemaking by Kristina Mielke-van Loben Sels and her husband, Jim van Loben Sels.
The grounds themselves offer a music all their own. The wind whistles a wistful song through the ivy-covered trees while the waterfall near the entrance to the tasting room sings a happy melody. In between, the solitude is a symphony all its own.
The tasting room is open daily from noon to 5:30 p.m., and customers are invited to enjoy the grounds and view.
The concerts started a half-dozen years ago, and the combination is idyllic.
Over the years, artists such as Karla Bonoff and Al Stewart have hung their melodies on the evening breeze to the delight of as many as 2,000.
But the magic of a Sunday night at Arbor Crest doesn’t come from the name-recognition factor of the musician.
These nights are all about alchemy.
Picture a Sunday night under skies that have just cleared from a week or more of rain and bluster. On this night, a local group of blues musicians provide the soundtrack as adults – no one under 21 is allowed – finish a picnic dinner or dine on the catered food available for purchase. They drink some Arbor Crest wine or drink a nonalcoholic beverage of their own choosing.
The air smells of summer and the wine tastes of summers gone by.
As blues riffs waft over lush, green grounds, it feels as if the clearing, blue skies are closer here. For these few hours, from 5:30 p.m. until dusk, the work week is relegated to another, far-off world.
Some like to lie back on the grass, listen to the music and watch the sun trace its descending arc to the horizon. Others will bring a lawn chair and sit close to the music, holding hands. Still others will find an open spot on the checkerboard or a walkway and dance as the stars begin to pop out of a twilight sky.
To paraphrase the poet: A loaf of bread, a glass of wine and a significant other – what could be more magical on an unhurried, summer Sunday?