Washington Wine Country - Day 1

I started October on the right foot ... wine tasting in Yakima!  Visiting Washington Wine Country has been on my to-do ever since we moved to Washington.  I was excited to not only cross another thing off my Seattle Bucket List, but to do it with a local!  R.'s friend, M.C., grew up in Yakima and graciously invited us to spend the weekend at her parent's house.  We packed up the car (and her super cute dog) and headed out on Friday evening.  We woke up early Saturday and hit the road.

We started our tour at Desert Wind Winery in Prosser.

I loved the style of the tasting room!

R. and M.C.

Our second stop was Cote Bonneville.  This winery was SO good, but also not your typical wine tasting experience.  We drove past the winery several times before finally matching the address on the mailbox with the address we got from the winemakers.  We pulled up to their house(!) and were ushered into the barn for our private tasting (it's by appointment only so call ahead if you plan on going).  We tasted with the mother of the winemaker and met the winemaker as well as their two dogs. It was a really personalized and unique experience, but the wines were a little bit out of my price range.  

Our third stop was Cultura Wine:

The adorable tasting room

I liked their wine glasses :) (and their wine!)

And their floral arrangements

Loved this fall inspired centerpiece! 

Cultura is red wines only, so that is something to keep in mind if you aren't a big red wine drinker!  The tasting room is open every weekend or you can call for an appointment!

Apple trees across from Cultura

After Cultura we headed back into Yakima to attend the Yakima Fresh Hop Ale Festival - it's considered one of the nation's ten best fall beer festivals!  The "tastes" of beer were pretty decent pours, so we sampled a few beers, had some pizza and listened to live music!  Then we headed over to M.C.'s sister's house to spend some time with them and then headed home to rest up for Day 2 in wine country!