Slow service, miserly pours, indifferent product and no breadsticks. Meh. However …. Cheese in a can.
Mmmmm can cheese. How do they milk the cougars?
Well, our review of this place is certainly skewed by the above average quality of the previous winery stop. The bar had been raised.
Best wine if the day. Best breadsticks of the day. Best Romanian server of the day. Best presentation of the wine of the day.
So good we bought two bottles.
FaFancy-schmancy! The nicest building of the tour so far. Looks like a great place to have an event. There was a tragedy though. We were playing frisbee with the wine doggie and gad! I threw the dang thing into the pond by mistake! Very very sad doggie.
This place will also fill your wine growler.
Pretty location. And they let you ring the bell.
Pleasant place. We liked their wines. They were both suave and de-boner. Our favorite part? The “salad in a jar” ready to go.
Welcome to Walla Walla. It was time for some cheap and effective mexican food. Not two shakes later we located the local pretty good average kinda place and before long we were stuffing our faces back in our motel room while watching Pawn Stars.
Hahn Winery GSM, a bottle of red we picked up in Portland did nicely here. A solid meaty red that easily stood up to all that delightful cheese. Afterwards we promptly fell asleep. Walla Walla nightlife. Watusi!
This was our last stop of the day, conveniently right next to Sleight of Hand. We enjoyed their reds, but they were the real winner on ambiance. As you can see we joined the staff as they went off shift on the patio. Friends came by with fresh-picked wild morel mushrooms. Tristan who served us at Watermill dropped in to pick up his girlfriend who served us here. We pulled out some cheese and crackers and a good time was had by all.
We rolled into Sleight of Hand winery, just north of the Oregon / Washington state line near Walla Walla this afternoon. This place definitely rates at the high end of fun wineries to visit. The art they have hanging up is quite lovely take-offs on old posters of magic and movies. They have a whole shelf of vinyl LP’s and when I pulled out ABC’s Lexicon of Love they put that sucker right on the deck. Their motto: “punk rock wines for punk rock minds”. We took a bottle of one of their whites home, but unfortunately we enjoyed their product the least of the places we stopped today. Their reds seemed to have a sour/bitter note we didn’t like.
However, loved the experience, will definitely stop by again sometime!
http://lyrics.wikia.com/ABC:Valentine%27s_Day
When I’m shaking a hand, I’m clenching a fist
If you gave me a pound for the moments I missed
And I got dancing lessons for all the lips I shoulda kissed
I’d be a millionaire, I’d be a Fred Astaire
Zerba Winery. Right off the highway. Hits on all our three criteria. Bringing home port and their finest cheap red.
What do want out of a winery visit?
Friendly, affordable, and decent product
If the staff are jerks, well guess how the wine will taste. Tasting fees are ok, less ok if they aren’t waived with a bottle purchase.
Oh yeah. The last of the three the product should taste good.
This place does wine and cider. Did well on all three counts. Two thumbs up.
