During our booksignings last month in the Yakima Valley, we enjoyed the food of talented local chef Frank Magaña both at Chinook Wines (where he cooked winemaker Kay Simon’s fabulous Cherry-Marinated Chicken, a recipe featured in Pacific Northwest Wining & Dining, for an appreciative crowd) as well as at Picazo 7 Seventeen, his restaurant in downtown Prosser. 

There are still a few vestiges of the former Alexandria Nicole winery space–glass vases are filled with wine corks and wine barrels serve as end tables. But otherwise, the restaurant boasts a Latin vibe, with bold colors and dramatic artwork. A specially commissioned chandelier/sculpture incorporating wine bottles dangles from the center of the dining room.

The Firecracker Prawns were our favorite starter–Gulf Prawns sautéed with garlic and harissa chili paste and finished with cream–the perfect combination of hot/spicy and mellow. We also nibbled on the thin-crust, housemade Flat Bread, topped with kalamata olives, shredded basil, and Manchego cheese, while we perused the menu.

My fellow diners all opted for one of the specials of the day, a hefty veal chop, while I thoroughly enjoyed the Tuscan Chicken, a grilled airline breast with broiled chèvre, toasted garbanzo beans, roasted red peppers, and kalamata olives.

The wine list features the Valley’s best (and many boutique) bottles. We enjoyed Bunnell Family Cellars Vif!, a lively red blend, as well as Millbrandt 2006 Chardonnay. 

Magaña, who moved east of the mountains after chef-ing in Tacoma, raises the bar in the Yakima Valley, where he caters many events in addition to running his restaurant and raising his family. His monthly winemaker dinners are legendary, and great bargains, at just $75 per person. 

Early in October, Mission Hill Family Estate was kind enough to host me for a two-hour booksigning during the Okanagan Fall WIne Festival. Here I am doing my thing, talking up a lovely young lady visiting from Victoria. 

After the signing, we enjoyed taking the Discovery Tour throughout the property. Most impressive were the underground caves (blasted from volcanic soils!) and the wine-and-cheese tasting/comparison that ended the tour. 

I was also lucky enough to chat a few minutes with winery executive chef Michael Allemeier, who has racked up all sorts of impressive awards for The Terrace restaurant. Unfortunately, the one day we were there, it rained, so the al fresco resto was closed! That’s okay. It gives us another reason to return to Mission Hill soon and often. Here’s Chef Allemeier.

Here’s a photo of The Terrace restaurant at Mission Hill Family Estate, once the sun had finally come out, but too late for lunch!

And finally, here’s a photo of the winery’s monumental architecture.

I enjoyed two booksignings, a lovely stay at Desert Wind Winery, and two memorable dinners during a visit to the Yakima Valley September 19-21. More on that to come, but in the meantime, here is a short (four-minute) Vodcast filmed by my editor from Wine Press Northwest, Andy Perdue. 

In the film, I share my thoughts on Northwest cuisine and thank Andy for giving me the opportunity to write the food-and-wine-pairing column for Wine Press over the past eight years. 

You can watch the Northwest Winecast two ways (both free):

On the Wine Press Web site:

http://www.winepressnw.com/

On YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/WinePressNW

Immediately after the Riesling Rendezvous in late July, the Washington Wine Commission set up a one-day trip for visiting journalists to the conference to visit four wineries across the mountains in eastern Washington. At 6 a.m., a busload of us left the warmth and comfort of the Willows Lodge in Woodinville and made the journey to Sea-Tac for our early-morning Horizon flight.

Once there, we stopped at Badger Mountain/Powers Winery to see their gorgeous spread of estate grapes in the midst of a bustling residential neighborhood (!). Next stop was the huge facility of Pacific Rim, which specializes in Riesling of all sorts and price ranges (value-priced, single-vineyard-designate, and a yummy dessert Riesling). 

After a tour of the Col Solare facility, a partnership between Chateau Ste. Michelle and the Antinori family of Italian winemaking fame, and designed by Boxwood, a Seattle architecture firm fast becoming known for its gorgeous winery designs (such as Novelty Hill/Januik in Woodinville), we enjoyed a three-course lunch (paired with various vintages of Col Solare, of course!) prepared by Picazzo 7Seventeen chef/owner Frank Magaña. 

We ended the day at Goose Ridge Vineyards, which boasts the largest spread of contiguous vineyards in Washington state and is making two tiers of wines–Goose Ridge and Stone Cap–which we tasted through with winemaker Charlie Hoppes.

Then it was back on the bus for the short ride back to the Pasco Airport and the 45-minute flight home, exhausted but all the wiser about our state’s formidable eastern Washington grape resources.

Lamb Chops with English Peas and Fava Beans, paired with a bottle of the difficult-to-find Merry Edwards Pinot Noir from the Sonoma Valley, captured our hearts at The Oystercatcher in Coupeville, Washington, during a recent weekend getaway to Whidbey Island.

On our drive back from Vintage Walla Walla (see blog post of July 12 for further details) we made a point to stop in Prosser to check out Desert Wind Winery, the Yakima Valley’s (relatively) new drawing-card winery. It was no easy task because there isn’t a dedicated off ramp; we had to double back twice before reaching it. Once there, however, we were “wowed” by the Southwest-inspired architecture; the grandeur (and sheer size) of the tasting room; and the soaring ceilings, floor-to-ceiling barrels, and open kitchen design of the restaurant, La Mesa at Desert Wind. We’ll be back in Yakima end of September for a booksigning at Chinook Wines and Chukar Cherry Company, and will base our trip at Desert Wind, staying at one of the four gorgeous luxury suites, so will give you an updated report then.

On Saturday, August 9, from 1 p.m. to 7 p.m., food-and-wine aficionados will enjoy sipping and tasting their way through Suncadia Resort’s first-annual Wine & Food Festival. This amazing resort just outside of Roslyn (see my blog post of July 12), is quickly becoming one of Washington’s premier destinations for a weekend or a lifetime. Thirty fantastic high-end wineries have been assembled for this affordable and memorable afternoon at Suncadia, only 90 minutes from Seattle. According to an e-release, the event will start out with five open-houses from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m., each featuring an appetizer paired with a boutique winery.

Live music will be offered at the outdoor amphitheater and the resort’s ballroom will house the grand tasting of all 30 wineries from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. Tickets are $30 if purchased prior to the event at www.ticketweb.com or $40 when purchased the day of the event at the Suncadia Real Estate Sales Center. Special packages on guest rooms and dinner with the winemakers are also available following the grand tasting. www.suncadia.com

A gorgeous salad of asparagus, baby greens and wild-mushroom flan lightly dressed and lavishly garnished with shavings of Parmesan cheese was the perfect pre-dinner bar bite at the ever-elegant and fun Whitehouse-Crawford restaurant in Walla Walla. Chef Jamie Guerin was kind enough to give me his recipe for Organic Greens with Goat Cheese, Walnuts, and Pickled Cherries for Pacific Northwest Wining & Dining. It’s the perfect salad for right now, when fresh Northwest cherries are in their prime.

Meanwhile, the Marc restaurant at the Marcus Whitman Hotel hit the mark thanks to Chef Hank, a.k.a. “Bear” Ullman’s inventive menu, not to mention the gorgeous hand-turned bowls he creates to showcase his cuisine. Here’s the Grilled Shrimp and Avocado Salad, cozily tucked into its sourdough shell along with fresh tomatoes, avocado, and cucumber, all napped with orange-coriander vinaigrette. My Alaskan Halibut with Sauce Vert (Green Sauce) was the essence of springtime on a plate. The meat eater in the family enjoyed a Double R Ranch Bone-In Ribeye steak and Blue-Cheese Mashers. The wine list is a Northwest delight, with very generous pours of wines by the glass and inventive wine flights. Perfect for the couple (like us)—one who orders red meat and the other who sticks with fish.

Part of our reason for attending Vintage Walla Walla was so I could sign books at the Pavilion Tasting. Here I am in my element.

Another reason for the trip was to attend the annual wine-blending class, during which some of the Valley’s top winemakers showed us their craft. The “students” were divided into several groups and our mission was to blend a Super Tuscan (heavy Italian wine) using juice from Walla Walla-grown grapes. Interestingly enough, several groups came up with similar blends, and, in any case, a good time was had by all!

My first-time wine blending occurred at Urban Wineworks in Portland, an experience I recounted in Pacific Northwest Wining & Dining. I’m hoping to reprise my most recent wine-blending encounter in a future article for The Seattle Times Pacific Northwest magazine, so please stay tuned!

The beautiful Suncadia Lodge opened a few months ago and we were lucky enough to be among the VIPs to experience its first moments. Done in a Grand-Lodge-meets-Whistler Village-(British Columbia)-Alpine style, the soaring fireplaces, high ceilings, massive wooden columns, and expansive windows sing of the Northwest and invite in picture-postcard views of snow-capped mountains, lush green golf courses, walking paths, and well-manicured resort homes.

In Portals, the dining room in the Lodge, Chef Andrew Wilson is already winning rave reviews for his Northwest specialties, which include Swift River Trout, a butter-flied whole fish that is perfectly pan seared and simply served with Almond Brown Butter and Haricots Verts. The Tuna Poke Tower was headed in the right direction, but needed a good dash of soy or shoyu and a couple of gratings of fresh ginger to really make it sing. Sweet Corn and Clam Chowder sounded like a seasonal goodie, composed of local corn, sweet bell pepper, tarragon, and Manila clams. www.suncadiaresort.com

During an early-June visit to Walla Walla for the magnificent Vintage Walla Walla, we discovered a local delicacy: Klicker strawberries. Explains Hank, a.k.a. “Bear” Ullman, executive chef at The Marc in the Marcus Whitman Hotel, “It’s a small local farm that’s been around forever, and because they aren’t shipping them to the ends of earth we get very ripe, very flavorful fruit that actually tastes like a strawberry. It’s a neat place. They do pumpkins in the fall and Christmas trees and such, family run, cute as hell. Lots of people on my crew worked as pickers when they were kids.”

We enjoyed diving into Chef Bear’s Klicker Strawberry Shortcake during a luncheon in the Millcreek/Upland Vineyard, one of the Valley’s flagship grape-growing areas (and where Leonetti Cellar sources most of its grapes). Said winemaker Myles Anderson, co-owner of and winemaker at Walla Walla Vintners, “You are sitting next to one of the best vineyards in the world.”

That may be, but on this particular “June-uary” day, the temperatures were so low and the arctic wind so driving, wine glasses blew off the table and the red wine was “naturally chilled.” Warm blankets were de rigueur. Not to mention that the grapes were a full two weeks behind schedule. Global warming in Walla Walla? Not this spring.