Day #3 of our Walla Walla Wine Adventure

Norm McKibben, Pepper Bridge

Aboard our "Coach"

Norm McKibben & Adventurers in Pepper Bridge tank room

A week ago today, we once again boarded our coach with our first stop being the Pepper Bridge Winery.  Owner, Norm McKibben, was there to greet us as we arrived and took us on a personal tour of his squeaky clean, gravity-flow winery.  He shared some great stories about wine making, but my favorite was the story about the woodpecker that scared him in the middle of the night when he was creeping down the stairs in the tank room trying to find an intruder.

Mike Reynvaan

Diane, Lillian, Ken, Cathi

Jim, Sam, John

From there, we went on a beautiful drive through rolling vineyards and valleys to our next stop which was Reynvaan Family Vineyards.  Owners, Gale and Mike Reynvaan, were there to host our group for a wine tasting lunch in their small boutique winery.  A favorite wine we tasted there was one named "The Contender", a Syrah that is sold out now and only available to purchase as 2009 futures.

Billo Naravane, Rasa Vineyards

Rasa Vineyards

After lunch, our next stop was Rasa Vineyards, a new winery that I not yet experienced suggested by our good friend, Kathleen Schafer, where we met Owner/Winemaker, Billo Naravane and tasted a variety of his wines.  His story is interesting because he was an MIT graduate specializing in applied mathematics and computer science with a very successful business when he decided that he wanted to open a winery.  His parents, who are very conservative East Indians, believed that their sons should only become engineers or doctors and discouraged artistic and creative thinking as Billo, and his brother and Co-Owner of Rasa, Pinto, were growing up.  Billo, with long straight black hair that reaches to his waist and who is absolutely brilliant, finally convinced his parents that he could be unhappy for the rest of his life working in computer sciences or happy doing something that he really wanted to do, so he went back to school at UC Davis and got degrees in Viticulture and Enology simultaneously.  He now also plays classical piano for fun and appears to be having a wonderful time running the winery.

Bonny with Casey McClellan, Seven Hills Winery

Bonny, Eric, Vladlinna, Betty, Joe, Ann

We returned to the hotel and actually had time for an hour's nap before walking across the parking lot to Seven Hills Winery for a tasting and tour with owners, Vicki and Casey McClellan.  Their winery is located in downtown Walla Walla in the historic Whitehouse-Crawford building. Built in 1904 as a woodworking mill the building was transformed in 2000 to house Seven Hills and the Whitehouse-Crawford restaurant. The renovation was carefully planned and carried out to preserve the working character and emphasize the architectural charm of the building. We were able to view the wine barrels aging in a high-ceilinged room with an unusual clerestory atop letting in natural light.  They share the building with Whitehouse-Crawford, the restaurant and the location of our final dinner of the trip.

After the tasting, we walked around the corner to the restaurant entrance where we were seated in a private room.  The dinner was fantastic with choices of beef, halibut or chicken and we consumed wines from most of the previous stops on our ZINO Society Walla Walla Spring Wine Adventure.  I loved receiving a signed copy of Steve Roberts' Wine Trails of Walla Walla book signed by our entire Wine Adventure group.  And to conclude the evening, Judith Kindler and I announced a few recognition awards.

• Best Conversationalist:  Joe, the Coach Driver followed by Joe Sasenick (actually a distant 2nd)
• Leading Financial Best Friend:  John Rindlaub
• Biggest Couples' Antagonist:  Kyle Johnson
• Most High Maintenance Couple:  Sam Baker and Jim Rose
• Sexiest Couple:  Newlyweds, Diane & Paul Birkeland 
• Most Useful Wisdom and Advice:  Paul Birkeland 
• Best Vocalist and Entertainer:  Mark Soltys
• Most Stylishly Dressed:  Jamee Nunnelee
• Best Shoes:  Betty Sasenick
• Most Unseasonably Dressed:  Ken Hatch (gale force winds, no jacket and a bright yellow aloha shirt!??)