192. Foundry Vineyards

 

Walla Walla, Washington is becoming a well-known area for its variety of wineries and wine tasting venues. It’s in southeast Washington right on the Oregon border at the base of the Blue Mountains and it has great historical significance for the Pacific Northwest because of the Whitman mission to the Native tribes (and, of course, that has some darkness as well). The area is beautiful because it is a valley at the base of mountains so it has an almost desert climate but it also has the rolling Palouse type hills. There is a combination of dry land and irrigated farming and that has allowed for a great, relatively recent addition of vineyards.

One of the newer wineries is right in town—at least the tasting venue. It’s called Foundry Vineyards and it has some really good wine. If given the option of tasting in a beautiful vineyard or a city building is the choice, I’ll typically pick the vineyard just for the ambiance. But Foundry has done quite well with their artsy tasting rooms in town.

Because it was a nice day and not too hot, we sat outside. There were wine barrels made into tables for the wine and comfortable tables and chairs for the guests. There was an abundance of flowers and a variety of art sculpture like a mini sculpture garden. It has a privacy fence on which hop vines grow so that it has a calming green affect. To get to the gardens you have to walk through the tasting gallery where a variety of art works are on display. It very much has the sense of an art gallery which is the theme of the winery itself: wine is art. I think anything to do with food and drink is art, so I very much appreciated this theme and the setting of our tasting. But more importantly were the wines themselves. They were good, whites and reds. We ended up taking home a bottle of White on White which was a blend that was almost effervescent. A great chilled wine for a hot summer day.