That's the motto of the Rattlesnake Hills Wine Trail in the Yakima Valley. This is followed by a small disclaimer stating, "No rattlesnakes, just Washington's greatest wines!" Not terribly clever (or true for that matter, there are indeed rattlesnakes in the hills high above the valley), but the quality of the wine speaks for itself.Wine has a short but sort-of interesting history here in Washington State. Grapes were first planted in the early nineteenth-century by European settlers, mostly in the state's dry, four-season eastern half. Prohibition in the 1920's encouraged people to start making wine at home, with early commercial plantings only arriving in the 1960's. From the 1970's onward wine production grew rapidly in Washington--in both the east and the west--and today it is the second largest wine-producing state in the USA. The expansion continues, so nowadays it is estimated that a new winery opens every 2 weeks. All this would be nothing if the wine were of poor quality. Lucky for us Washington wine is superb--reds, whites, and roses--and continues to get better every year!
A couple of weeks ago Z and I headed east for our own afternoon of wine tasting in the Yakima Valley. The drive itself is impressive: 130 miles east of Seattle on I-90 over the Snoqualmie Pass and into the desert. And desert it is. As you come out the other side of the Cascades the trees disappear, the clouds disappear, and the temperature rises about 20 degrees. We had left a cloudy, 70-degree Puyallup for a piercingly sunny, 90-degree Yakima. And all in less that two hours!
The wineries spring up like green jewels across the desert landscape. Irrigation from the Columbia River makes this kind of growth possible in the valley. We had about 30 miles of wineries to choose from in this part of the state but stuck to the wineries associated with the Rattlesnake Hills Wine Trail. In four hours we visited five wineries, tasted plenty of excellent vintages, and took home nine bottles. We picnicked at our first stop under a shady tree and took an afternoon nap at our last. We ended the day with a fabulous dinner at Santiago's Mexican Restaurant in Yakima (BEST fish tacos I have ever eaten!!) and a longer, sunset drive through Chinook Pass along the Eastern edge of Mount Rainier.
Check out these links if you want to read more about our trip:
The wineries spring up like green jewels across the desert landscape. Irrigation from the Columbia River makes this kind of growth possible in the valley. We had about 30 miles of wineries to choose from in this part of the state but stuck to the wineries associated with the Rattlesnake Hills Wine Trail. In four hours we visited five wineries, tasted plenty of excellent vintages, and took home nine bottles. We picnicked at our first stop under a shady tree and took an afternoon nap at our last. We ended the day with a fabulous dinner at Santiago's Mexican Restaurant in Yakima (BEST fish tacos I have ever eaten!!) and a longer, sunset drive through Chinook Pass along the Eastern edge of Mount Rainier.
Check out these links if you want to read more about our trip:
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