If You're Ever Passing Thru Goldendale....
#8
  Re: (...)
Since the barrel tasting does not start until today (Friday), yesterday we headed south from Yakima to the Goldendale area to check out some wineries. South of Goldendale (small farming town, about 4,000 population) on the Columbia river is where a lot of new wineries are clustered.

The most breathtaking views in the world - I may be a little prejudiced because my Grandparents had a ranch on the Columbia until the government took it over for the Hanford Nuclear plant ( ), so I get very nostalgic when I'm in that area, it's so wild, and huge and craggy and beautiful!

Finally got to Maryhill Winery - we've loved their wines for a few years now. I was surprised to find they only started the winery about 7-8 years ago, so guess we found them early on. Their Zins and Syrahs are just wonderful.

http://www.maryhillwinery.com/ourwine.asp

They are building an amphitheater to be finished in a month or so and Cosby, Stills & Nash are the first venue slated - would love to come back for that. The theater has its back to the river and the seating and winery itself faces the river...oh my, the view. (can you tell I'm impressed?)

We spent so much time at Maryhill and tried so many wines, we only hit one more, Marshall winery - a dinky little place just getting on its legs. But, oh the winemaker does know what he's doing. His Syrahs are wonderful. Even if we could have tasted more and still made it home without a drunk driving charge, we spent so much time at each place, we then headed home.

But we made a little detour when we got back to Goldendale - ran across a little house with the sign, The Glass Onion out front. So, in we pulled and found a little gem of a restaurant and gallery in the midst of nothing!!

http://theglassonionrestaurant.com/

Check out their website just to see how the restaurant came to be and also the photographs that Chef Mark McGowan's wife takes.

We each had a bowl of his Spring Pea soup with fresh cream and oh my, it was just delicious. On the menu also, was a spinach salad with bleu cheese, bacon, candied pecans and maple dressing! that caught my eye. I handed our server my ACF card (opens so many doors ) and asked if I might just try a little of the maple dressing (are you reading this Lorraine????? ) and out came a little salad for us to try with the dressing. It was just delicious - the salty bleu and the sweetness of the syrup and crunch of fresh spinach and the nuts. AND, Chef Mark was nice enough to give me the recipe and I will be nice enough to share it with all of you too.

Chef McGown's Maple Dressing

He uses it with his spinach salad (including bleu cheese, bacon, candied pecans)

1/2 cup maple syrup
2 T. Dijon
1/2 c. cider vinegar
1 1/2 c. olive oil
salt & pepper
1/4 c. brown sugar

With our soup and salad, we had a glass of Cascade Cliff's (a winery we wanted to visit, but alas, didn't think we ought to!) Merlot and it was very good with the salad and dressing, not to mention the soup also.

So, that was our day yesterday and what a nice day it was!!

Today, we start drinking (or tasting...) our way thru the Yakima Valley Barrel tasting. So many wines, so little time!

With all the great wines we tried, we almost held to our winery pledge of buying only one bottle per winery on these kinds of trips... almost, had to buy a bottle of Maryhill's Malbec for my birthday dinner coming up... You would have been proud of our restraint, Sharon!
Retired and having fun writing cookbooks, tasting wine and sharing recipes with all my friends.
www.achefsjourney.com
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#9
  Re: If You're Ever Passing Thru Goldendale.... by cjs (Since the barrel tas...)
What a wonderful day you had! I can't wait to hear more!

You'll not believe how crushed I was to find out that our area is zoned for muscadine grapes ONLY! I was sooo disappointed. We will be planting some scuppernogs and muscadines, but it won't be a cool as it would be if we lived further inland. Oh well! I'll just have to be happy with my seafood and get William to go on some road trips to visit wineries inland.
Daphne
Keep your mind wide open.
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#10
  Re: Re: If You're Ever Passing Thru Goldendale.... by Gourmet_Mom (What a wonderful day...)
"Oh well! I'll just have to be happy with my seafood" - gee, that would be hard to do.

"and get William to go on some road trips to visit wineries inland." - now, there's an idea!
Retired and having fun writing cookbooks, tasting wine and sharing recipes with all my friends.
www.achefsjourney.com
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#11
  Re: Re: If You're Ever Passing Thru Goldendale.... by cjs ("Oh well! I'll just ...)
Jean:

Sent this along to my sister - who loved Maryhill Winery too.

She agrees the samples were quite a lot - and she was tipsey from

all the sampling. - Now I on the other hand - it didn't seem to bother

much - I like Malbec too.
marye
Everything will be all right in the end. So if it is not right, then it's not yet the end.
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#12
  Re: If You're Ever Passing Thru Goldendale.... by cjs (Since the barrel tas...)
"Chef McGown's Maple Dressing "

It sounds fabulous! Thanks.

" spinach salad with bleu cheese, bacon, candied pecans and maple dressing! "

I dug out my spinach seeds, and will be planting them within a week.
Practice safe lunch. Use a condiment.
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#13
  Re: Re: If You're Ever Passing Thru Goldendale.... by Lorraine ("Chef McGown's Maple...)
And here I sit, my garden not even tilled yet; 3 days ago the high was 46°, yesterday was 76°, this morning at seven o'clock it was 53° and now at 2:15 PM it is 73°. Probably be back in the 40's again tomorrow
Don't wait too long to tell someone you love them.

Billy
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#14
  Re: Re: If You're Ever Passing Thru Goldendale.... by bjcotton (And here I sit, my g...)
Tested the salad last night - it will be part of the winery's bottling dinner next week, and it's a wonderful salad - anxious to try the dressing on other salads also.

[Image: maplesalad2.jpg]

This dressing will certainly become a family favorite, I think.
Retired and having fun writing cookbooks, tasting wine and sharing recipes with all my friends.
www.achefsjourney.com
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