NEW WINE

Saturday we had breakfast at the new Westport Winery and Vineyard By-the-Sea. Well, okay....we didn't really have breakfast there, but we did do some wine tasting. And it was before noon.

The new winery opened last weekend, and offers 14 different wines. While they are currently getting their grapes from other Washington areas, the soil is tilled and ready to plant their own grapes this year. They told us that their location is quite similar to planting areas in Germany, and they have high hopes for producing their own grapes, even with all the rain we get.

Like a lot of wines these days, their labels are works of art. All center around a beach theme, and the wines have interesting names like, "Surfer's Last Syrah," and "Charterboat Chick's Cabernet Sauvignon". These two bottles have labels with the owner's parents on them....his father was an accomplished surfer in Maui in his youth, and his pic graces the syrah. Mom worked on a charterboat for years, and she is on the Cabernet.

Their most expensive wine, at $55, is "Shiver Me Timbers Riesling Ice Wine" and is available only to wine club members. To join the club one agrees to purchase two bottles of wine, 4 times a year. You then get 20% off your wine, and free tastings for 4 of your friends, 3 times a year. Of course we signed up. Michael will be wanting two bottles of the "A Little Wild Blackberry Riesling"....which I found too sweet for my taste, and both of us liked a white Merlot called "Compass Rose"...another that's available only to wine club members. We sampled about 6 of them, and I found them rather unsophisticated, lacking the subtleties and complex flavors that you find in good wines. These are more "in your face" with some of the flavors just too sweet...too chocolaty (Red Sky at Night, a dessert wine). I'm hoping there will be enough comments made to them that they might try to be a bit more subtle with future batches.

They have a lovely little building, with an event room that seats 90. They are also going to have an outdoor pavilion tent this summer. They sell the usual gift shop items, and some cheeses and salamis.

So, if you find yourself on the way to Westport, make a point of stopping in. It's always a good thing to support a new business, and this time there is wine involved!

SPRING

It's spring. While it hasn't felt like it much around here, the calendar says it's so. And my spirit feels it. It's been a long, hard winter in so many ways, and I am ready for spring. We are all in need of the rebirth. The renewal. The hope that is spring.