They offer a stunning array of wines that a novice or an experienced wine buff can enjoy with equal gusto. It is a good opportunity to observe how wine develops on its way from grape to glass. The concentration of wineries around the small communities of Zillah, Prosser and Lowden makes it easy to visit three to five wineries in a day. And a Northwest wine dollar generally buys higher quality. Depending on the weekend or day, visitors might mingle with a bustling busload of wine lovers or find themselves quietly sipping wines and nibbling bread and cheese with no one else but a winemaker or winery owner who is pouring the wine and describing its merits.
Winery people are a friendly lot who visit with each other.
More often than not, they will send visitors off with a recommendation of where to go next. Wine country touring is a laid-back experience. The novice can find a new world of leisure, appealing foods and wines along with meandering country lanes lined with blossoming apple or cherry orchards in the spring or scented with the heady sweetness of concord grapes in the fall. Learning about wines may seem a daunting task, with their German and French names that may sound like a sneeze or a stutter. But there's no reason to be shy.