Trip up north

Mike and I just returned from a small roadtrip up to northern Idaho and Spokane. We made quite a few stops here and there, one of them including Basalt Cellars in Clarkston. We tasted around 8 wines ranging from a rose, semillon, syrah, merlot and their staple blends Rim Rock Red and Perimeter Red. These folks were extremely nice and gave us a tour and a trial of their first Pinot Noir. Peep the pics.



Next, we headed up to Moscow and put some neckers on our Ruby Dahlia Dessert Wine. This is Moscow’s newest and friendly liquor store:

The next morning we headed up north to discuss distributing options with Bill Jones Distributing…northern Idaho folks, look for Indian Creek Winery in your local grocery stores. Later that afternoon, Mike and I journeyed over to Spokane to squeeze in some climbing at Minnehaha. We headed back to Moscow where our host Mark Polinski barbequed up some delicious tender pork on a plank of cedar. Mmmmm… The next day we visited a winery in Pullman, Washington, Merry Cellars (Mike’s brother Shane came along):

They were having their spring release day so we were able to get in on some of the action downstairs with the winemaker, Patrick Merry and his father. My favorite was their Stillwater Creek Vineyard 2006 Merlot co-fermented with 6% Viognier.


On Saturday, Mike and I competed in the annual Palouse Climbing Festival. With tight competition results, we both managed to sneak away with first place cash prizes and a climbing rope. Wahoo! Here are some photos of the comp:


All in all, it was a great trip to see some friends, check out some newer wineries and get some climbing in.