This past weekend, dh and I went to the Red Wine and Chocolate Winery Tour, put on by the
Olympic Peninsula Wineries, with some friends. We had done a winery tour with them about a year ago, but this one had the added attraction of CHOCOLATE.
We stopped at the
Tides Inn in Port Townsend, where we were going to stay just to 'check in' since we didn't know what time we'd be back after touring the wines. We couldn't get to our room, but at least they knew we were there. The Tides Inn is the motel that was featured in the movie, An Officer and a Gentleman. they even have "An Officer and Gentleman Suite" which, according to a housekeeper we saw cleaning the room, was the actual room used in the film.
We met our friends at the
Public House Grill so we'd have something in our stomach before heading out to drink wine. Our friends have done this winery tour many times, so we followed their lead by driving to the furthest away winery and making our way back to Port Townsend.
We started at
Harbinger Winery, where we were greeted with a chocolate covered pretzel. We checked in, got out passport for our winery stamps and our official wine tasting glass. We tasted 4 red wines here, and each wine had a special chocolate to go with it. We had a raspberry wine that was delicious, and I couldn't resist talking dh into buying a bottle to take home.
Our next stop was
Camaraderie Cellars. What a gorgeous setting! People were gathered around a firepit outside, and inside was crowded with people tasting wines and sitting around the indoor fireplace. We tasted several wines here, had some chocolate cookies and some chocolate mole sauce (depending on which wine we were tasting). We joined a group led by the wine master and went into the cellar and learned about the wine making process - fascinating!
Our last stop for the day was
Olympic Cellars located in a big red barn. This winery seems larger than the other two, and the "tastes" were a little less generous. We still enjoyed their wines and chocolates, and came out with one of their delicious red wines, a sweet syrah.
By this time it was 5pm and we'd run out of time. We drove back to Port Townsend and went to our rooms, to rest up before dinner. We met our friends at
The Belmont, where had 8pm reservations. It was a busy place! We sat at the bar for a little while waiting for our table, which we were assured was the "best table in the house" (lucky to have friends that go there frequently and are well known by the host and bartender). We did get seated at a table at the window. Even though they had run out of several items from the menu, we all had delicious meals. I had 3 Masted Filet Mignon, which is described as "4 oz. choice filet mignon, topped with fresh Dungeness Crab and Sauce Bearnaise and 3 prawns, grilled with garlic and olive oil" ....delicious! We enjoyed eating and drinking and were the last people out of the restaurant.
The next morning we met our friends for breakfast at the Hudson Point Cafe. I had delicious cranberry walnut french toast with ricotta cheese. Gave me some ideas of other breads that could be used for french toast. I was imagining the apple strudel bread from Costco made into french toast - yum!
Since the wineries weren't quite open, we drove to Fort Worden State Park and took a walk along the beach. It was a beautiful (cold) day.
Back to wine tasting....
We drove to
Fair Winds Winery - dh and I decided this place was our favorite. We would've loved to buy more of their wines, but just limited ourselves to one bottle of their Port O'Call. After sampling several red and white wines, we were invited into the back cellar and listened to a presentation on their process of making wines while we enjoyed the enormous chocolate fountain.
Last stop before heading home was the
Sorensen Cellars. This one, I think, if our friends' favorite winery. We had several red and white wines here, and enjoyed some decadent artisan chocolates by
Yvonne Chocolates. We didn't buy wine here, but we did get a small bag of dark chocolate.
We said good-bye to our friends and headed home....
Comments (2)
Good wine, good chocolate, and good friends. Sounds like a wonderful combination!
Sounds wonderful! I have stayed at the Tide's Inn before too. They've added a lot to the place since the days of An Officer and a Gentleman. I remember the room they used was just a tiny little thing facing the parking lot. I am LOL at it being a "suite" now.