Red Mountain Vineyards

We have stayed in Prosser before on a previous trip but this time we visited the vineyards and tasting rooms in a region called Red Mountain, about 15 miles east of here near a town called Benton City.  This area or AVA is well known for producing Syrah wines although we were excited to find a couple of vineyards growing the Carménère grape. This wine is prevalent in Chile and Argentina.  One vineyard grew several grapes from Portugal and Spain as well.

John spent several hours researching the vineyards and then making reservations for tastings.  He left about an hour between each appointment so we didn’t have to rush from one place to the next. On Friday we tasted at two very small vineyards - Frichette and Fidelitas and then had a tasting and dinner at Terra Blanca Winery.  We bought a case at Terra Blanca and a couple of bottles at the other two.

We took the day off on Saturday and tasted wines on Sunday.  Hedges Family Estate was only Syrah’s and we didn’t find anything there that we liked but the building and grounds were beautiful.  We found a blend that we liked at Anelare and had a really good wood fired pizza for lunch.  Last stop was Col Solare.  Their buildings reminded us of a place in Chili. We think it may be owned by the same company but no one there could confirm our suspicions.  They had some very nice Cabernet.