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Watermill Winery's Wine Breakfast

Ever started the day with wine for breakfast?

That's what happened at Watermill Winery, located near a town called Milton-Freewater in the Walla Walla Valley. 

Here is the breakfast menu. The guests were visiting wine writers on a Cross-Border AVA Tour to see how closely Washington and Oregon are linked in vineyards and wine production. The Walla Walla Valley, for example, extends into each state, and Milton-Freewater is in Oregon.  

Why are rocks on the table? Because Watermill makes wines with grapes from The Rocks District, a small AVA in Oregon renowned for quality. The main grapes are Syrah, Cabernet Sauvignon and Grenache.  

This vineyard shows how the AVA got its name.

All Watermill Winery's Rocks District wines are labeled Hallowed Stones as a tribute to this extraordinary AVA.

Here is a glass of Watermill Syrah and a Rocks rock on my notebook. 

Watermill is home also to Blue Mill Cider Company, which produces fresh-pressed cider from estate-grown fruit. The winery is housed at the bottom of this building and the cidery at the top. 

Breakfast started with three wines including a spritzy, slightly sweet Rosé. This was a 2018 Cabernet Franc Rosé made by students at College Cellars, a teaching winery at Walla Walla Community College's Center for Enology and Viticulture.

Watermill finished and bottled the wine, which is being sold to raise funds for the program. 

Other wines included this Syrah, with a fun label. 

Here, winemaker Andrew Brown holds the 2014 Tempranillo.

Watermill Winery makes wines from vineyards outside the Rocks District too. Here, commercial director Alex Hedges leads a tour of one of them. 

Cabernet Sauvignon from the Anne Marie Vineyard is "the best showcase of a Bordeaux variety we can make," Hedges said. Just 100 cases are produced each year.

The wine writers did not go stumbling through the vineyards after too much wine and no food. Watermill made sure they ate a hearty breakfast, provided by Andrae's Kitchen in Walla Walla.

This is the main dish, steak eggs Benedict, a flatiron steak on a housemade English muffin topped with eggs and hollandaise. On the side, potatoes with caramelized Walla Walla spring onions.

Named for Chef Andrae Bopp, Andrae's Kitchen developed from pop-up dining and a food truck into a permanent site, located at a Cenex gas station in Walla Walla. 

If The Rocks District is famous for grapes and Watermill is known for wines and cider, Andrae's is famous too. Its awards include best food truck restaurant in North America in 2016 and best gas station breakfast in America the same year. 

Breaking Down Walls with Wine

Be glad you are free and able to drink this wine. 

It's Concrete Mama, a Grenache from a Washington state winery called The Walls. 

Both Concrete Mama and The Walls are nicknames for Washington State Penitentiary, a men's prison located in Walla Walla.

The Walls winery isn't making a joke of this sad place. It's concerned also with the walls people place around themselves, walls that sharing good wine and food can help to break down.

There were no walls of any kind when The Walls head winemaker Ali Mayfield (above, right) poured wines at a dinner for visiting media. Mayfield even shared the limelight with another Washington winery, Force Majeure, represented by Carrie Alexander (partly shown at the left).

The dinner took place outdoors at Passatempo Taverna in Walla Walla, which is owned by  Mike Martin, owner of The Walls.

Dinner started with the 2018 Cruel Summer, a Grenache Rosé so named because a summer without Rosé would be a cruel thing.

Then came the 2016 La Lutte (the fight), a Chardonnay from The Walls, perhaps named for the energy that went into making it. 

From Force Majeure came Parvata, a Mourvedre, Syrah and Grenache blend. Parvata is Sanskrit for mountain, Alexander said. The grapes came mainly from the winery's vineyard in Washington's Red Mountain AVA, which is known for high quality grapes.

Then came tastings of Force Majeure Syrahs from Red Mountain and the SJR Vineyard in The Rocks District (above), which sells grapes to premium wineries and produces Delmas wines that sell out by allocation--there's even a wait to get on the allocation list. These were followed by a side by side tasting of 2016 Cabernet Sauvignons from both wineries.

Meanwhile, smoke rose from grilling in the patio.

Lamb chops fresh off the grill were perfect with the red wines. 

Before the lamb came plates of cured meats and bread.

Asparagus grown by Walla Walla area farmers was in prime condition. It was delicious pickled and served with the salumi.

Radicchio salad with gorgonzola really woke up the taste buds.

A roasted beet salad included goat milk ricotta, citrus and pistachios.  

These are Passatempo's polpette--meatballs in tomato sauce.

There was more, including handmade pasta, which is a Passatempo specialty, but night had covered the table with blackness, and my camera couldn't cope with it.


However, wine in the dark tasted as good as with light. 

And then we left with a look back at the restaurant, a great place to try Washington state wines thanks to the large selection on the wine list.  

Passatempo Taverna, 215 W. Main St., Walla Walla, WA 99362 (509) 876-8822.

Walla Walla--It's for Wine Lovers

The place where you can taste the most wine in an area so small you can get around on foot is Walla Walla, Washington.

Using Walla Walla's Main Street as a base, you can visit more than 30 tasting rooms plus a patisserie, a candy store with hand-decorated chocolates, a vintage music shop, wine shop, cafes and boutiques, enough to keep you busy for days.

The historic Marcus Whitman Hotel alone houses four tasting rooms. This is the one for TERO Estates, which produces small lots from estate vineyards.

The wine being poured is the 2012 Cabernet Sauvignon from Windrow Vineyards in Oregon. (The Walla Walla Valley crosses the state border and about one-third of it is in Oregon. As at TERO, it is common for winemakers in Washington to work with grapes from Oregon, and vice versa.)

Mansion Creek Cellars, Locati Cellars and Lodmell Cellars also have tasting rooms in the hotel, which was founded in 1927. 

Known for old time charm, Main Street is a delightful place to walk. Besides wine, it offers beverages for kids, coffee lovers and critters such as this dog, whose owner is getting him a drink from one of the street's decorative green water fountains. The Walla Walla River rushes through town just beyond the fence.

But back to wine. Judith Shulman is owner/manager of DAMA Wines, which is run exclusively by women. She poured the glass of DAMA's 2018 Cabernet Franc Rosé that is in the foreground.  

This is DAMA's 2015 Cabernet Sauvignon. The pretty label looks like a dress to me.

Bontzu Cellars (above) focuses on Rhone and Bordeaux varietals. Stopping in for a tasting, I tried the 2017 Viognier, The Shoemaker, which is a super Tuscan red blend, and the 2015 Cabernet Sauvignon.

Only 55 cases of the Cab were made, and only eight are left. Total case production of all Bontzu wines is about 1,200.


Otis Kenyon is another place to stop. 

Or try Canoe Ridge.   

If you love wine barrels, this shop has plenty of them. 

You can also visit a producing winery in the heart of downtown. Seven Hills Winery is located in what was a woodworking mill, dating back to 1904. The winery itself was founded in 1988 by Casey McClellan. The McClellan estate vineyard is just over the border in Oregon.

Associate winemaker Bobby Richards explained that Seven Hills focuses on Bordeaux varietals, primarily Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon. The area is too warm and dry for Pinot Noir, he said.

Richards selected these three Merlots for tasting. They are, from left, the 1998, 2016 and the 2017, which will be bottled in July. Merlot is the second most common grape in the Walla Walla Valley, after Cabernet Sauvignon. 

Richards said that Washington is second in number of wineries to California, but total wine production is much less. Seven Hills Winery's current case production is 10,000, but other wineries, such as Bontzu, are smaller producers. 

We also tasted the 2018 Sauvignon Blanc and a tank sample of the basic blend of the 2018 reserve Sauvignon Blanc, which is not yet finished. The reserve includes a small amount of Muscadelle, the other Sauvignon is blended with Semillon.  

Richards also brought out a 2017 Grenache from the Rocks District of Milton-Freewater, named Rocks because the soil is so full of them. Rocks is a sub AVA of the Walla Walla Valley AVA, he explained. 

Along with the wines we tasted cheeses that included a Brie-style Cardabelle from Monteillet Fromagerie, which makes farmstead artisanal cheeses in the Walla Walla Valley, and two from Cow Girl Creamery in San Francisco.

These wine barrels are in the production area, adjacent to Seven Hills' tasting room.

The winery recently completed this area for group gatherings. 

The Seven Hills Winery tasting room (above) is open daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m and offers tours with tastes of four wines, including a barrel sample, at 10 a.m. Tours of limited release wines, accompanied by small bites, take place on Fridays and Saturdays at 11 a.m. 

For more information about Walla Walla wines, go to the website of the Walla Walla Valley Wine Alliance. 

Getting a Quick Taste of Portland

You're in Portland. You've never been there. You want to taste great Oregon wines and eat great Oregon food. But you're in town for one night only. How can you do this?

No worries, it's easy. Just two places will provide everything you need, one for wine and appetizers, the other for dinner. If you can't get to both, no problem. Either offers a good overview of Oregon wine and food.

Start out downtown at the wine bar of Park Avenue Fine Wines. There, you can tastes wines by the glass, flight or bottle and food created by Portland celebrity chef Karl Holl of Spatzle & Speck.

Here's a sample of what Park Avenue partner and sommelier Stacey Gibson (above) might recommend drinking:

For bubbly, try Maison Jussiaume Blanc de Blancs 2016, made from Chardonnay grapes in Southern Oregon's Rogue Valley. That's what she's pouring in the photo. Then Soter Vineyards North Valley Pinot Noir Rosé 2018 from the Willamette Valley.

Next, a Chardonnay such as the 2016 Flâneur Cuvée Constantin, also from the Willamette Valley. Only 245 cases of this wine were made. It's in the glass above, through which you can see a lively Friday night gathering. 

A red choice would be Brittan Vineyards 2014 Basalt Block Pinot Noir from the McMinnville AVA (American Viticultural Area). 

Meanwhile, nibble on crispy Oregon bay shrimp with sweet onions, sultanas, hazelnuts--and flowers. 

And an asparagus salad with arugula, parsley, fried bread bits and smoked buttermilk at the bottom. 

On this plate, sautéed cauliflower mingles with nuts, raisins, couscous and strands of agretti, a seasonal succulent, in a miso vinaigrette with black garlic aioli.

There's much more on the wine bar menu, from oysters to anise hyssop panna cotta, so you could turn a visit there into dinner. When you're done, browse the enormous wine selection, which will give you a good feel for what Oregon produces.  

Park Avenue Fine Wines, 626 SW Park Ave., Portland, OR 97205. (503) 914-5595. Open Monday through Saturday.

Now move on to Oui! Wine Bar + Restaurant at the Southeast Wine Collective. Here, start-up winemakers rent facilities to make wine, and there's plenty of it to taste.

Oui is a fun, casual place, with patio dining when it's comfortable outside. Above, Tom Monroe of Division Wine Making Company, which founded the place, explains the winemaking operation. 

Chef Althea Grey Potter (above with Monroe) provides creative contemporary food.

This is curried cashew hummus with pickled raisins, garbanzos, mint, onions and lentil crackers. 

A lettuce salad comes with soft-boiled eggs, turnips, furikake crunch, ponzu-pickled onions and ginger-miso ranch dressing. The wine Gamine is a 2018 Grenache from the Applegate Valley in southern Oregon, produced and bottled by Division Winemaking Company.

A roasted half chicken is smothered with farm greens. On the side are fingerling potatoes. Goat cheese and black garlic vinaigrette pump up the flavors.

This bowl of clams comes with tomato chile broth, garbanzos and garlic toast.


Shrimp and grits Northwest style has Cheddar grits at the bottom topped with garlic butter shrimp and smoked pickled onions, seasoned with espelette pepper and Old Bay.

On this plate are smoked pork rillettes, honey mustard, pickles and marionberry jam. 

Wine choices include an Oregon Gamay Noir from Division Winemaking that is influenced by the Beaujolais region of France.

Here is a Gewürztraminer from the Columbia Gorge. 

And a Dolcetto, also from the Columbia Gorge.

And a Chardonnay, because it pairs so well with the food. 

These dishes and the wines that accompanied them were part of a dinner with Oregon winemakers, but you can order them yourself to eat in the restaurant or at a bar in the winemaking area. 

Oui! Wine Bar & Restaurant, 2425 SE 35th Place, Portland, OR 97214. (503) 208-2061. Open Wednesday through Monday. 

Drinking Chianti with Italian Food

What fun to eat at a vintage Italian restaurant, a dark and cozy place with red checkered tablecloths, raffia-covered Chianti bottles hanging from the ceiling, lollipops to pick up when you leave and free matchbooks.

This is 70-year-old Miceli's in Hollywood, the perfect setting for a tasting of Chiantis, none of them wrapped in raffia. These were the wines of Tuscany's Castello di Albola, an estate in Radda in the heart of the Chianti district. Two are on Miceli's wine list, a Chianti Classico and a Chianti Riserva.

Winemaker Alessandro Gallo came to the tasting, which started with Chianti Classicos from 2015 and 2016. After these came Riservas from 2012 and 2014--Riservas are made from the best grapes in the vineyard, Gallo said. (Sangiovese is the main grape for all Chiantis. Small amounts of other approved grapes are allowed to be blended in.)

After these came the Chianti Classico Gran Selezione Santa Caterina 2013 and 2015, the first single vineyard wines from Castello di Albolo to be sent to the United States, Gallo said.

The wines range in price from around $16 for the Chianti Classicos and $18 to $21 for the Riservas to $90 for the Santa Caterina Gran Selezione Chiantis. 

It was glorious to taste such wines with old school Italian food, starting with the antipasto plate above. 

And fritto misto, an assortment of fried squid, fish and zucchini.

There was Caesar salad too.

Then, three types of pizza. This one is vegetarian.

This meaty pizza included pepperoni and Italian sausage. Another pasta was topped only with cheese. 

The "dessert" was Castello di Albola's luscious sweet Vin Santo rather than the tiramisu, canoli or spumoni from Miceli's menu. Made from Trebbiano and Malvasia grapes, it's "an unusual wine," Gallo said, and one that can age for years. This was the 2006 vintage.


With it here is Miceli's double espresso, the perfect way to end a hearty Italian lunch. 

A Tour of Anaheim's Little Arabia

Touring Little Arabia is a delicious way to spend a day.

But what and where is Little Arabia? Most people go blank when I mention it, because they never dreamed that such a place exists just outside Los Angeles.

But there it is, a strip that runs from Anaheim to the edge of Garden Grove packed with Middle Eastern restaurants, cafes, markets, bakeries, hookah lounges and shops selling Islamic goods and clothing. To learn more about it, go to www.littlearabiadistrict.com.

You can discover the area on your own by following the itinerary of a tour I took that was led by Faye and Yakir Levy for Melissa's Produce.

The Levys are well known experts in the Middle East who have lived and traveled in the region. Yakir Levy (above) is Israeli, well versed in history and politics. Faye Levy, a prolific food researcher, is the author of "Feast from the Mideast" among many other cookbooks.

The Levys distilled Little Arabia into the following four food-centered stops.

1. Fresh Choice Marketplace. This halal market attracts people from a wide range of cultures, because it stocks ingredients they need, many of them hard to locate elsewhere. Here are a few:

Ulker Labneh is the creamiest, richest, most mellow labneh that I have ever tasted. It's imported from Turkey. Yakir Levy is holding it in the photo above. 

Kunafa King, a baked goods shop along one wall, is named for a syrup-soaked cheese-based dessert topped with shredded pastry (above). This dessert is spelled in several ways, including knafeh, as in Knafeh Cafe, another shop in Little Arabia.

Kunafa King also has baklava and other pastries and a large stock of Loqhum brand Turkish delight, imported from Istanbul (on the lower shelf in the photo). Flavors include coffee, orange with hazelnuts, pomegranate and a chocolate-filled version coated with ground pistachios.

Freshly baked breads come from a bakery by the market's main entrance. This one is coated with za'atar.

The bakery also sells pita, long flat sangak breads (above), date-filled breads, sesame-coated Jerusalem bagels and other breads popular in the Middle East.  

The large spice section includes everything from ground chipotle chiles to spices for Indian cooking and seasonings for Middle Eastern dishes such as Saudi Arabian kabsa. Some are labeled in three languages, English, Spanish and Arabic.   

Fresh Choice Marketplace, 9922 Katella Ave., Garden Grove, Calif. 92804. (714) 539-9999. 

2. Forn Al Hara. Famous for flatbreads (manaeesh), this bakery/restaurant is a pleasant place for a casual, inexpensive lunch.

Owner Muhammad Alam (above) will swamp you with hospitality and insist that you try more flatbreads than you can possibly eat. At least that is what happened on the Levys' tour. 

The toppings included cheeses, meats and vegetables. The za'atar that Alam spreads on some of them is house-made. It's so fragrant you will want to buy that as well as the breads, which come in large and mini sizes. 

In addition to the flatbreads, there are wraps, including one with chicken and cheese. A glance at the menu on the wall shows many more choices, including pizza.

Forn Al Hara also offers baklava and other pastries.  Here, Alam brings knafeh to the tour group.

Forn Al Hara, 512 S. Brookhurst St., Anaheim, Calif. 92804. (714) 758-3777.

3. Olive Tree Restaurant. Located across the parking lot from Forn Al Hara, Olive Tree is like an encyclopedia of Middle Eastern food. The menu for the tour group included Lebanese, Palestinian and Egyptian food. On other occasions I've eaten Jordanian and Saudi Arabian dishes there.

Shown with this spectacular spread is Olive Tree's original owner, Yusuf Abdo. His son Alan Abdo now owns the restaurant. 

The biggest seller at Olive Tree is ouzi, lamb shanks with almonds and spiced rice. It takes 2,500 pounds of lamb shanks a week to fill the demand, Alan Abdo said. The rice that accompanies it changes every day. 

This spectacular dish is Egyptian koshari, a combination of pasta, lentils and rice topped with fried onions and served with tomato sauce.  A recipe for koshari is in Faye Levy's "Feast from the Mideast."

Koubeh lebeniyeh is beef and bulgur dumplings that are fried, then cooked in yogurt sauce. 

The tour group also ate falafel, tabbouleh ((above), grilled eggplant with tahini, hummus and stuffed grape leaves, accompanied by yogurt sauce and pita bread.

For an even more generous feast, go to Olive Tree during Ramadan, the Muslim fasting month, which starts May 6. Each night a sumptuous buffet ends the daily fast. The price is $30, and reservations are essential. Throughout Ramadan the restaurant will be closed during the day. 

Olive Tree Restaurant, 518 S Brookhurst St., Anaheim, Calif. 92804. (714) 535-2878.

4. Victory Sweets. The tour ended with dessert at this shop, where owner Mohammad Awad makes all the dough himself, including finely shredded kadaif (above).

His sweets are so highly rated that Olive Tree Restaurant uses them for catering jobs. By chance, Yusuf Abdo of Olive Tree dropped in to pick up an order while the tour group was admiring the treats on display.

Awad offers five types of knafeh (above).

He explained that knafeh is sometimes tucked into a bun for a sandwich (above). 

These rolls are bourma, made with kadaif dough rolled around a nut filling.

There is baklava too and cookies and other sweets, some of them packed in the gift box that Awad is holding. He'll have special sweets during Ramadan. 

By now the tour participants had eaten so much that dessert would have been hard to handle, so Awad hand-packed a box of samples for each to take home, a sweet gesture to end the day.

Victory Sweets, 9057 Cerritos Ave., Anaheim, Calif. 92804. (714) 229-0800.