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This happy hour that never ends

20.05.12

Within minutes of arriving in the Bavaria of America — a.k.a. Leavenworth, Washington — all notions of drinking beer in Oktoberfest steins are abandoned. This ski town is cuter than a Fraulein’s dimple and bedecked with all the German kitsch imaginable: nutcrackers, gingerbread facades, sausage gardens and more. But my travelling companion and I agree: Who needs beer when you can have wine? And there’s a lot of wine in Leavenworth.

The mad proliferation of wine-tasting rooms means that in just three short blocks on Front Street, one can sample wines from 13 wineries. Spend the day hiking the trails of the Okanagan-Wenatchee National Forest and then spend the late afternoon/evening stumbling from one wine-tasting to another and when you’re done stumble home to your hotel room (if you can).

We start in the late afternoon at Ryan Patrick Vineyards where Don Adams greets us, lips curling up in a perpetual Cheshire cat smile that suggests a gourmet diet fortified by vintage wines. He pours us a taste of the 2008 Rock Island Red, a Meritage that proves to be a fitting start to a never-ending happy hour. My nose rejoices as the black cherry aroma commingles with black currant, followed by hints of vanilla bean, mocha and spices.

Source: The Province