03/20/08 The Idaho winery tour bus

Patty Johnson is about a month away from launching her new business, Snake River Cuisine Tours. Beginning on April 19th, her daylong tours will take 25 to 30 visitors to Idaho's wine country. JOHNSON "And then we've signed up of course a whole group of wineries to participate with us as we book tours. We've gathered them in and gotten their agreement about what we're doing." Centered mostly in Canyon and Ada counties the Saturday public tours also include stops at Market Limone in Nampa, a gourmet lunch, cooking demonstrations, local producer markets and herb gardens. Johnson says she's planning custom tours by adding restaurants and other allied partners such as agricultural producers. JOHNSON "We think food and wine go together obviously very well and we think it's going to be helpful for the wineries as well to get their word out." Several other states have similar tours and the Idaho Grape Growers and Wine Producers Commission gets calls every month from people interested in winery touring. In addition to serving that niche market for the public Johnson hopes to link up with convention and conference groups or with people coming to the Boise Valley for athletic events. If you're interested in more information the Snake River Cuisine Tour website is srctours.com. Today's Idaho Ag News Bill Scott