09/10/07 Lake Chelan Pt. 1

Welcome to Vine to Wine this is your host Linda Moran. Last week I spent a few days in the north central part of Washington state touring and tasting on the shores of Lake Chelan. Today we begin a series about this burgeoning wine country. I like to visit major wine regions in my home state of Washington. The number of wineries has increased rapidly in the past 5 years so I find surprises everywhere, not the least of which was my surprise on a recent visit to Lake Chelan Washington. This area has always been known for growing spectacular apples and now some of those orchards have vineyards as their neighbors. Lake Chelan is one of the top three deepest Lakes in the nation. It is a 55 mile lake formed by glaciers and fed by mountain snow pack. In the area surrounding the Lake there are currently about 13 wineries open for business and three or four more slated to open soon. If you want to experience wine country in all of its most hospitable state go now or in the next few years. Right now in all but one or two cases I walked in and was able to chat with one of the winery principles. Now, you may ask, what about the wines? Well this is the great part. Overall - the wines were good and some of them were reeeeally good. Many of the wineries were producing very excellent unoaked Chardonnay. I also had some amazing Gewurztraminer and Gewurz blended wines. I felt as though each of the wineries I visited was distinctly different. Join me tomorrow as we continue this series about the Lake Chelan wine region and thank you for joining me on today's Vine to Wine.