Washington Hills, Lowell-Hunt Present New Reasons to be Thankful

By Kathy Ward

With Thanksgiving fast closing in, it's time to talk turkey about wines for your holiday feast. Let's discuss it at the November program. Washington Hills Cellars will present excellent choices in a tasting card sure to whet your appetite with quintessential matches for the traditional meal.

Paired with Lowell-Hunt Catering food selections, the program promises VIP status for all. That's not Very Important Poultry by the way - it's celebrity treatment, the kind that chefs Russell Lowell and Jonathan Hunt have provided in catered events for President Clinton and First Lady Hillary, Nelson Mandela, and the Martha Stewart, to name-drop a few.

Winemaker Brian Carter and Harry Alhadeff, founders of Washington Hills Cellars in Sunnyside in the heart of the Yakima Valley, last presented their wines at a March 1997 Enological Society program. They'll again be guest speakers guiding us through a tasting of recent selections. The wide variety of their wines under three distinct labels are adaptable to a range of holiday foods.

Brian, twice a winner of Washington magazine's Winemaker of the Year award, also has been recognized as a patriarch of the industry with an Alex Bayless Award for his contributions to establishing the state as a world-class wine producer. He has great enthusiasm for varietally distinct Cabernet Franc, as well as the Rhone varietals Syrah and Viognier grown in the Columbia Valley, which are becoming increasingly more plentiful and popular.

"Syrah is softer and offers a new taste range that Bordeaux doesn't," Brian explains. If you want to take a bottle of wine to a dinner party and don't know what's on the menu, he advises taking a Syrah as it will go with a wider variety of foods - steak, pasta, chicken and more.

He also notes that the Rosé of Cabernet Franc, crafted dry in a French Loire Valley style and with loads of sweet berry aromas, is particularly versatile for a Thanksgiving menu.

"We consider wine a food and we like highlighting our wines with foods," Brian adds. "Finding great food and wine matches is fun as well as intellectually and sensually rewarding." Indicative of a commitment to food and wine combinations, they've built a kitchen at the winery where an exclusive chef does winemaker dinners and private dinner parties.

Hunt For the Best

Food selections on the November tasting card are from the Lowell-Hunt signature Elk Camp menu, where white linen and candlelight banquets tented in the wild beauty of old growth forests cater to the clients' choices. Russell and Jonathan have been creating these and other memorable catering affairs since they teamed up to form their company in 1994.

Russell believes the difference between satisfactory and successful lies in the details of an event. His detailed touch for our program menu will include the best foods available prepared with artful presentation such as organic flower garnishes.

Come be thankful for fine wine and good food at the St. Demetrios Cultural Center in Seattle on November 8. There also will be a bounty of door prize drawings. Doors open at 7 p.m. and the program begins promptly at 7:30. Reservations are not necessary. The cost is $10 for members, $15 for guests.

New members who join the Enological Society for the first time the night of the program get a free wineglass. Others should bring their own glass - better yet, two for comparative tasting. Plastic cups are provided. Society logo glasses can be purchased at the meeting.