24 July - Arbor Crest Winery

24 July
Late morning we headed to Arbor Crest Wine Cellars in the north part of Spokane Valley.

As we parked and headed towards the estate, we passed cherry trees and some vineyards.  Talking with the owner, they are basically for show.  They do not use grapes or fruit from here to produce their wines.  The soil here is not conducive to growing grapes of the quality needed for great wines.  

This is an amazing place located 450 feet above the Spokane River and provides incredible views of  Liberty Lake, the Spokane Valley, and Downtown Spokane.   It is actually the Cliff House Estate which was built in 1924.  

The Cliff House

The Cliff House is a three-story Florentine mansion which served as the builder's home for over 45 years. Other structures on the property include an arched gatehouse, stone workshop, over four acres of terraced gardens, two and a half acres of vineyards and orchards, a life-sized checkerboard, and a 6,000 gallon swimming pool which was carved from the basalt landscape.  We were told the interior of the home was destroyed by fire in 2009 and then completely rebuilt.

Arched gatehouse

Stone workshop

Old Glory flying high

A circular covered patio adjacent to the house

Inside the circular covered patio

Jethro's cement pond!

Outdoor checkers

Some scenery views from the house area:

Spokane river, looking south

Another view of the river with Spokane in the distance

Surrounded by flower gardens

 We headed back through the arched gatehouse towards the tasting building.

Various wines are available to sample and purchase.  They also have food available as well.

Doreen sampling some wines.  You can choose from various "flights" of four wines for $10 which is very reasonable compared to Napa.

This facility is used extensively for weddings and wine tasting events.  In the summer, on Sundays and Thursdays they have concerts.  Do to our schedule here we were unsure we could be here Thursday night, and we will be gone by Sunday, so we opted to visit today. It was a great time and Doreen purchased a bottle of their Riesling. This wine is made from White Riesling grapes sourced solely from the Dionysus Vineyard in the Columbia Valley.

Not much else today.  Tomorrow morning at 1030 hrs we are tubing the Spokane River!  It's a couple hours on the river, so we will apply copious amounts of sunscreen as them forecast is sunny and warm with highs in the 90's!