Another perk to the Midtowner Motel is that there is a diner with breakfast right across the street called The Apple Cup Cafe. It has classic diner fare, everything you would expect for breakfast at a diner. The food was pretty good. Paddy had a chicken fried steak, and I had a house-made biscuit with sausage gravy and two scrambled eggs. They serve local Blue Star Coffee, which was watery in the classic diner fashion but good.

After breakfast, we headed out to Orondo to check out their “Cider Fest” happening that day. Orondo is a small town about a 15 minute drive along the Columbia River from Chelan. There isn’t a lot going on in the town, but the drive is beautiful and Orondo Cider Works is worth a stop.

Apples are grown and picked from the orchards on the large property, and pressed on site. There is a viewing window into the pressing room allowing you to watch how it is made while enjoying a cup of cider and a fresh house-made doughnut.

Apples are inspected and bad parts removed, and then loaded onto a conveyor belt tube into a sort of “wood chipper” type machine. They are ground up and dropped onto a cloth on a plastic square, spread out and wrapped up with another square put on top for the next batch. The process is repeated until a stack of squares is achieved, and then they are moved underneath the press, which comes down and presses down on the stack until all the juice has poured out of the apples and down into a vat.

Inside the store, pumpkin doughnuts and cider doughnuts are fried and then sold up at the front counter.

We got a cup of hot spiced cider and a cider doughnut each and sat out at the picnic table watching the festival set up. There wasn’t much up yet, but families with kids kept pouring in. It looked like later there would be BBQ and live music.

We were hoping to taste the hard cider made on site, but they weren’t quite set up yet at the time the program said they would. As more screaming children poured onto the property, we decided just to head on to wine tasting with grown-ups.

Another 15  minute drive north on the 97 past Chelan, is Rio Vista Winery on the Columbia River. The signage isn’t great for Rio Vista, and we missed it at first and had to turn around. It is in between mile post 243 and 244, which is the easiest way to look for it.

We showed up about 15 minutes before the tasting room opened, so I walked up near the road and took some photos while we waited. I’m always in awe of the stark contrast between Eastern and Western Washington. So green on one side and dry, arid desert on the other.

The winery has two very friendly dogs, who were excitedly bringing a ball to all arriving guests in hopes they would play. Paddy indulged them for a few minutes.

The tasting room offered three tastes complimentary, or 6 for $5.00. We tasted three–the Cabernet, Pinot Noir, and the Loony Red.  Our favorite was the 2011 Pinot Noir, a very full bodied red that we would have bought a bottle of if it hadn’t been for the $42.00 price tag. It was possibly the best one we tasted all weekend, and now we’re kind of wondering if we should have just splurged on a bottle. Chelan Crush goers began pouring into the tiny tasting room and it was quickly very crowded. We moved on, thanking the winemaker for the complimentary tastes.

We headed back to the lake, through Chelan and up to Manson, WA on the north side of Lake Chelan. Our next stop on our Chelan Crush tour was Hard Row to Hoe Vineyards.

When we arrived, they were in the midst of crushing grapes (no stomping in wooden barrels these days, think stainless vats and machines). The tasting room was busy, and pretty eccentric. They had an 1800’s French brothel decor theme going on, which I thoroughly enjoyed. They had a collection of wines called “Shameless Hussy” that weren’t available for tasting that day, but were prominently displayed for purchase. When we mentioned that we liked their style, the lady pouring our tastings made sure that we didn’t miss the wallpaper, which is quite scandalous up close. She said the owners imported it all the way from Belgium. I would have done the same thing. She told me that there was something more scandalous in the ladies’ room, but unfortunately I acquired a wine tasting buzz and forgot to check it out.

The tasting fee at Hard Row to Hoe is $10.00 per person, which is kind of ridiculous. All the wineries we’ve been to have had a tasting fee of $5.00 per person, often waived if at least one bottle of wine is purchased. The fee is waived here if a bottle is purchased, but it has to be one bottle per taster. We enjoyed their Cabernet Franc and their Sangiovese.  We also enjoyed their Gewurztraminer, which was a bit sweet but had a nice fruity finish. The lady helping us mentioned that the Gewurztraminer goes well with Thanksgiving dinner, and I can definitely see it pairing well with turkey and cranberry sauce. We purchased a bottle of the 2012 Sangiovese and paid one tasting fee, as their bottle prices were also a little steep. This winery is worth visiting for the high fun factor and good wines, but bring your wallet and be prepared to put a dent in it.

We moved onto Cairdeas Winery at the recommendation of our friendly wine server at Hard Row. Cairdeas (pronounced Car-Dess) is Gaelic for friendship or alliance. They have several very unique wine blends and a small, rustic tasting room with very friendly servers.

We enjoyed the MV Tri-3 and the Counoise the most, and Paddy purchased a bottle of the 2012 Counoise, which was our favorite.

The winds picked up outside considerably, and the sun went away for a little bit. It was pretty blustery. We walked next door to Lake Chelan Winery, which we had visited on our last trip to Chelan. They advertised Chelan Crush festivities including grape stomping and BBQ. We were hungry, and decided that eating something would be best before continuing any wine tasting as we were driving.

The BBQ menu at Lake Chelan Winery looked good, but at $16-$23 a plate, it was more than we wanted to spend. Near the BBQ area were two wooden grape stomping barrels being cleaned out by a young girl, after a couple of women had recently done the grape stomp and were washing their feet in a nearby bucket. Stomping grapes was one of my priorities on this trip, but as we watched the poor girl clean out grape guts for the next person, with no celebratory flair to the event in the gray, windy weather, it just felt kind of pointless. They don’t use the juice from stomping, it’s more symbolic than anything else. Perhaps it was more festive earlier in the day. We opted to skip it and save the girl the trouble of cleaning up another mess for now.

Food was our main priority, so we headed back to town for lunch. Since the Tin Lilly had been so busy the night before, we decided to pop in and see what the fuss was about. The decor was unique, and they had a very nice back patio which I’m sure is great in the summer. I had the Roadrunner chicken burger with avocado, chicken breast, cheese, tomato, lettuce, and bacon. Paddy had the Buffalo Bleu Bill chicken burger with buffalo sauce and blue cheese. They were reasonably priced and came with hand cut fries, which were delicious.

Neither of us felt like we could continue wine tasting and safely operate a vehicle, so we headed back to the room to relax for awhile. I think if we were do do this again, we would try to arrange a winery tour shuttle. We saw a couple of them at the wineries–Kokopelli’s Run and Chelan Tours. I’m not sure if you can jump on a shuttle with another group or if you have to rent the whole thing as a group, but they are worth checking out if you don’t have a designated driver who hates wine. Also an option for a larger group is Chelan Limo.

For dinner we had made a reservation at Vin Du Lac Winery, which was a short drive away. We arranged a taxi with the surly woman at Chelan Cab, which was $10.00 each way. We wanted to be able to have more wine with dinner and not have to worry about driving. Chelan Cab can be reached at (509) 682-8294.  Our driver said that during the summer and on busy weekends they bring in Yellow Cab from Wenatchee, but this weekend and in the off season it is just her. She had been pretty busy that evening. She told us she could offer a private winery tour for $40.00 an hour. Too expensive for us that weekend, but it is another transportation option.

We had been to Vin Du Lac Winery for wine tasting on our last trip to Chelan. They had Chelan Crush festivities that day as well, we saw the remains of a pumpkin painting table for children and two grape stomping barrels on their patio. Their patio is really nice in the summer, surrounded by the vineyard with bistro string lights and a lovely view of the lake from their hillside location.

It was too windy and chilly to eat on the patio that night, so we ate indoors. The indoor dining area is cozy and they had a man playing guitar. The lighting was kind of bad–overhead lighting that was way too bright. There was a nice little mason jar candle at our table which was a nice touch, but it was burnt out.

Our waitress was very young and inexperienced, but very nice. She brought us some tasting pours of a few wines for us to try before we ordered a bottle. A nice advantage to eating at a winery. You can also order a wine flight of three different wines in small pours, but larger than tasting pours for the price of a single glass of wine. This is a nice way to get to know the wines.

We tried the Syrah, the Cabernet, and the Pinot Noir. The 2009 Barrel Select Syrah won us over hands down. It was very nice and Paddy said that it went perfectly with the steak that he ordered.

As an appetizer, we shared the duck and pheasant pate with foie gras mousse and cranberry sauce. It was very tasty and came with toast, greens coated in a vinaigrette dressing, sweet gherkins, and grapes. The chef came out into the dining room to check on the diners, and gave us some pointers on how he likes to eat the pate appetizer–on toast with a little smear of cranberry and a pickle on top. We tried it, and can vouch for his recommendation.

For dinner I had the scallops with risotto in a creamy vermouth sauce, and Paddy had the rib eye seasoned with their house rub, vegetables, and mashed potatoes. He said his steak was cooked perfectly as ordered, and was very tasty. My scallops were also cooked perfectly, although the risotto tasted more cheesy than creamy and I didn’t get much vermouth flavor from the scallop sauce or the risotto. The flavor was great though and I’m not a huge vermouth fan so this was fine with me.

 Overall the food prices here were pretty reasonable for what you get. We would recommend it. I think it might be best in the summer on the patio though if you are looking for atmosphere.

The next morning we got an early start, checked out and decided to try the Riverwalk Cafe for breakfast before heading out of town. Service is order at the counter, and they bring the food out to you when it’s ready. Their menu consisted of organic, locally sourced ingredients and healthy options such as fruit cups and nitrate-free bacon.

I had the So-Em Scramble, which had eggs, chicken sausage, bell pepper, rosemary red potatoes, sharp cheddar cheese, and fresh tomatoes. Paddy had the Stormy Scramble, which had chicken sausage, onion, mushroom, spinach, parmesan cheese and sour cream on top. Both came with toast, homemade jam, and a fruit cup.

The local Blue Star Coffee was excellent and there was complimentary lemon-cucumber water in addition to regular water on a self-serve counter. Paddy’s orange juice was fresh squeezed.

After breakfast we bid goodbye to Chelan and headed home. We decided to take Highway 2 back instead of the 97 and I-90, and we were glad we did. The fall color was gorgeous on Highway 2.

 

So far we’ve been to 6 out of 27 wineries in Chelan, and would love to come back and do the Chelan Crush again, possibly arranging a shuttle so that we can visit more than just a couple wineries at a time. The restaurant options in Chelan are a lot better than in Leavenworth and the Zillah/Toppenish areas in Washington where we have been wine tasting in before. If wine is your thing, head to Chelan in the off-season when the prices are low and the crowds are gone. There is plenty of wine and good food to try.