The title is erroneous right off the bat, but Clippertrip just doesn’t have the same ring to it as roadtrip.  The Clipper is the nautical vessel one takes from Seattle to Victoria. It is essentially a high-speed shrunken version of a ferry, though it feels eerily like an airplane inside.  In any case, the whole fam hopped the Clipper for the two hour jaunt up to Victoria for the weekend as I had a half marathon to run on Sunday.  We spent Saturday tooling around Victoria- this is a city I could really get into.  I pictured it as a quaint little burg lost in time. It actually was very cosmopolitan and wore the inevitable rustic charm that comes with being a seaside tourist town known for High Tea with understated cool.  Off the main drag, the shops were edgy and on-trend and the locals could not have been nicer. 

There were no dearth of dining options; however it being marathon weekend I knew I wanted to steer clear of the herds clamoring for plates of linguine in all the Italian joints, so I chose French.  This may not have been the wisest meal to consume the night before running 13.1 miles, but I was very happy with my time so I’ll leave carbo-loading to those who wish to indulge in bland potatoes and limp noodles.  We selected Matisse based on its reputation as one of the finer French restaurants in town, and we came away quite pleased. 

The first thing you need to know about Matisse is that John Phillips is the heart and soul of the place.  From the moment you walk in the door and he personally removes your jacket, it is obvious he is not a lackluster waiter whittling down the hours until his shift ends.  Despite the fact that he owns the place and has plenty of laurels to rest on (Exxon Mobil 4 star rating, et cetera), he works the room like a new president on his first day in office.  No detail is too small, and his perfectionist tendencies translate to an unbeatable meal you’re not likely to come by easily elsewhere.  He started us off unprompted with an aperitif called Pineau; if you have not had this amazing drink, go out and find it!!! Pineau accidentally originated in the sixteenth century when some daft servant wrongfully put grape juice in some old Cognac barrels.  The grape juice fermented, became naturally fortified from the cognac, and ultimately went on to be one of the most popular aperitifs from the Charentes region in Southwest France.  It comes in both a white and a red version, and oddly enough I preferred the white, which NEVER happens.  I should clarify that the “white” is actually a lovely caramel color, and the taste is like a perfect blend of passito, vin santo and amontillado thrown in for good measure.  What a scrummy way to start a meal!

Next off was a delectable amuse bouche of smoked albacore tuna with tobiko roe and crème fraiche- Damn the size of these amuse bouches, give me a tray of these babies to nosh on, already.  Because John had proven to “get” us wine-wise when he brought out the Pineau, we let him pair wines for the rest of the meal.  I rarely if ever relinquish my wine-rights, especially after having known someone for five minutes, but the man is solid.  He kept the white stuff away (I hate it when you say you don’t like white wine and someone spends the rest of the night trying to prove that there is a decent white out there!) and the red flowing freely, nailing nearly every course.  At this point my tasting notes falter in terms of wine- everything was just so good I had to stop madly pecking into my iPhone and sit back and enjoy what was in front of me.

Next up, elegant escargots presented beautifully in a small Le Creuset Cocotte.  They were divine, in a shallot-y, herbed buttery smooth sauce that I plan to recreate at home. 

The only course that was just so/so was the lobster bisque I had next.  I was oscillating between that and some greens, so perhaps I was latently craving roughage, but the soup did not blow me away.  The filet mignon erased any hint of a misstep, however; one bite and I was back in Matisse bliss.  Jonas had venison and he could not stop talking about how melt-in-your-mouth tasty it was.  He offered me a nibble toward the beginning and I’m glad I got in while I did because his plate disappeared in a few short and satisfied moments. 

At that point no dessert was really necessary and I was starting to think about all those kilometers I’d be running the next day- 21, whew.  John would not have any of our hemming and hawing, however, and he brought us out the two specialties of the house, mousse au chocolat and crème brulee. 

 Classic, yes, but presentation and execution are what matters and Matisse certainly did not disappoint.  Fresh, amusing, lovely on the plate and palate, both takes on French tradition soared.  I do hate to cut a good evening short, but alas, dear readers, 5 am comes rather too early for me, so we rolled out of Matisse fat, happy and ready for bed.

In recent years, there has been a frenzied scramble to convert once-lucrative but now too-costly-to-maintain fruit orchards into money-making vineyards in Washington State.  Because economics was the driving factor behind many of these conversions, we saw a lot of behemoth production facilities churning out “approachable” wines (read: sweet, white cheap stuff) from immature vines in order to cash in on the wine craze perpetuated by films such as Sideways.  Touring wine country has never been easier, with the Napa Valley adopting the Disneyland for Oenophiles approach charging upwards of $20 per tasting at movie star-owned estate vineyards reachable by stretch limo, train, and I’m sure eventually hovercraft.  I imagine plans for a wine-themed park complete with a floating river of red called the Merlot Meander.  States beyond California are quickly following suit, and Washington is no exception.  I see the fundamental difference between the vineyards in the U.S. and those of the great winemaking regions in France, Italy, and Spain as time.  There is simply no way to rival the old world in terms of established character, which is not to say we cannot produce world-caliber wines, which we certainly do.  We simply need to be mindful not to turn the experience into a soulless affair more about pumping out bottles of two buck chuck than great Brunello.

I recently had the opportunity to do a wine tour of Washington’s premier growing destinations in Zillah and Prosser.  It becomes apparent rather quickly that there is some contention in the Yakima valley wine community, given the fact that there are two separate organizations of vineyards that do not recognize one another nor put vineyards outside their organization on their marketing handout maps.  Wine tasting in Prosser is like walking through a strip mall wherein every store is actually a tasting room– literally.  There are essentially two groupings of tasting rooms nestled quaintly (ha!) beside each of the corresponding freeway exits for the town.  One grouping is a stone’s throw from a roadside trucker’s motel, and from the other you can taste wine while listening to the soothing sound of Interstate 82 buzz past.  To say the tasting experience lacks character would be an understatement.  There is one important exception in the boutique tasting room operated out of a quaint home in the heart of actual downtown Prosser called Hinzerling Winery.  They’ve been around since 1976, a long time relatively considering their cohort, and it shows.  They produce some of the finest fortified wines I’ve tasted this side of the Atlantic, but on a very limited scale with the focus on quality.  In fact getting them to actually sell a bottle of something is like trying to get Sarah Palin away from the media- they just don’t want to part with such good stuff!

Zillah is 20 minutes and a world away from Prosser in terms of the wine experience.  The tasting rooms are for the most part located on the vineyards, and you reach them via stunning country roads that wind through lush vineyards and orchards.  You can even do a tasting tour on horseback, which is not to be missed! The standout winery in Zillah is undoubtedly Cultura Wine.  Cultura released its first vintage in 2005, a small production of 180 cases.  By 2008 they were up to 600, so while the growth is there, the focus is very obviously on putting out superior, classy wines.

I had the great pleasure of meeting the winemakers Tad and Sarah Fewel- not a drop of pretension exists in either of them and they simply could not have been more gracious.  I desperately wanted to go to Cultura after the proprietors of the Bed and Breakfast we were staying at heard we were grilling rack of lamb for dinner and gave us a bottle of Cultura’s mythical, sold-out 2006 Cabernet Franc as a perfect pairing.  One sip, with or without the lamb, was all it took to get me begging Sarah to let us come by and see what they were up to over at Cultura!  Sarah kindly agreed to open the tasting room for us despite it being typically closed on Thursday.  The moment I walked through the front door, the attention to detail was obvious, from their waxed bottle tops hand-dipped by Tad himself to the meticulous layout and labeling of their oak barrels.

They did not have a lot of stock on hand, as with their limited production, wine flies off the shelves, but everything we did taste was exceptional.  Despite the Cab Franc being sold out, Sarah was able to rustle up a few bottles for us and I cannot say enough good things about this wine.   I would hardly expect gentle, soft character out of a single varietal bottle of Cab Franc, so I was heartily surprised to find it herein.  I won’t presume to fill your head with notes of cassis and chocolatey finishes, but I will say that it’s been three days and I can still taste the smooth buttery velvet of that wine gliding past my palate.

We also had the chance to sip a glass of an “05 blend of Cab Franc and Merlot while we toured the winery, which made it’s way into our pile of purchases as well, and of that wine I would say that Sarah’s raw talent shines through in perfecting an ideal blend.  It is apparent at Cultura that the winemakers are involved in every step of the process, from plucking the vines to designing the labels, and the fact that they care so much really shows in the depth and presence of their wine.  As with cooking, it is the same in winemaking that if you put love, emotion and passion into the process the end result will shine.  Someone could follow the exact process in a clinical, non-committed fashion and the end result would be an inferior wine.  The love is there at Cultura, and it shows!

Cultura is releasing five new wines on October 3^rd at what promises to be the most fabulous release party in recent memory- I would urge you to stop by if you’re in need of some sunshine and fine wine.