Kathryn Stevens
There are about 20 “tastings” in a bottle of wine. If you drink your share, it’s probably best to buy a bottle for home. Me like. Another reason: Owing to a freak sinus incident in the mid-’90s, I have no sense of smell. With a proboscis like mine, I can probe amazingly deep into that goblet and sniff like a Hoover, but still there’s nothing. I may as well be smelling
deep space. And finally there’s the ritual. The sniff and swirl and spit and such are like the sacraments of some obscure cult. I cannot remember the order in which they’re performed, or for that matter, the reason they’re performed at all. I worry
about unintentionally offending — or worse, amusing — the high priest doing the pouring, and the other practitioners next to me at the altar. But despite all this, I loves me my wine. So I decided to seek help getting over my vinous anxiety disorder from a couple of nice people who know their way around this highest calling of the grape. Craig Mitrakul has crafted wines in New York, Australia, Oregon and Washington, and with wife Danielle owns Crayelle Cellars, a small family winery in Cashmere. Laura Mrachek, with husband Mike, owns the picturesque Saint Laurent Winery in Malaga, which uses grapes from the Malaga estate and from a 260acre vineyard on the Wahluke Slope. Both Laura and Craig had similar advice for anyone who shares my uneasiness at the tasting bar: Just relax and be comfortable with your wine knowledge, even if it’s based on total ignorance. “It’s better to just admit you’re not a
Wine Tasting
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3875 Hwy. 97A Chelan, WA • (509) 682-9463 www.tsillancellars.com November / December 2012
Foothills
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