Will be visiting Chelan, Washington.
Thinking about a drive down to Yakima/Horse Heaven Hills for some visits to wineries. But thought it might be fun to explore wineries around the area I will be visiting.
Does anyone have any insights into wineries in and around Chelan?
With the caveat that I have not visited since 2010, the only wineries I enjoyed on past visits were Nefarious Cellars and Fielding Hills. There’s been a bit of growth since then so hopefully others can give you better recs.
But Chelan is really beautiful and a great place to visit.
We were just there but it was a family vacation so no tasting. Folks who seemed enthusiastic about wine raved about Tsillan Cellars and Chelan Estate.
We did go to Lake Chelan Brewing Company in Manson and the beers were really solid, all made on premises too.
Ahhhh beer. Will look into that.
Thanks.
Was there a few weeks ago and went to 3 wineries with a large crowd (a College Fraternity reunion w/spouses, adult children):
Nefarious’ wines were quite good overall. From all I had heard, the best in the AVA.
Tsillian was good - much better than I anticipated; the reds were better than the whites. I also hosted a Dinner there and the on-site restaurant, Sorrento’s was also very good - perhaps the best and most upscale in the area.
Karma Cellars does a great job at hospitality. Their wines are crowd pleasers though not my style.
The drive to/from Yakima is longer than it looks; it’s beautiful but lots of twists, turns and elevation changes. Mostly 2 lane roads so if you are unlucky regarding trucks it can take a while. Thus, if you plan to make the drive and return to Chelan afterward, I would limit the number of stops you plan.
Avoid the drive to Yakima from the south at all costs, road is a disaster. Once north of Yakima it’s way more pleasant but still a ways to Chelan.
Thank you all for the suggestions. Looks like there will be some wineries worth exploring near Chelan plus will check out the local brewery.
Here’s a video on the establishment of the Lake Chelan AVA:
I like the name of the winery Long Road to Hoe. 
The area you are visiting apparently has a decent number of wineries. I just remember the place from my hours spent playing “Microsoft Flight Sim X”.
So far, I have visited Nefarious, Radiance, Chelan Ridge, Cairdeas, Tsillian, Hard Row to Hoe, and Fielding Hills.
Enjoyable visits and the wineries are new, clean and offer beautiful vistas of the lake (clouded a bit from smoke haze from wildfires up in Canada). Lots of varieties of wines being made and the tasting rooms are focused on accommodating visitors. Scenery is spectacular. Vineyards planted alongside expansive apple orchards.
Few of the wineries offer estate wines. Many are bringng in grapes from Columbia Valley and Yakima valley in particular.
I will post my thoughts on the wines in Wine Talk when I have a chance.
Cairdeas has some interesting things going on with its vineyard work.
From a series of emails I exchanged with Charlie there:
3/08/16:
"We made Alicante Bouschet in 2014, 2015 and plan on making it again 2016.
"We haven’t experimented with what we are going to do with it yet (as far as blending) but I anticipate it will either be a varietal bottling or be dominant in the blend.
"We will be blending and bottling our 2014s sometime this summer so by fall we should have something available and we will update our site as soon as that is ready.
“You may also want to check out our Tri blend as it is Mourvedre heavy (42%).”
7/30/2016:
"We are experimenting with some crazy ones! On our property we have:
"Clairette Blanche - Clairette blanche - Wikipedia (we are the second vineyard in WA to grow this varietal)
"Picardan - Picardan - Wikipedia (a cross between Clairette and Picpoul Blanc, we are the only vineyard in WA state to have this varietal that we know of)
"We also grow Syrah. While not a rare varietal we are growing it in an old-school French style. Vine spacing is 3x3 meaning we plant 4000 vines per acre (vs about 1000 per acre on a VSP trellis). We are head training the vines in the Goblet style (bushvine). It should look something like this when the vines mature -
“Some other more rare Rhône varietals that we use are Picpoul Blanc, Cinsault, Counoise. Alicante isn’t a Rhône but we have been playing with that one too over the last 3 vintages. It definitely makes and interesting wine.”[/i]
7/30/2016:
“oh and originally you mentioned Carignan. We are planting an acre of that one this spring!”
You know that last tidbit got me excited! 