Northwest Specialties

Walla Walla onions are a natural variety of sweet white onions. The original seed for the onions was brought to Walla Walla in the late 1800s by a French soldier named Peter Pieri, who obtained the seeds of an Italian variety of sweet onion while in Corsica. He planted the seeds, and the onions proved sweet, and impressively winter hardy, that Pieri and other farmers continued to harvest and plant the variety. Over time, the onion growers hand selected the seeds for the largest, sweetest, and roundest onions, until Walla Walla onions emerged as a known and sought after variety.

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The only fresh sweet cherries we ever got in New England were Bing cherries. But the Northwest is very very lucky; cherries grow well in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Montana. The growing season starts around the first week of June, and, depending on the state and the variety of cherry, lasts until late August. Moreover, since cherries are more durable than, say, raspberries, they can be picked at the perfect point of ripeness, and shipped to grocers in about two days. Fortunately, the Northwest is also wealthy in terms of "you pick" farms, and local farmers' markets where local growers bring their just picked cherries to you.

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My introduction to Washington wines in California was via Rieslings from Hogue and Riesling rulesSte. Michelle. My mom was fond of German and South African Rieslings, so they made a good place to start exploring Washington wine. After moving to Washington, I started trying a variety of Rieslings, and discovered a certain fondness for dry Rieslings. In particular, I liked the Pacific Rim Dry Riesling, and, a few moments on their Website, led me to an invitation; send Pacific Rim my postal address, and they'd send me a copy of their Riesling Rules booklet. I've only just now gotten around to sitting down and carefully reading the entire thing. "The entire thing," of course is not that big; it's about 6'' x 4'', and 40 pages in length. It's a rather elegant chap book. The complete contents are available online, with comment links, but it's a rather different reading experience to sit down with a glass of Riesling and a book.

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I used to work dancing bull wineat a Southern California technology company three blocks from a Trader Joe's. One of the partners there, someone who, unlike me, knows a thing or twelve about wine, mentioned "Two Buck Chuck" as part of a joke at a company party. I asked him what it was; he explained. Another partner, also quite knowledgeable, told me that despite the reputation as a cheap bottle of wine, some of the Charles Shaw wines (better known "Two Buck Chuck") —he mentioned the Chardonnay in particular—are reliable, drinkable table wines. In 2004 at the 28th Annual International Eastern Wine Competition, the 2002 Charles Shaw Shiraz $1.99 a bottle outranked 2,300 other wines, winning the prestigious double gold medal. In 2007 the Charles Shaw $1.99 Chardonnay surpassed several rather more expensive, and better lineage Chardonnays in a well-respected California competition in 2007.

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