During the Wine Bloggers Conference on Friday night, there’s a thing called “Mystery Excursions.” You get a random, color ticket from the conference registration desk and at 5:15pm meet in the hotel lobby. The cool thing is you don’t know where you are going!
Once the groups were gathered by ticket color, we were loaded into different vehicles. Some folks got to jump in classic cars, our chariots were two white stretch limos! Think back to your prom. Yeah, that kind of limo. I wanted to open the sunroof and yell with my arms in the air — look at me! Perhaps I would have but I was still sober (lol). We tried to bribe the driver but all he had was an address. 
We drove down a long driveway, passing rows of vines on our left and delicious apples to our right. Still having no idea exactly where we were. Maybe we missed the sign? The limos stop at a white building that looked like a large storage shed. We piled out the limos and entered the building through big sliding doors. It was really lovely inside! As I scanned the room, I saw lights hanging from the ceiling, crisp white linens and sunflowers and grape clusters being used as interesting centerpieces. And of course wine.
The menu on the table not only announced that the food was catered by Fat Olives but our dinner was being hosted by Watermill Winery. Finally, we knew who our mystery excursion was with! Watermill Winery was “founded in 2005 by the Brown family of Milton-Freewater, commercial apple growers who have been farming in the Walla Walla Valley for more than a century.” Ahh, now the rows of apples make sense.
As we walked up to the makeshift bar, we are greeted by Alex, the Commercial Director for Watermill. He started with a pour of Blue Mountain Eden Ridge semi-sweet hard cider (a sister company). I took a sip but since I’m not really into cider, I decided to take a walk around the property. The loud sounds of gravel and rocks crunching under my feet. There are rows and rows of harvested vines. I think we are at the Watermill Vineyard (one of 7 vineyards) in the Rocks District. Though I’m not 100% sure.
Once everyone took their seat for dinner, the first course of Grilled Scallop Ceviche was served. Since there are 5 courses, I won’t go through the entire menu but I will say that the Lamb Ragout was my favorite with the cheese course as runner-up. During dinner, Alex poured Watermill’s Syrah, Tempranillo, Cabernet Franc and Mourvèdre. My favorite was Watermill’s new Estate label, the 2017 Hallowed Stones Cabernet Franc. This Cab Franc consists of half fruit from the Rocks District and the other half from Walla Walla.
After we thanked our hosts for dinner, we jumped back into the limos (content, full and slightly buzzed). We arrived back at the Marcus Whitman and in the lobby were groups of wine bloggers discussing their mystery excursions and which room was hosting the after party. There were some excellent excursions but I’m happy I got a pink ticket.
