A couple of days ago, I was treated to the damnedest collection of taste sensations I’ve experienced in a long time. As mentioned in one of these columns a few weeks ago, I’ve experimented with a wide variety of wines and refined my preference accordingly, but I was completely unprepared for the vino I stumbled across that particular afternoon.
But I’m getting ahead of myself.
I’d stopped by the Rockridge Orchards and Cidery about a mile outside Enumclaw on the Black Diamond highway (state Route 169). I hadn’t been in the place for several years. Of course, at base level it’s still a produce stand – a very elaborate produce stand – but, as I would soon discover, it has become so much more than that.
Wade and Judy Bennett have owned the place for the past 12 or 13 months. They buy most of their produce from farms on the Plateau or in the immediate King County region. However, since certain fruits, like oranges and lemons, aren’t grown around here, they have to be purchased in eastern Washington – or even, as a last resort, California. Wade buys most of his peaches in the Yakima area.
“Drop by late in the summer and I’ll give you a Sweet Dream peach from Yakima,” he said and his eyes shone with excitement. “I promise, you’ve never tasted anything like it!”
Much of the produce is grown on the Bennett’s farm and orchards near Westwood Elementary School. They grow apples, pears, plums, figs, walnuts and, strange enough, bamboo shoots that are sold to Japanese restaurants in Seattle. Most important to the central theme of this little narrative, they also cultivate raspberries, blackberries and two-and-a-half acres of grapes.
The Bennetts brew wine and sell it in their market, making their farm Enumclaw’s first official winery. In particular, they offer sweet wines, a variety of vino I hadn’t really explored. So, while I kicked back in the “tasting room,” Wade passed me several samples of after-dinner wines – raspberry, blackberry, strawberry and tayberry, a cross between raspberry and blackberry – and each and every one astonished and overwhelmed my taste buds. According to Wade, the Hilton Restaurant at 8th and Olive in Seattle used his tayberry wine to marinate poached pears, a dessert that will, he said, “knock your socks off!”
Wade also brews hard and soft cider. For the benefit of those who may be unfamiliar with these drinks, hard cider has been fermented and carries a moderate punch. Soft cider, on the other hand, is pure apple juice with a few added spices and tastes like apple pie. He also distills an apple brandy but, of course, he can’t sell this without running afoul of state and federal liquor control agents.
Wade sells his produce and wine, year around, in stalls at the Ballard, West Seattle, and University District farmers markets. During the summer, he has a booth in the Pike Place Market.
As I was leaving the business, Judy offered me a taste of her balsamic vinegar, a special concoction that takes seven years to create. It was only the smallest sample; no more than a quarter-inch in a tiny paper cup.
OMG! What an incredible, ravaging flavor. It still lingers in my mouth three days later.
