Trillium Creek Winery is a treat for the whole family

I ventured to the Key Peninsula with some girlfriends and our families recently for a bit of food n' fun with the friends, and part of our day of R&R on the beach in Home (gotta say it: FORMER nudist colony ...) was to visit the very nearby Trillium Creek Winery. Wow -- it might be available at the Thursday downtown farmers market in Tacoma, but I HIGHLY recommend making the trek across the Purdy Spit for a tour and free tasting, all very family friendly (though the kids get to play with toys, not taste wine).

The winery is very, very new ... and the owners are very, very kind, generous and knowledgeable. (Check out their website for some great details.) We scheduled a tour, and seven of the nine adults, and five of the 10 children joined Claudia as she taught us about the different grape varietals, pruning of the vines, why vines at the bottom of the hill weren't as lush as at the top of the hill. We got to see how they kept the deer away, the hand-crank label applier, we watched them bottle, we heard about why steel vs. oak. All kinds of stuff.

Then we settled down for the day's FREE wine tasting menu. The kids played in the corner with a pile of toys waiting while we adults sat at the small bar and listened as Claude told us about how their Chardonnay is fruity rather than oaky, and how it would actually taste quite like champagne if they added the bubbles. Each wine was definitely a different take on the stuff you pick up at the grocery store, and by the end, our group bought enough to get FREE bottle to bring back to the beach house and share with the adults who stayed back with the rest of the rambunctious children. Oh, and did I mention cheese? We had spotted the many cheeses in the fridge and started asking questions, as we had many cheese-addicts among us. Claude pulled out a couple and fed us slivers of this and that with instructions to put them on our tongue and explore the flavors as the cheese warmed from health-department mandated temperatures. Fabulous. We bought a wheel ... or more.

It's fabulous to find a winery out on this side of the mountains that grow the grapes themselves, and they'd love to see others join the pack. So, if you're interested in starting a winery out in this neck of the woods ... ask Claudia about getting some clippings the next time she prunes grapes. Apparently all you have to do is stick them in the ground and watch them grow (and offer some TLC, of course, but she's pretty smart on sharing that info, too.)

Who knows, maybe in five to 10 years the South Sound will be the next Walla Walla/Yakima Valley/Willamette Valley wine country ... I won't complain.

Oh, and this fabulous wine comes at fabulous prices. It ain't three-buck Chuck, that's for sure, but for under $20 -- many closer to $10, you can pick up quite a bottle to savor. Check it out!