This Quiet City In Washington's Yakima Valley Is The Perfect Basecamp For Wine Tastings And Mountain Views

When most people think of New World wines in America, they picture cabernet sauvignon from California's Napa Valley or pinot noir from Oregon's Willamette Valley. However, wine is pickier about latitude than about reputation. According to the Wine & Spirit Education Trust, nearly all the world's wine grapes grow inside one narrow band of the globe, between 30 and 50 degrees latitude on either side of the equator. Napa is in it. So is Bordeaux. And at about 46 degrees north, so is Grandview, Washington, a high desert city of about 12,000 that most people have never thought of as wine country at all.

When the town site was platted in 1906, it was named for what the men behind it could see on a clear day: Mount Rainier, Mount Adams, and the nearby Snipes Mountain. The view still delivers. Both snow-capped volcanoes sit on the horizon to the west, with the Rattlesnake Hills to the north and the Horse Heaven Hills to the south. Snipes Mountain, the third peak in that original view, is now one of the valley's five appellations.

Grandview is a quiet small town near the middle of the Yakima Valley, on the 20-mile stretch between Sunnyside and Prosser. It's the quietest of the three, with a sleepy downtown lined with brick buildings, as well as a tasting room where the wine is poured by the students who made it.

Washington is the country's second-largest wine producer, and more than half of its wine grapes come from the 17,000-acre Yakima Valley. Here you'll find nearly 100 wineries and five American Viticultural Areas packed into roughly 70 miles. The most interesting glass of wine might be poured by someone who hasn't graduated yet.

Grandview's must-stop pour is Yakima Valley Vintners, the teaching winery for Yakima Valley College's Grandview campus. Students in the Vineyard and Winery Technology program handle the crushing, blending, and bottling, then pour the fruits of their labor in the public tasting room. Tripadvisor reviewers have mentioned that they were impressed by the students' knowledge. Book before you go: the Grandview tasting room at 110 Grandridge Road is reservation-only, though the same program pours at the college's Yakima campus tasting room on Fridays and Saturdays from noon to 5 p.m.

Make a day of it. 15 minutes northwest in in the small farming city of Sunnyside, Co Dinn Cellars pours in a 1930s industrial building that used to house the city water department. You can visit from Friday through Sunday at noon to 5 p.m., or by appointment. Tastings run $30 at the time of writing, and one fee is waived if you buy two bottles. Known as the "Wine Capital of Washington," Prosser is a charming city with gorgeous vineyards. You can reach its 20-plus tasting rooms by driving about 15 minutes southeast of Grandview. The whole valley opens its barrel rooms during the last weekend in April for Spring Barrel Weekend. 

Fly into the Yakima Air Terminal (YKM) or Tri-Cities Airport (PSC), each less than 45 minutes from Grandview. While plenty of people may drive right past Grandview, the case for stopping is its position. In addition to Sunnyside and Prosser, you're about 25 minutes from Zillah, a delightfully quirky city outside Mount Rainier. This means that most of the Yakima Valley's tasting rooms are inside a half-hour of your home for the weekend. 

Settle into the peaceful romance of Cozy Rose Luxury Inn, where your stay includes private jacuzzis, 6 acres of gardens, and breakfast delivered straight to your patio. You can come in late September for the Central Washington State Fair or in October for the Fresh Hop Ale Festival, both of which are about 40 miles away in Yakima.

Make sure to eat out on Wine Country Road. The 10-4 Cafe serves hearty breakfast off I-82, and down the street, Taqueria Tepeque cooks up tacos al pastor and morisqueta. Between tastings and bites, visit the Grandview Museum, where you can find a 19th century side saddle, veterans' displays, antique clocks, and a vintage Kiblinger automobile from around 1900. The brick storefronts are worth a lap too. Division Street features the E.O. Keck Building (1910), the Iowa Building (1911), and the Neoclassical Grandview State Bank (1918).