Blue Mountain Cider Company

Just like the old Doublemint gum jingle “Double your pleasure, Double your fun …,” Watermill Winery & Blue Mountain Cider Company offers twice the tasting pleasure with two tasting rooms in one. Here, you can savor noble wine varietals while also sampling refreshing hard cider. It’s all under one roof in a renovated tasting room, complete with a private dining area and a full-service kitchen.

Watermill Winery is located just 10 miles south of Walla Walla in the historic town of Milton-Freewater. The tasting room is actually a diminutive structure near the front of the property with the many-storied Watermill Building dominating the property in the back. With plenty of space for wine production and storage, capacity is clearly not an issue here.

Perhaps the Brown family, who owns the winery and cider house, will elect to ramp up production in the future, but right now they seem content to rack up awards. Their 2005 Midnight Red Walla Walla Valley Bordeaux blend just took home the double gold from the 2008 San Francisco Wine Competition. I took one sip and a sale was made. Their 2005 Reserve Syrah also received 90 points from Wine Enthusiast.

Watermill Winery’s future looks promising, because it has the three essential ingredients for success: exceptional vineyards, advanced winemaking equipment and facilities, and a skilled and experienced winemaker, Richard Funk (of nearby Saviah Cellars). But perhaps the most important ingredient is this family’s sense of unity and their devotion to the land and history of this unique part of the Walla Walla Valley. You feel this passion at the winery. The Browns also have a strong sense of responsibility toward the environment, paying strict attention to eco-friendly, organic practices in managing Anna Marie Vineyard, McClellen Estate Vineyard, and Watermill Estate Vineyard.

The Blue Mountain Cider was a surprise find when I visited on a hot August day. Though a hardship to walk the 6 feet from the wine-tasting bar to the cider-tasting bar, I somehow managed. The hard cider has less alcohol than its wine counterpart and clearly delivers on taste and refreshment. It’s perfect by itself or paired with a summer salad or barbecue. My favorite was the carbonated Cherry Hard Apple Cider, created from a blending process of five types of local apples and a splash of tart cherry freshness. A sip of this and I was reaching for my wallet a second time!