2) Wine & Food: With the recent closing of five restaurants in Walla Walla (for an updated list of new hours and offerings, see our blog article), dinner reservations will be in short supply, so winemaker dinners are especially welcome. Check out the two evenings of Spring Release Winemaker Dinners happening at Waters Winery featuring Seattle Chef Tom Black. Price $75. For more info and to RSVP (509) 525-1590.

While at the airport this weekend, check out Skillet Street Food, a mobile Airstream kitchen. This Seattle-based eatery, recently featured in Time Magazine, will be serving up their awesome food at the Incubator wineries. The Incubator wineries now number five with CAVU Cellars and Kontos Cellars joining Adament Cellars, Trio Vintners and Lodmell Cellars.

3) Wine & Music into the night: Some wineries don’t wait for special weekends to rock!  Sapolil Cellars (Fridays and most Saturdays) and Dunham Cellar’s Hangar Lounge (Fridays) have live music every weekend until 10PM. Here are some other live music venues during Spring Release.

• Friday, May 1, Forgeron Cellars will feature Larry Wilson from 5-7PM.
• Saturday, Northwest Blues Diva McKenzie Page will be at Skylite Cellars from 11 – 4pm.
• Cougar Crest Winery features Mike Waggoner, Saturday, May 2nd, 6-9PM $10 Cover.

4) Wine & Golf: Walla Walla’s newest golf course, Wine Valley Golf Course is now open on Frenchtown Road just down from Long Shadows Vintners, also open this release weekend.

5) Art & Wine. Friday, May 1 is the first Friday of 2009 Artwalk, participating downtown galleries/wineries will be open until 8PM.

• Willow’s Gallery: Opening night for their new performance art piece “ Pandora’s Box”  5 – 8PM. Note: parental discretion advised
  
• Clay in Motion on Hwy 11 in Milton-Freewater is hosting winery Stella Fino on Saturday, May 2. The winery will also be open both days at their Stateline Road winery.

6) Wine & Brunch:  Three Rivers Winery once again hosts their club members’ brunch Sunday morning.  Forgeron Cellars has a Saturday brunch for their Anvil Club members and guests.  New! Northstar Winery is hosting a Sunday brunch open to everyone from 11AM-1PM. $25/$20 club. For more info & to RSVP 509 525-6100.

7) Wine & Chocolate:  Journey to Milton-Freewater for delectable Petit Noirs chocolates and meet one of the newest wineries in town, SuLei Cellars on their Spring Release debut.

Wine & Wheat: May is a perfect time to head out the Middle-Waitsburg Road and visit winemaker Jill Noble at Couvillion Winery. On the way to enjoying Jill’s wonderful wines, drink in the rolling hills of the Palouse and wheat fields that extend as far as the eye can see.

9) Wine & the stars: SYZYGY will be featuring an exciting new art exhibit~ the Astronomical works of Jon Lomberg, colleague of famed astronomer Carl Sagan. Lomberg designed animation for the film CONTACT and won an EMMY Award for his work on Sagan’s TV series COSMOS.

10) Our Farmers’ Market opens starts this weekend, Saturday and Sunday 9 AM- 1PM.

Most wineries will be open Friday through Sunday with special open houses & wine club events happening just about everywhere on Friday. Check out our event listings for more information. Celebrate Spring Release safely!