Clear blue skies! Light, cooling breezes! 88 degree temperatures. Only thing missing is a tempting ocean breeze. We spent the day both at Hat Ranch Winery off of Plum Road in Marsing (their postal address is in Caldwell) and the Snake River AVA and then to a wonderful dinner at The Orchard House. Hat Ranch was releasing their Tempranillo, which is very good. The Orchard House has good meatloaf.
Hat Ranch Winery bought Vale Wine Co., as some of you might already know. Some of the Vale wines were there for us to try also. Their Chardonnay is really a good one and will pare well with foods that need a citru match. Not an oaky chardonnay. The appetizers that they had to accompany the wines, see the photo of the menu board below, were a perfect match. Enjoy these photos and if you are in the area, stop in at both Hat Ranch Winery and The Orchard House. You won’t be disappointed. Cheers!

Hat Ranch Winery, Tempranillo release party, menu board.

A very good Redpepper Hummus. Not overly spiced.

Good selections on the Antipasto Platter.

Some of the wines we tried. The Tempranillo will pair with most foods, especially Italian or Spanish.

The Vale Wine Co., Chardonnay.

And then, we went to The Orchard House for dinner. Goodbye diet for today! We always enjoy the meals here. If I were to choose which meal I would constantly get here, it would definitely be the breakfast. It is just so satisfying. But today, we had a good Meatloaf dinner and an Idaho Trout dinner. This is one place that you can get a good meatloaf away from your own kitchen. The Orchard House is located at 14949 Sunnyslope Road, Caldwell (just outside of Marsing) in the Snake River AVA.

We had to check this bottle of wine out. It really is named for the Weiser Old Tyme Fiddlers Festival, which is just over for the year.

This is the back of the bottle. Good information. Left-Click this or any of these photos to see them enlarged.

Robin had this good Idaho Trout dinner.

I had their Meatloaf Dinner. Just a good ol’ down home dinner. We did buy a bottle of Shane Weston’s 2009 Weston On The Lake Pinot Gris. Such a great day today. Super great tour of the area, of sorts, with Robin.