I've been exploring eastern Washington State wine country since Sunday, but there's so much more to this arid desert than vineyards. I checked out apple orchards and a goat cheese dairy. My photojournal follows over the next few days.

Col Solare is an alliance between Italy's Antinori family (in business since 1385) and Washington's Ste. Michelle Wine Estates. The resulting red Bordeaux blend isn't particularly cheap ($50 per bottle), but the new vines (two years old) cost money, the water costs money, and the winery isn't too shabby either.

They invested hundreds of thousands of dollars into a state-of-the-art winery that opened in 2006, filled with equipment (but you'll learn in my blogs this week, this stuff isn't needed to produce great wine). They buy the best fruit from around the Columbia Valley and hire the best talent in the industry. It was astounding how clean the winery was, filled with shiny new equipment, and smiling faces doing plenty of grunt work. A few winery pix:

In this photo, Marcus is "pumping over" a fermenting batch of recently harvested merlot grapes. This action of pouring juice from the bottom of the tank over the top increases the juice's contact with the skins to maximize color, tannins and complexity. Forget everything you think of when "merlot" drops into your brain: This grape is ballsy, tannic and cherry-infused in eastern Washington. It's one of my favorite varietals in this state, besides syrah.

French oak barrels are one of the most expensive parts of winemaking, and are the gold standard all over the

world. They also probably cost more than gold… at $1,200 each, they add quite a charge to the bottom line. Col Solare also uses about 25 percent American oak. Using French imparts a soft vanilla flavor to the wine, while American offers sweet coconut and earthy tobacco. Read more about oak barrels.

This article appears in Oct 8-14, 2008.