Rhapture

My favorite Corvallis party returns this Saturday, September 9th, from 4 to 7 p.m. Rhapsody in the Vineyard is a wine-tasting event hosted by the Downtown Corvallis Association and it is wonderful.

Five bucks (and a quick flash of your ID, if you look young enough) will buy you a wrist bracelet and a souvenir wine glass. Another fiver buys you 10 scrip tickets, each worth a taste of whatever wine you'd like to try. Almost any wine, anyway, as one stingy winery last spring charged two tickets per taste and it wasn't particularly special wine.

Once you are fully equipped, you can wander through downtown and into various shops, each hosting a different winery. You do have to remain in the shop while having your glass of wine, but that's part of the fun. The first time we went, we spent 15 minutes wandering through Robnett's Hardware store sipping pinot noir and giggling over police tape and power tools. Robnett's apparently no longer participates, but so many of the participating shops are worth your time anyway, like the fantastic Grass Roots Bookstore and Botticelli's.

Sadly, I will have to miss the wine walk this weekend. So please, go have a glass of Pioneer Hopyard's pinot noir for me. That winery is owned by the same people who own Coleman's Jewelers, so that's where you'll find the wine.