ZILLAH -- Pull out your favorite Halloween costume and head for the hills, Rattlesnake Hills that is.
Eight of the 16 wineries along the Rattlesnake Hills Wine Trail will be celebrating HalloWine 2009 on Saturday with special tastings, nibbles and costumes -- lots of costumes.
Stop in at each of the wineries -- they're clustered just four miles southeast of Yakima off Interstate 82 -- to discover what treats they have available or what costumed persona will serve you.
There could be wine-bar witches, pirates walking the planks or vampires dribbling wine (not blood) down their chins as you approach the tasting bars.
But don't be afraid, for they only 'vant you to taste their vines.'
Wear a costume and you'll get extra treats, not tricks, at many of the wineries.
Most wineries are open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., with a few open until 6 p.m.
There's no charge to participate in HalloWine at most of the wineries.
Buy a special $10 passport and you'll get extra discounts and tastings.
For specific information on each winery, go to www.rattlesnakehills.com or call 888-375-7498.
In addition to lots of wines to sample, here are some of the supernatural occurrences you'll find at the Rattlesnake Hills wineries:
-- Bonair Winery will have spooky people in the tasting room to pour your wine. Anyone showing up in costume will get a special prize.
Snack on a special tapas concoction prepared by the hag in residence. Say "trick or treat" and you'll receive a chocolate eyeball to munch on along with your port.
-- Eaton Hill Winery will have "the HalloWine works" including costumes, pumpkins and soup.
-- Masset Winery will be decorated to celebrate the holiday and will serve goodies to snack on.
-- Paradisos del Sol workers will be in costume, and the winery will be tricked out with some scary-looking pumpkins.
w Piety Flats Winery will serve a pumpkin soup -- the recipe is from old-world Germany -- sure to bring out the vampire or werewolf in you.
-- Severino Cellars, in a 100-year-old farmhouse, will have plenty of pumpkins for decorations, spirits for sipping and cobblers and dips for nibbling.
-- Silver Lake Winery staff will greet you in costumes and offer treats for tasting.
-- Steppe Cellars will send visitors out to their pumpkin patch behind the tasting room to pick one out.
Donations for the pumpkins will go to Project Hope, a worldwide medical support organization.
The Rattlesnake Hills Wine Trail Passport is good for wine discounts and free reserve tastings year-round, not just during HalloWine. Visit at least 10 of the 16 member wineries and you'll be invited to the annual Snake in the Glass Passport Party.
Buy them at any of the 16 wineries on the Rattlesnake Hills Wine Trail or at the Visitor Information Center in Yakima at Exit 33A
off I-82.
*Loretto J. Hulse: 582-1513; lhulse@tricityherald.com
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