IN THE COURSE OF TIME

On a cruise down the Snake and Columbia rivers, Becky Cooper follows the path of Lewis and Clark-and along the way discovers some of the Pacific Northwest's finest food and wine.

- Becky Cooper

The Sea Bird docked in Clarkston, Washington.

THE SUN WAS DROPPING behind the Palouse Hills as Coco Umiker, owner and head winemaker at Clearwater Canyon Cellars, boarded a ship docked on the Snake River, on the border of Washington and Idaho. It was peak harvest time, but despite the demands of the season, Umiker bounded with energy.

In the ship's lounge, she began a talk about how her wine is produced with "Your one job while I'm talking? Drink!" At which point a number of previously inhibited passengers literally cheered.

When Umiker's wine is poured, drinking is an easy task. For the past 20 years, she's been doing what might, to some, sound like a contradiction in terms: making world-class wines in Idaho. Umiker is most known for her Carmenère, which is rich and slick, "like a ride in an old plush car," as she put it. But the wines that stole my heart were her bone-dry Albariño and her Syrah, which is made with grapes grown in the wind-blown soil of north-central Idaho and is so redolent of sage, it's almost savory.

These were the flavors that accompanied me and my friend Leila on a weeklong cruise down the Snake and Columbia rivers with National Geographic-Lindblad Expeditions. The ship would retrace the 19th-century journey of explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, who went in search of the most direct route to the Pacific from the Missouri River. This new itinerary was designed in conjunction with Food & Wine magazine, a sister publication of Travel + Leisure, and would, along the way, immerse passengers in the bounty of the Pacific Northwest.

A glass of wine from Dunham Cellars, in Walla Walla, Washington