Discover Walla Walla

Recently I visited the estate vines of Three Rivers Winery and Tertulia Cellars, here in the Walla Walla Valley.   And as like the theatre master exclaims, "The stage is set" - - indeed the stage is set in the vineyards awaiting veraison and later the fall harvest.

The fruit has been set amongst the vines of the Walla Walla Valley. Many of the vines show a uniformed fruit zone of little green grape berries that are hard to the touch. These typically low-yielding vines will eventually produce clusters of purple and gold berries showing intense concentration of flavors. But for now, these little green berries have very little sugar and are high in organic acids.

Being out in these vineyards is a reminder to me that summer is almost over and autumn is on its way. The fall season in the Walla Walla Valley is my favorite time of year. Don't get me wrong, as there are things about the summers in Walla Walla that I love, as well.  Summers mean to me the harvest of Walla Walla Sweet Onions, fresh berries and stone fruit and other freshly picked produce. While the high temperatures throughout the days can be difficult for me, it's the summer evenings that I tend to live for. They are cool with a light warm breeze leaving reminders of the earlier heat.  It is these warm days and cool nights of the area that also help retain the balance of acid and sugar levels in the wine grapes that overall give Washington wines their distinct characteristic balance in flavors.  The evenings are perfect for porch sitting while enjoying a glass of a chilled Walla Walla white wine or rosé.

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I would like to say I made up that title, but I didn't.  It is a quote from Ernest Hemingway.

My blog for this month was going to be about hospitality, friendship and wine.  I was going to relate it all to the recent North America Wine Bloggers' Conference that was held at the Marcus Whitman Hotel last month. The WBC10 was a three day event with over 300 wine bloggers and others from the wine industry, all over the world, participating in various events from vineyard and winery tours, food and wine pairings, and even online wine tasting via Twitter.

I was going to tell you all about the wonderful hospitality that Walla Walla extended to the wine bloggers, but I cannot tell you as near as well as a visitor who actually experienced it first hand.  Instead, I am going to share with you highlights from a blog by Joel Vincent, Executive Director/Founder of OpenWine Consortium and one of the organizers for the North America Wine Bloggers' Conference.

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Robert Parker, leading US wine critic of the Wine Advocate publication called them "Blobbers." Anthony Dias Blue, Editor-in-Chief of The Tasting Panel Magazine referred to them as "bitter, carping gadflies." Who are these people? Well, hold onto your wine corks as they are coming to a town near you - - that's right. They are coming to Walla Walla!

The 2010 North American Wine Bloggers Conference will take place this month, June 25-27 at the Marcus Whitman Hotel. It is the premier conference for new media and the wine industry. A total of 300 independent wine bloggers, industry bloggers, and other wine and social media professionals will gather from all over North America and beyond to meet, learn about the wines from Washington State and share their wine blogging knowledge.

This is the third year for the North American Wine Bloggers Conference. The last two years it has been held at Santa Rosa, California and sponsored by the Napa Valley and Sonoma Vintners Associations, so 2010 is a big year for the conference to be moved out of California and into second largest wine producer in the US, Washington State. It is especially exciting that the first impression of the Washington State wine industry will be Walla Walla.

For decades wine journalism had been dominated by a few visible critics, such as Parker and Dias Blue and their publications. Today, citizen wine bloggers are having an impact on how wine lovers, from the novice to the aficionado, as well as the wine industry are getting their news and reviews. If you are a wine lover in any degree, wine bloggers want you to know what they know by taking the intimidation and stodginess out of wine. Welcome Wine Bloggers!

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Every so often I will read a national news article about Walla Walla wine country and sure enough, the author will eventually bring up the same old platitude they think is so original, “Walla Walla is the next Napa.”

No!  With every “Walla Walla is the next Napa” comment I read, it makes me wonder if the author of the article has even been to Walla Walla, let alone taken the time to ask the Walla Walla wine community if they believe it or even want to be “the next Napa Valley.”

Last summer I revisited the Napa wine country.  Frankly, the only things Napa and Walla Walla have in common are that both areas produce and sell wine. The climate, soil, flora, and of course, the wines are very different.  One area isn’t necessarily better than the other, just very different.  I found the people of Napa to be very generous with their hospitality, but of course so is Walla Walla.  In Napa, tourists visit several beautiful and ostentatious old world chateau-like buildings.  Sure, in Walla Walla we have some beautiful new winery structures, but we also have many World War II airport barracks and old farm machinery sheds that have been converted into personable and functional working wineries.  It isn’t rare to find a winemaker in Walla Walla actually pouring his or her wines and giving tours.

I often overhear comments regarding how the locals do not want to see Walla Walla grow like Napa and become a “wine Disneyland for adults.” I don’t think we will.  Our area has a new vigor because of the wine community, but not only have we learned from Napa on how to promote great wine tourism, but most important I believe we have also learned on what not to do.  And besides, the biggest thing that will keep Walla Walla from becoming like the Napa area is that the nearest large metropolitan center is 4.5 hours away from us, unlike St. Helena  in the Napa Valley has a close driving distance to the ever expanding San Francisco area.

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Walla Walla is my home town. I was born and raised here. I have seen the best and the worst of this valley.  As a little girl, I remember when downtown Walla Walla was the heart and pride of our community.  It was a gathering place with cafes and locally owned businesses.  Then the malls came to town and our “heart” was broken for over two decades. Empty buildings, obsolete store fronts and our pride diminished.

Once again, we are strong and we have the wineries and tourism to thank for it. Wineries bring tourism and tourism brings retail specialty shops and places to dine. And if you add all of these components together – they bring employment.

Wineries need employees, but they also rely on services from other local businesses such as banks, attorneys, advertisers, computer techs, office supplies, lawn and ag services, food and catering, automotive repair, electricians, plumbers to name a few.  Wineries create tourism and tourists need gasoline, food and accommodations.

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A few weeks ago, on a beautiful sunny afternoon, I took the opportunity for an afternoon drive in the sunshine. The early signs of spring were all around me, including my own garden pushing up leaves that would soon belong to buds of daffodils and tulips.

My car headed south to the Washington/Oregon border and I let my car take me to the vineyards. I finally stopped at one of the first commercial vineyards in the Walla Walla Valley AVA. This large vineyard is also known as being one of the ten great vineyards in the world - the Seven Hills Vineyard. It was there, looking over a hillside of over 200-acres of vineyards, that I was assured that spring was definitely on the way. The old skeleton-like vines from last year's harvest had now been pruned and many more vines were waiting their turn. These newly pruned vines, with help from more rain and sunshine, will soon start bearing new spurs of vines, leaves and eventually, clusters of grapes.

During my drive I was reminded of the old Bible verse: "To every thing there is a season, ... a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted ..." I was also reminded that the wheat farmers would be planting soon and thought about the several generations of family wheat ranchers in the Walla Walla area. When the vineyards "came to town", they weren't exactly greeted with enthusiasm by everyone. In many ways it was reminiscent of the American west cattle and sheep range wars. Most of the dust has settled by now between wheat farmer and vineyard owner.

Like wheat farmers before, family owned vineyards are raising their own generations of caretakers for their crops. Don and Nicole Redman of Mannina Cellars, along with their children and dog, Lucy make pruning of Cabernet Sauvignon vines a weekend family event. Just the photo alone of the Redman family shows that in spite of the differences between vineyard owners and wheat farmers, they are still very much the same, after all.

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When I think of February, I always reflect back to when I was a little girl in Walla Walla. We had classroom Valentine parties with lots of red construction paper and paper doily hearts on the bulletin boards. There was the exchange of cards and our room mothers would bring us decorated cupcakes and heart shaped cookies. Now that I am older, many years older (ahem), I now think of wine as being romantic. Why not? Romance is about an emotional attachment, a fascination or involvement with someone. Wine not only places a role in romance, but seduction, which leads to - - s-e-x. Wine can bring lovers together, but also good times with family and friends.

Walla Walla is about romance no matter the time of the year with our beautiful parks, the view of the Blue Mountains, romantic B&B's, vineyards and our historical downtown. Downtown Walla Walla is especially romantic and full of surprises. It is a mid-way of tasting rooms, boutiques, bistros and art galleries and if one times it right, there is live music in the air.

The Walla Walla Valley has some very seductive wines to get one in the Valentine spirit, too. Sleight of Hands Cellar's labels are very seductive with the mysterious magician and his beautiful assistant. The Magician is a classic dry Gewurztraminer with aromas and flavors of crisp green apples, rose petals, and lychee-nut. These characteristics make for a perfect pairing with aromatic seafood dishes and spicy Asian foods. Mmm...spicy!

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New Year's Resolutions do not have to be boring or demanding. Wine is a great topic to put on your New Year's list. Drink wine and learn something new at the same time! In fact, you can walk downtown Walla Walla and visit shops and tasting rooms to assist you in not breaking these five easy resolutions.

1. Open Your Mind to Wine: You may give the impression to your friends and co-workers you are a wine connoisseur, but are you really if all you are drinking is red wine? So, you didn't care for the $3 bottle of California chardonnay or rosé you tasted back in the 80's, but have you recently tasted chardonnays or rosés, or any of the white wines, produced in Walla Walla? Rethink them. Retaste them.

2. Step Away from the Flintstones Jelly Jars: Wine glasses do not have to be expensive. Look for glassware that is thin. The rim of the glass should be a clean cut and not a rolled lip. It may be pretty, but save Great-Grandma Esther's chunky hand-cut crystal for water glasses. Also, look for wine glasses with a large bowl and fill the bowl no more than a third allowing plenty of air space for the wine to breathe. If you want to invest in the best, check with Providence Fine Living on Walla Walla's Main Street for Riedel fine crystal wine glasses.

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Nope. I'm not talking about a new slushy wine drink found at the local corner convenience store. Ice wine (or Eiswein) is about a frosty little shriveled grape that produces an intense sweet nectar like no other.

Frozen grapes were used to make wine during Roman times, as far back as AD 23. And you might think it is easy as putting the grapes in the freezer, but it's not that easy if it is an authentic ice wine or Eiswein.

The history behind these little bottles of Mother Nature's nectar started in Germany post-Roman ice wine in the 1830's. The winters were harsh and grapes were typically left on the vines to be used later for livestock feed. Winemakers later noticed the frozen grapes were producing a sweet concentrated juice. Since temperatures of 20F( -7C) or below are required, we mostly see ice wines produced in Germany, northern states of the US and the biggest production now comes from Ontario, Canada.

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It's that time of the year when every food and wine related magazine's focus is "turkey talk." And with every article, the standard Q&A suggests Pinot Noir is the wine to pair with turkey. Blah-blah-blah and blah!

Hey Pilgrim, do you see a lot of Pinot Noir in the Walla Walla Valley? And when you consider that we celebrate the holiday with an abundant feast of savory and sweet, why limit yourself and your guests to one kind of wine?

The Bird: Every Spring many Walla Walla wineries release a variety of crisp rosés from Cabernet Franc to Sangiovese. These pastel colored wines are softer and less tannic offering the right amount of acids to balance the richness of the turkey. Hopefully, you already have a few Walla Walla produced rosés in your cellar as they sell out quickly. If you're one of those people who tout, "I only do redsss," think about softer and fruitier Merlots and Sangioveses or even an aged Cabernet Sauvignon. If your cellar is looking a little empty L'Ecole No 41 often has a selection of library wines available for purchase.

If you are a white wine drinker and want to highlight the buttery flavors of the turkey, ‘taters, and gravy, there are several aromatic white wines that will enhance the main dishes. Check out Locati Cellars Pinot Grigio, Seven Hills Pinot Gris, SuLei Cellars Rousanne or go bubbly with Tru Cellars Blanc de Blanc.

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