Tasting rooms blossom in Walla Walla

Walla Walla has undergone an astonishing metamorphosis over the past decade. In fact, it has really been just over the past six years that the wine industry has asserted a dominant presence in this little college town tucked in the far southeastern corner of our state.

There were just a handful of wineries dotting the landscape up until the late 1990s headed up by pioneers such as Leonetti, Woodward Canyon, L’Ecole No. 41, Patrick M. Paul, Waterbrook and Walla Walla Vintners. I still have a map and winery listing from 1995 that was printed on a half page and showed all eight wineries.

In this column, wine enthusiast and admitted cork dork Jeff Wicklund visits winery tasting rooms in Walla Walla. It’s the third of a four-part series, “The Crush,” on the wine scene in Eastern Washington during the harvest season. Wick will share his insights into the people behind the labels, recommendations on where to stay and what to eat, and sipping notes on some wines he considers hidden treasures. Next Sunday in Travel &Leisure the series concludes with more from Walla Walla.

Now, like Mount St. Helens, the number of operating wineries has erupted over the valley, spreading a plume of prosperity. The actual number of operating wineries is more than 60 and, as Richard Funk of Saviah Cellars (one of the new additions) said, “There are permits now being processed to bring the total number of wineries to 75.”

This pattern of growth makes Walla Walla the most dynamic wine region in the state, if not the entire world. So it only seems appropriate to launch an expeditionary force (my wife and I) to this cauldron of fermented grape juice and see what tales could be extracted from these Washington wine trails.

The first thing that hits you when you enter downtown Walla Walla is the sheer density of wineries and winery tasting rooms. Just over the past few months, many wineries have either located to the downtown core or opened a separate tasting room in one of the old historic buildings, and there seems to be an inordinate number of these for a town of this size. Typically, the history living in the brick and mortar of old buildings has been leveled in the name of progress across the country, but not in Walla Walla, where the wine industry is a big part of a restoration project that isn’t showing signs of slowing.

It dawned on me that given the density of the wineries in the downtown core and out around the airport, that a fun experience would be a self-guided walking tour. So this week I’ll focus on the wineries and tasting rooms we visited while hoofing about downtown with a few recommendations for dinning and lodging.

Next week we’ll do a walking tour of the airport wineries as well as reviewing some of the other Walla Walla peripheral wineries.

After lacing up the New Balance sneakers which, by the way, was the correct choice for footwear given the number of tastes that were to come and my reluctance to spit such yummy juice. We parked in the heart of town on Main Street right in front of the Mercantile Deli where the lure of their awesome soups and sandwiches proved too much to resist. After sufficiently fueling up we began an absolutely joyous jaunt.

Let me begin by saying that every stop we made was met with courteous professionalism and all the wines ranged from good to exceptional.

First stop brought us into the Waterbrook tasting room at 31 E. Main St. where we were met by an adorable Whitman College senior who was working the tasting bar. She poured their 2003 viognier, which was beautifully floral and elegant, the red blend called “Melange” and a couple of their reserve wines. Now, with a childlike giddy glow, we ventured a half block to stumble upon an unusual tasting room for a winery that I didn’t recognize. On the second floor of a really nice upscale furniture store was Lowden Hills Winery’s tasting bar, where a 2002 vintage of merlot and cabernet sauvignon was being poured. You can hardly search for a new chesterfield without a glass of wine in your hand in today’s new and improved Walla Walla.

While attempting reconnaissance of a highly touted new restaurant called 26 Brix, which we had plans to visit later that evening, we came upon another brand-new winery’s tasting room. Two doors from the restaurant was Morrison Lane, where I officially had my socks knocked off. I knew of the Morrison Vineyard as being a great source of syrah for wineries such as “K” Vintners, but I was unaware they had started their own winery. The simplistic grace that went into the restoration of this space in the corner of yet another historic building was inspired. Owner Dean Morrison is an accomplished musician, and the tasting room doubles as a stage for regular performances. Dean’s son, Dan Morrison, is the winemaker and orchestrates his own amazing art form in the bottles of wine he produces. His focus is on Mediterranean varietals, and the syrah, sangiovese and counoise that we tried were stunning.

Directly across the street was the Spring Valley Vineyard’s newly opened tasting room, also in a tastefully restored space. The winery itself is about 20 miles out of town, but having a facility in the thick of the downtown action has been a treat for tasters and a boon to the winery.

Our adventure continued with a visit to the Forgeron Winery and tasting room. The tasting room, in an old blacksmith shop, was impressive with its warm ambience, and the wines were simply delicious. Our visit was unannounced, and we were lucky that my friend and winemaker Marie-Eve Gilla was in on the weekend to oversee the beginning of the crush. I told her of my intentions to write about a walking tour of Walla Walla tasting rooms and she said, “Be sure to let people know it is OK to go on that tour with a hand truck.”

Our next stop was at a cooperative tasting room for two wineries, Walla Walla Village Winery and Patrick M. Paul Vineyards. It had to be one of the most impressive transformations of a dilapidated building I’ve seen in a while.

Other stops that were on the docket but unrealized were; James Leigh cellars, Cayuse, Bodega Turner, Bergevin Lane, Whitman Cellars, Canoe Ridge and Amavi. And there are many others in the downtown that could be visited with an appointment.

It used to be that you could easily cruise into Walla Walla and taste at all the open tasting rooms in just a few hours. Now it takes a couple of days just to get through downtown.

I have to mention a couple of restaurants that are alone just about worth the drive to Walla Walla: Whitehouse Crawford and 26 Brix – in a word, exceptional.

For general visitor information, check out the Walla Walla Tourism Web site: www.wallawalla.org. For specific winery info, visit the Walla Walla Wine Alliance Web site: www.wallawallawine.com.

Jeff Wicklund, wine consultant and writer, is the proprietor of Colby Hospitality in Everett. He can be reached at 425-238-0722, or wick@colbyhospitality.com.