Walla Walla Beyond the Cult Names

Somebody told us they already subscribe to No Girls, Horsepower and Reynvaan, and asked what they were missing. That is a good problem and a very specific one, because the answer cannot be the same three names everybody recommends.

The wider valley

Horsepower and Reynvaan are on Spill. Foundry Vineyards, Abeja, Corliss Estates, Cotes de Ciel, Destino, Bontzu and SMAK fill in around them, along with College Cellars, which is the teaching winery for the Walla Walla Community College enology program and pours what the students make.

That last one repays an hour. You are tasting the next decade of the valley's winemakers doing their coursework.

The Rocks District question

One reader made the point that you should cross the state line and not miss the Rocks District of Milton-Freewater. They are right, and we do not carry the Rocks as its own region yet. For now those producers sit inside Walla Walla Valley in our data, which is geographically defensible and practically annoying. It is on the list to fix.

What the valley does

Syrah, mostly, and a Bordeaux tradition that predates it. The cobblestone soils on the Oregon side produce something savoury and unmistakable that has become the region's calling card.

Going

Downtown Walla Walla has a walkable cluster of tasting rooms, which makes it one of the easier wine regions in the country to visit without a designated driver. The estates are a short drive out.

Hours and details for all eighteen are on Spill.

The geography that confuses everyone

The Walla Walla Valley AVA crosses a state line. Roughly a third of it sits in Oregon, and the Rocks District of Milton-Freewater, the cobblestone sub-appellation that produces the valley's most distinctive Syrah, is entirely on the Oregon side.

Producers there frequently have Washington addresses and Oregon fruit, or the reverse. It matters for label reading and almost nothing else, but it explains why a Walla Walla list will send you across a border.

What to taste

Syrah is the argument. The Rocks cobblestones give a savoury, olive and cured-meat character that is unmistakable once you have had it twice, and it is the closest thing American wine has to a regional signature you can identify blind.

Cabernet and Merlot came first and are still the volume, and Chardonnay is quietly improving.

Getting around

Downtown Walla Walla holds a dense cluster of tasting rooms inside a few walkable blocks, which is unusual for American wine country and makes the town the sensible base. The estates are ten to twenty minutes out in three directions.

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