Looking for your own piece of vineyard heaven? Joe Chauncey of Boxwood Architects, Seattle is involved with planning the Bergevin Springs Vineyard Estates with several area winery owners and J.T. Atkins company of Bend, Oregon.

Located on 400 acres within the rolling Palouse hills north of Walla Walla, Washington, the project will include 10 vineyard estates and winery buildings.

Word is just out that Walla Walla’s Nicholas Cole is opening a downtown tasting room at 229 E. Main Steet in time for Spring Release Weekend. The new location, across from Back Stage Bistro, will be designed by Joe Chauncey of Boxwood (his firm also built Waters Winery and Col Solare.)

Last year, the vineyards and winery facility owned by Nicolas Cole owner, Mike Neuffer, was sold to Washington Vintners LLC, one of this state’s more engimatic winery projects.

While Nicholas Cole will continue to source grapes from Neuffer Estate, the winery will also get grapes from Klipsun, Canoe Ridge, Seven Hills and Champoux. Winemaking will happen at Artifex Wine Company, the custom crush facility owned by Norm McKibben and partners and managed by winemakers Jean Francois Pellet and Chris Dowsett. Nicholas Cole plans to maintain production at 4500 cases.

For Spring release, Nicholas Cole will release their inaugural vintage of ‘Michele’- a Left Bank style Bordeaux blend, named for Neuffer’s daughter and released on her 16th birthday.

Any key wine destination, such as Walla Walla, is bound to have its home-state critics. Earlier this month, a developer in Yakima, called WW ‘cute’, saying “however, there was a lot of cute towns in E. Washington.”

Well, here in Walla Walla, we have never aspired to ‘cute’, preferring to reflect the genuine lifestyle that is our community. However, WWWN did like the comment made by the new majority owner (see our story below) of Three Rivers Winery, in the formal announcement of his purchase. William Foley (former Fidelity CEO and California winery owner) remarked, “(Walla Walla is) …the center of the wine world in terms of the state of Washington.”

Of course, the Three Rivers ownership change signals a huge wave of recognition from outside the state as to our importance as a wine growing region.

Add to that, the news that Precept Brands intend to build a 250,000 case winery and tasting room near Lowden (more in the article below.)

This super-charged attention to our valley, is (more…)