Last summer, our wine of preference was rosés of every hue and sourced from a spectrum of red varietals. This year, we are scoping our options early. Here is our guide to finding them no matter where you start your wine tasting day.

West of town: Three Rivers Winery Estate Rosé (Cab Franc).

Downtown: Bergevin Lane Rosé, Sleight of Hand Magicians Assistant Rosé (Cabernet Franc), Waterbrook Winery Sangiovese Rosé.

East of town: Adamant Cellars Rosé, Trio Vintners Tres Rosé (50% Sangiovese, 50% Mourvèdre).

South of town: Basel Cellars Rosé (50% Cabernet Sauvignon, 50% Syrah), Isenhower Cellars Horse Heaven Hills Rose (58% Counoise, 30% Mourvedre, 12% Grenache), Rulo Winery Rosé (Syrah), Waters Winery Rosé (67% Syrah and 33% Viognier), Tertulia Cellars Mourvedre du Rosé and Trust Cellars Rosé (Cabernet Franc).

Now to pack the picnic basket.

I am sure this is not a complete list. We will update it as we uncover other pinks.

Every year, we publish our “must-see” wineries and let you know what new releases and events you can’t miss. Here, in the countdown to this year’s Spring Release Weekend, is wallawallawinenews.com’s short list. (more…)

What a transformation downtown Walla Walla has undergone in recent years! From the ’90s when tumbleweeds blew through Main Street to a vibrant, energized downtown, Walla Walla has seen tremendous growth and revitalization in recent years. Especially notable is the increase in tasting rooms throughout the core area. On Main Street, Waterbrook Winery has been joined in recent years by Fort WW Cellars, Sapolil Cellars and DaMa Wines. East Main will soon have a new anchor when Nicolas Cole Cellars, at 229 E. Main ~across from Backstage Bistro ~ opens their tasting room doors in time for Spring Release Weekend.

In March, Walla Walla’s oldest flower shop, O’Con’s Flowers (next door to Merchant’s Deli) closed the retail side of their business and their location will soon be the new home for (more…)

It seems that wine retailer and critic, Richard Kinssies of the Seattle PI, wants to be sure that we all buy into his doom and gloom philosophy.

In his article in the PI today, he yawns about the growing number of new wineries in the state, citing that their micro contribution is a mere drop in the very large Riedel wineglass that is the marketplace. He wonders how long it will be before a number of them go out of business.

The wine industry is exactly that, a business and like all businesses, some will fail. For a few, it might be the economic climate. However, the majority of those that might fail, they will do so due to other factors: poor product, not responding to consumer demands, meager capital and a lack of understanding in business fundamentals.

Yes, there is a bit of gold rush fever in Washington wine country and we admire that pioneering spirit. In this global age, when products can be manufactured anywhere, wine is one of the few items that represents both its place and the passion of its winemakers.

And in the end, that is what our wine visitors come to see and taste; human endeavor and passion in an otherwise cynical world.

If you weren’t in Walla Walla yesterday, you missed a great event: sunshine and temperatures in the mid-70s, with lots of great food, wine, music and art. Under a big tent that cloaked 1st Avenue from Main to Alder (just in case the April weather did not cooperate) were 30 wineries, 16 food purveyors and five artists, who all set the stage for a super fun, casual event. Tickets went for $45 and early reports had the event sold out at 600 plus tickets. Out-of-towners and locals alike partied all afternoon, with spin-off event continuing at various locations into the evening.

Feast WW is the revamped Taste WW, moved from July and given an expert makeover by Krista McCorkle and Lynne Anderson. It looks like this Downtown Foundation event has come into its own.

One of Walla Walla’s ongoing challenges is a lack of visitor accommodations on busy weekends. While more rooms are coming ~ in 2007, Comfort Inn & Suites added 80 plus rooms and this fall, Hampton Inn is slated to open more than 100 rooms ~ it doesn’t ease the pain of getting here now and not finding any vacancies or worse, staying home because you couldn’t find a room.

One of the best ways to experience Walla Walla is to start your visit midweek when rooms are plentiful, and both restaurants and tasting rooms are open. With more than 100 wineries, there are far too many to visit in just one trip, so plan to get the lay of the city and return often.

I hold tight to advice a good friend gave me on my first trip to New York City. Fortunately, I was traveling with someone who knew his way around. As there was no way to see it all in one visit, we carefully chose a few special things: ‘Cats’ at the Winter Garden Theatre, a ‘must-see’ restaurant, shopping with lots of time to walk through the park. I knew then that I would keep returning to the city and each time, I would discover new experiences to add to my list of memories.

With that in mind, here is the our guide for a mid-week visit to Walla Walla. (more…)

The ‘Closed’ sign in the window was the first indication, then the story in the business section of the UB confirmed the rumors. After eight years, Grapefields is no more. It seems that the business has been sold and the new owners don’t plan to continue with wine retail. Local artists will miss the restaurant as a place to showcase their work.

As one of the first bistro and winebar venues in town, Grapefields earned state-wide recognition for its contribution to a re-energized Main Street. It quickly became the ‘in’ place to hang out watch the wine world drop by. Early memories include seeing then Spring Valley Vineyards’ winemaking team, Devin and Mary Derby, Cayuse’s Christophe and others enjoying magnums of champagne at the outdoor tables.

Thanks Nicole for the memories!

Vintage Walla Walla, the annual fund-raiser and library tasting hosted by WWV Wine Alliance, has released this year’s schedule of activities. The sessions start early morning on Friday, June 6 with a packed schedule of vineyard seminars, wine and cheese pairings, vineyard lunches leading up to a panel tasting and discussion with some of the Valley’s founding winemakers before the celebrated Vintage Pour of wines 2001 or earlier and the “flash-live” auction. On Saturday, more of the above, except that Saturday’s tasting features current releases and includes almost every winery in the valley with a Silent Auction. For the complete list of events and to buy tickets, visit www.wallawallawine.com.

Precept announced today that it has broken ground on Walla Walla Wine Works; a new, state-of-the-art winery in Walla Walla, Washington, completed a vineyard acquisition in Prosser and launched a multi-media advertising campaign for Waterbrook Winery.

This time marks an exciting evolution for Precept,” stated Andrew Browne, Precept Wine Brands Founder. “Our hope since the beginning has been to build viable wine brands that speak to the consumer and allow us to invest the resources back into winery facilities and vineyards. Today, we are achieving what we set out to accomplish and it is an incredible dream realized.”

Waterbrook’s new winery, Walla Walla Wine Works, a 53,000 sq. ft. winery on a 70-acre site just west of Walla Walla off Hwy. 12 is expected to be completed by harvest 2008. The facility will produce up to 250,000 cases annually of premium Washington wines including Waterbrook (the flagship winery of Walla Walla Wine Works moving from its current location (more…)

An extremely limited production wine project, 21 grams, has been announced by Jason Huntley and friends. The project, a collaboration between Waters Winery and Greg Harrington of Gramercy Cellars, has released 75 cases of a blend of their very best lots of Cabernet Sauvignon. In addition, world-renowned Nihonga artist, Makoto Fujimura, will design a series of collector labels for the wine, which will debut at the opening of an exclusive collection of Nihonga artists at the Dillon Gallery in New York City.

With just 75 cases produced, each bottle sells for $125 and will be offered exclusively through the mailing lists of Waters and Gramercy. Twenty percent of sales from each bottle will be donated to the International Arts Movement (IAM), a non-profit organization founded by Fujimura. Check out the project at www.21gramswine.com.