Commentary: Is Woodinville the new Walla Walla?
It started this summer when Dusted Valley and Gifford Hirlinger opened their doors in Woodinville. However, even though they were the first Walla Walla wineries to set up a satellite tasting room in Western Washington, other E. Washington wineries were already there and setting the example. Now, almost every winery of a certain size seems to be contemplating a second tasting room in this suburb of both Seattle and Bellevue.
However, it still came as a shock when we heard last week that Pepper Bridge and sister winery, Amavi would open a tasting room near the Hollywood School House. The venerable Pepper Bridge winery and vineyard by the same name has become synonymous with Walla Walla and its rarefied status as one of the premier wineries in our AVA.
The rationale is simple; a retail presence in Woodinville is the easiest way to reach the west-side population of wine consumers and introduce them to your brand. This is especially important for those labels who beefed up their wine production during the heady years of 2007 & 2008 and before the party stopped when the economy slowed down.
Fast forward to 2009. While an Eastern Washington tasting room may see anywhere from 5000 – 50,000 visitors a year (depending on brand awareness and location), wineries in Woodinville are able to tap into the many national and international visitors visiting Seattle each year. Upwards of 300, 000 visitors make Chateau Ste. Michelle a destination each year, according to a brochure obtained during a tour and tasting visit there several years ago.
What does this mean for Walla Walla? Probably not much. While our attraction as a premier wine destination may be grounded first in our wineries; it is also in our bucolic surroundings, our stunning Blue Mountain vistas, our agricultural heritage (of which grapes are the most recent crop), and our vibrant, renewed downtown. In a sentence, our authentic wine country lifestyle. For those of us who live here, we know it’s the real thing.
It remains to be seen if visiting a tasting room with a view of the sluggish slough or alongside a busy commuter road satisfies a wine consumer’s desire to touch the dirt that grows the grapes or if those wine visitors will accept an urban tasting room standing in as a facsimile of our wine country lifestyle.
Interesting article, good to get the Walla Walla perspective.
As a Seattle-based wino who has been coming to Walla Walla twice a year for about 12 years (including this coming weekend) I’ve also watched this development in Woodinville wineries with some trepidation. I love my trips to Walla Walla, and they feel special because of the effort involved. If all the wineries will offer a presence (and the same winery-only wines) just a few miles away from me this specialness is reduced from my perspective.
I realize that the likes of Cayuse and Abeja will never come over, so that is good, but the experience for me is also about finding those new winery gems. Let Woodinville be about DeLille and Betz, which are superb in their own right.
Even if you do open this side of the mountains, try and make sure there is a big enough draw and stickiness to attract us to continue to make the trip.
Good perspective and one of the first I have read on the topic. Well, the jury is out on this development to be sure. Of course, as a fellow winemaker, I wish any Walla Walla winery success in a west side tasting room. It’s a business decision and one that comes with its own set of business headaches. But there’s an upside and it’s simply more exposure for the region. Walla Walla is a great destination and not so terribly hard to get to if you are really looking to unplug and have a wine tasting experience that you simply can’t get in a satellite branch. There’s so many appealing wines that don’t get across the Cascades largely because the economics don’t work in our favour. Would I like my wines to be poured in a Woodinville tasting room? You betcha! But in the meantime, I will be delighted to host any west side (north, south or east for that matter!) wine taster who takes the time to visit…Cheers!
Thanks Heather for bringing this out in the open. Good food for thought.