We are pleased to introduce a new feature for our What’s Up blog ~ a look ahead at upcoming events and news of interest to the wine visitor.

If you follow us on Facebook page or on Twitter, you will have gotten first word of these happenings.

Wineries on the Move:

Trio Vintners are the first of the incubator wineries to leave their airport location. Next month, look for their new tasting room on 2nd between Alder & Poplar Streets. They will use Forgeron Cellars as their wine production facility.

Also moving by late summer, Glen Fiona Winery, which is owned by Washington Wine & Beverage Company of Woodinville, will be relocating their tasting room to downtown.

Lynne Chamberlain of JLC Winery, recently opened her Spofford Station Foothills Vineyard tasting room, just across Stateline into Oregon – easiest way to get there is via Braden Road (look for the sign at Gifford Hirlinger), then 2 miles down Elliot Road, following the road until you reach the first driveway on your left. Open most Fridays and Saturdays with vineyard tours by reservation.

Doubleback, Drew & Maura Bledsoe’s winery, release their inaugural vintage – 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon – this month with by-invitation-only tasting on Saturday, June 5.

The Marcus Whitman Hotel has plans for a tasting room on their corner of 2nd & Rose. For more information, visit our real estate listings page.

Sapolil Cellars have a second tasting room planned for Ellensburg.

Yellow Hawk Cellar are ceasing operations and are closing their 2nd Ave tasting room on July 3rd. Until then, they are discounting their wine inventory to move it out.

Wine Events: June

Friday & Saturday, June 18 & 19: Vintage Walla Walla. The Wine Alliance’s stellar vintage tasting event with scores of other activities for attendees.

Saturday, June 19: The Vintner’s Table presents JLC’s winemaker Lynne Chamberlain at her Spofford Station Foothills Vineyards for a vineyard tasting, followed by a wine dinner and campfire.

Thursday, June 24 ~ Sunday, June 27: Washington and Walla Walla’s wine industry welcome the Wine Bloggers Conference, when bloggers from all over North America experience our brand of wine culture.

Saturday June 26: Chef Andrae Bopp presents La Porte Brune’s 4th Underground Dinner. The true movable feast takes place once again at a new location for this 4th Walla Walla dinner. Enjoy an exquisite five courses paired with wines of the world. The menu with the wine pairings will be posted a few weeks prior to the dinner. Exact location will be emailed just days before. To get on the invite list, visit the website and submit a comment with your name and number of people.

Restaurant & Bar News:

Crossroads Steakhouse are leaving Veterans Memorial Golf Course and opening in the former 26brix location on west Main Street.

Something is happening regarding a new dining venture in downtown Walla Walla by the owners of Whoop’em up Hollow Cafe of Waitsburg. When we know more, we’ll post it here, on Facebook and on Twitter @wwwinenews

Look for Waitsburg’s brew pub, Laht Neppur, to add a second location  at the corner of Spokane & Alder.

The Pita Pit, on the corner of Colville & Alder, in the former Luscious location, are adding a full bar to their services.

~~~

Here is a wine visitor’s update on the good food stories happening in Walla Walla:

This week, five Walla Walla restaurants announced they were in various stages of closing their doors. We reported earlier that 26Brix had closed. This was followed by news stories in the Union-Bulletin that Luscious by Nature, Destination Grill, Pine Street Grill (formerly Elmers) and Caravaggio (at the airport) were closing.

For those who thought that for some reason Walla Walla might be spared, this is the hard reality of the nationwide slowdown. While the underlying fundamentals differed for each business, December’s winter weather and the snapping shut of disposable dollars hastened the inevitable conclusion ~ things were not going to get better quickly or in time to save their businesses.

If you follow the link to the UB stories, be sure to scroll all the way down to the comments from locals.

A recent Tourism study clearly indicated that visitors want more reasons to stay over Sundays.  To address this, Downtown Walla Walla Foundation is actively encouraging merchants to open on Sunday and have been getting the word out to the various tourism outlets and lodging properties that Walla Walla is open seven days a week.

The downtown merchant association now counts 45 merchants and services open on Sundays, including 19 restaurants, cafe and coffee shops, 14 retailers, 11 tasting rooms, one museum and the Farmer’s Market.

Be sure to check out the Sunday happenings in downtown Walla Walla on your next visit to our Valley.

Horizon Air announced this week that it is accelerating the phase out of its 37-seat Q200s turboprops currently servicing Walla Walla and replacing them with fuel-efficient 76 passenger Bombardier Q400s. This move had been scheduled for April 2009, but rising fuel prices has spurred the implementation date forward to this October.

Walla Walla had been hoping for the reinstatement of a fourth flight to and from Seattle. However, the greater capacity will go a long way to increase both business and visitor traffic.

According to Bombardier’s website, the Q400 is the most fuel efficient and environmentally friendly aircraft of its size in the world, burning 30 percent less fuel and producing 30 percent less CO2 than a comparable jet.  Passengers will appreciate the larger overhead bins designed to accommodate standard roller bags. Furthermore, the “Q” in the model number stands for “Quiet” due to the Active Noise and Vibration Suppression (ANVS) system on the technologically advanced turboprop airliners.

One has really made the big time when your town is profiled in The Gray Lady herself!

Wine Takes Over a Town, and Prosperity Follows

It will be interesting to see what a rush of new awareness this brings to Walla Walla.

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…)

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.

It was one line in the February edition of Wine Business magazine’s article on the ‘Top 30 U.S. Wine Companies’ that grabbed our attention. “Precept Brands #21 is building a 250,000-case facility in Walla Walla that should be operational for the 2008 harvest.”

CEO Andrew Browne confirmed the story in an email, but said an official announcement would follow after permits and ground had been broken.

This is a significant first for our valley. Up until now, case production was well under 75,000 cases with Canoe Ridge Vineyards the Valley’s largest producer followed by Waterbrook Winery (Precept) and possibly l’Ecole #41. Stay tuned for location, but good bets are for the west side of the valley near the new highway.