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

As it is impossible to visit every Walla Walla winery this Holiday Barrel, at WWWN .com we have surveyed the offerings and compiled our ‘must-see’ list. There are many, fine wineries in our valley, so this is only a short-list. If we have missed your favorite winery or your favorite story, let us know!

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OK, it’s our little secret. When asked what Walla Walla wines we drink, many of us respond with some of the best names in this valley: Leonetti, Spring Valley, Cayuse or Pepper Bridge.  However, when asked specifically what wine we opened tonight, we will give up our current favorite go-to-Walla Walla wine.

It is the bottle you grab when only you want a glass of wine with dinner.  Or when you just can’t bring yourself to open a more expensive wine when eating lasagna, pizza or hamburgers.  So when you find a great weekday wine, it is a treasure!

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Traditionally, the first full weekend in November has been the only time Cayuse Vineyards opens their winery doors to their allocation list.  Now, many Walla Walla wineries use this weekend to officially celebrate the end of harvest and release their newest wines.

We have compiled our list of winery hours, new releases and special events in a take-along PDF. Use this as your guide to this year’s Fall Release Weekend. Many wineries have special events including winemaker dinners, art exhibits, food offerings, etc.

As a preview to Fall Release, we will be posting a new blog everyday this week and will be featuring guest bloggers including a ‘Walla Walla Fall Release Survival Guide’ from the famed Wild Walla Walla Wine Woman, Catie McIntyre Walker.

Don’t miss guest blogger and winemaker Denise Slattery of Trio Vintners as she details airport winery happenings and her picks on what not to miss.

Be sure to check back every day as we add events  and new blogs.

Reminder:  If you are coming to Fall Release in Walla Walla, you will have already made your lodging arrangements, but don’t wait to plan where you will be eating. Our restaurants will be very busy this coming weekend, so call early to make sure you have dinner reservations.

We look forward to seeing you here in Walla Walla. Even if you can’t make it to Fall Release, be sure to follow us on Twitter (@wwwinenews) as we tweet all through the weekend.

Have you heard the buzz about “Papa loves Mambo” filtering through the social media channels. At first, I was confused. Is Papa a wine? A band?  Or is it a state of mind emanating from a storefront on Main Street and is slowly taking a life of its own and changing downtown Walla Walla? Dare I say, all of the above?  And along the way, this little winery has  become an overnight success story!

For the uninformed, or anyone who doesn’t stay completely up to date on everything happening in our favorite little town in the corner of the state, technically Papa loves Mambo is a song made famous by Perry Como in the 50s. However, we know it best as a local latin-jazz band and a proprietary blend of Syrah, Sangiovese, and Cabernet Sauvignon crafted by Sapolil Cellars’.  Usually, the two modern versions can be found together in exuberant form at the only place at the moment to offer live entertainment on weekends in downtown WW.  We say, at the moment, for a posh new drinking with dancing venue will open this fall (corner Alder and 3^rd) that will bring life after work to that end of town.

Sapolil Cellars’ is a family winery owned by Bill & Linda Schwerin and their daughter, Abigail. Bill, a wheat farmer, started making wine about seven years ago. Linda has an interior design business and Abby lives in Los Angeles. They might have been one of any number of WW small wineries, trying to realize a dream by making some wine and maybe make a few dollars doing it. In Bill’s case, things changed when he took over a small corner in Linda’s Main Street shop just two doors down from Merchant’s Deli.

You see, Bill needed Main Street, and Main Street needed Bill. Bill is a genuine people-person, not someone who gets their nose into a computer or other projects and then has to wrench himself away to pour some wine. Bill gravitates to folks like a bee to honey.  In fact, the whole family is super friendly and spending any amount of time with them, makes you feel better about life. And that is even before you have their wine.

Before long, the little corner took over the front of the shop. Then, as it often does with these overnight wonders, the details get fuzzy, but somewhere along the way, Linda’s shop name came down, we began to see Abby a lot more often and they added live music every weekend.

In the beginning, it was a place for local musicians to jam on the old piano that serves as their tasting bar, then it started to catch on. Wine visitors stopped in, before and after dinner for a glass of wine, music and a warm welcome. Single-handedly, Sapolil Cellars’ was breathing life into downtown after 6PM.

The neighbors have noticed and we hear that starting this September, Merchants’ (who are now staying open on Fridays) will have a rotating roster of guest wineries pouring on Friday evenings.

As I said earlier, an overnight wonder! And the wine, well, their 2007 Papa loves Mambo (with its lovely Jeffrey Hill label) is now sold out! But don’t let that stop you from dropping in. They have several Syrahs and a Chardonnay to pour and they are looking forward to welcoming you.  Check out Abigail and Bill’s interview with ‘idrinkyourwine.com.’

Charles Smith, winemaker of KVintners and the Magnificent Wine Company,  has unveiled a large scale art piece on the side of a building on Main Street,  Waitsburg, WA. Known for his iconic black and white labels, Smith takes his marketing acumen to a new level with a conceptual art statement about America past, present and future.

Eric Degerman of WinePress NorthWest reports that “Acclaimed chef Mike Davis, whose 26 Brix was among several in Walla Walla restaurants to close this winter, has been hired by the Seattle-base Heavy Restaurant Group.

Davis will head up the culinary program at three restaurants scheduled to open later this year in the Bellevue Towers — Purple Cafe & Wine Bar, Barrio, and Bliss.” more

Despite the news in January of five restaurant closures, there are good news stories happening in the local food scene of special interest to weekend visitors. 

*T. Maccarone’s, owner (Tom) has given Chef Jake Crenshaw an equity stake in the restaurant. Way to go! That’s how successful businesses are built. 

*Whitehouse Crawford have expanded both their bar area and bar menu giving the upscale restaurant a more casual option. 

*Saffron Mediterranean Kitchen’s Chef Ainsworth has made the James Beard list for Best Chef: Northwest (story below)

*Creektown Cafe now offer tamales and their outstanding desserts for take away. In addition, they now offer a Mid-Day Menu from 2:30 to 6pm as well as a new kids menu.

*Whoopemup Hollow Cafe and jimgermanbar are always compelling reasons to visit Waitsburg. However, Mardi Gras is extra special!

*Merchants now stays open on Friday nights until 10PM.  

*Salumiere Cesario has expanded their menu options and offer in-store seating and as soon as the weather cooperates, they’ll open their patio. 

*Someone’s In the Kitchen, WW’s cooking school on Rose Street, has a great menu of weekday lunch offerings and weekend dinners and cooking classes. Also kids classes. 

*WW Taco wagons always offer great value for terrific food.

Chris Ainsworth, owner/chef of Saffron Mediterranean Kitchen has been listed as a semifinalist in the 2009 James Beard Foundation Awards, Restaurant & Chef Award for Best Chef: Northwest. Chef Ainsworth is in excellent company on a short list that includes Seattle chefs,  Jason Wilson of Crush,  Ethan Stowell of Union and Scott Staples of Restaurant Zoë.  Portland notables include Gabriel Rucker of Le Pigeon, Andy Ricker of Pok Pok and Whiskey Soda Lounge and Daniel Mondok of Sel Gris.

According to the rules on the JBF website, open submissions are taken for the 20 slots in each category.  In the next stage, 400 nationwide industry judges will select five nominees per category and announce the short list on March 23.  Winners will be honored at an Awards Ceremony in New York on May 4.

Deemed “the Oscars of the food world,” by Time magazine, The James Beard Foundation Awards are the country’s most coveted honor for chefs; food and beverage professionals; broadcast media, journalists, and authors working on food; and restaurant architects and designers.

Congratulations Chef Ainsworth!

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.