Our inaugural visit to the Walla Walla wine region in Western Washington was in late September and we hit it just as the grape harvest was happening. We reunited with Sue and Dean Hereford and had the usual great time. The town of Walla Walla is small, charming, and not very commercialized. It’s still relatively young as a wine region, but it’s growing fast. It has a great climate for wine and focuses on Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah, and Merlot. There are some fine whites as well. The wines tend to be a bit less fruit-forward than California wines.
This is a big year for us as we expect to travel through 8 wine regions including Walla Walla, Willamette, Napa, Sonoma, Lodi, Paso Robles, Temecula, and Ramona. Our approach to visiting wineries is to look for new up-and-coming, good-value, something-new, and affordable operations. This may be the biggest challenge of our retirement. To that end, we passed on all the really high end places in Walla Walla, but we still ended up in 3 clubs.
We tasted wine at 11 wineries and “toured” downtown WW over three days. All the experiences were good and some very good. We had breakfast at two places and dinner out as well. Each was hand selected by Sue Hereford (AKA “Queen of Quisine”) and validated by several locals as we tasted wine. We have come to rely on her to find great dining when we travel and are rarely disappointed. This was no exception.
The details of our tastings can be found in Walla Walla tasting wrap-up 2022
