November 24, 2009

We spent a delightful week in beautiful Walla Walla, Washington in October. Our trip coincided with the crush there, which was hurried as they experienced a frost right before we came and had to hurry to get the fruit off of the vines.

Despite it being a busy time for the winemakers of Walla Walla, we were able to spend some quality time with a number of them. Today on the home page we are featuring some video footage we took of my interviews and tastings with Gilles Nicault, resident winemaker of Long Shadows Vintners. We were able to observe the skins being pressed; we had a barrel tasting together, and also tasted all of the seven outstanding, distinctive brands they produce at Long Shadows in collaboration with seven internationally acclaimed winemakers.

We visited with Gilles’ wife Marie, winemaker of Forgeron Cellars as well and will feature our tasting with her in the coming days. We also enjoyed meeting and tasting with the irrepressible Dawn and Mary from DaMa Wines, Tom and Debbie Walliser and Tom Glase of Beresan and Balboa respectively (enjoying an impromptu steak dinner along with their excellent wines in the winery), and also visited Tertullia and its new winemaker Quentin Mylet. Another real highlight of the trip was spending an afternoon with owner and Washington wine legend Norm McKibben of Pepper Bridge (my virtual tasting with Norm was featured over the last week).

We stayed at the Walla Walla Inns at the Vineyard, which we recommend highly. The accommodations are luxurious, and there is nothing like waking up in the morning and walking outside to look over a vista of vineyards with rolling mountains in the background. Rick and Debbie Johnson were wonderful hosts, and we had a fascinating interview with the consulting winemaker for their new brand Walla Faces, Matthew Loso (formerly of Matthews Cellars) as we walked through the property’s Ahler Vineyard together (featured on the site as a Learn About The Grape segment).

Finally, we had a wonderful dinner with Tom Maccarone – when you go to Walla Walla, don’t miss enjoying a fine meal at his establishment, T. Maccarone's. The next evening Tom was kind enough to invite us to his home – he had shared that he got into the restaurant business as an extension of his passion for entertaining and sharing fine food and wine with friends at home – experiencing that firsthand both places made for memorable dining experiences.

We are planning to go back to Walla Walla for a longer trip at the end of May; in the meantime we are firming up our next trips for December – stay tuned!

Cheers,

Daniel Hoey, Publisher