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Walla Wine History

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Walla Walla, Washington: Wonderful Wines In The West
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It was not long ago when Walla Walla was known for their sweet yellow onions and not much else. Wine changed all of that. What started in the 1970s as a test to see if grapes liked the same soil as onions, has now exploded into a fine wine mecca. When Gary Figgins planted the first wine grapes on his homestead in 1974 nobody knew just how big this wine experiment would turn out.

This sleepy town at the foot of the round and rolling Blue Mountains is quickly becoming one of North America’s premier wine destinations. The effects can be seen even for the casual first-time visitor to Walla Walla. Home prices have risen rapidly, excellent new restaurants keep adding to an …show more content…

For top-notch chardonnay try Morell-Peña wine tasting room and art gallery at 202 E. Main Street. I tried their impressive lineup of six chardonnays and was smitten by all of them. My favorite was the 2015 but the price of 45USD+ per bottle kept me from …show more content…

Main Street features a female winemaker producing a tasty lineup of chardonnay, viognier, merlot, cabernet sauvignon, rosé of cabernet franc, and a syrah and Grenache blend. We tasted the rose and liked it enough to buy a bottle to take home. DaMa occupies an artsy space that is still a bit in progress as the owners decide what to do with all the room they have.

For a tasting room with a decent outdoor patio, try Kontos Cellars at 10 N. 2nd Avenue. At Kontos, find ultra-premium Bordeaux style wines. Kontos waives their tasting fee when you have a designated driver! If you can’t come up with your own designated driver consider hiring one of the many wine-tour operators in the area. One such operator, Main Street Drivers, will drive your car for around $35USD per hour and can drive either your personal car or rental car and be fully insured to do so.

Gard Vintners has a tasting room at 43 North Main Street. They make excellent wines from sustainably-grown grapes in the Columbia Valley. Their 2016 white blend (Freyja) is reminiscent of a good French or Italian white table wine and won’t break the bank at 14USD per bottle. Several of Gard’s red wines have garnered 90+ point ratings. Try their red blend (Reverence Red) with 49% syrah, 38% grenache, and 13% viognier for a good example why their wines score highly.

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