Walla Walla Wino Wino - Part III

Lunch break is over! Back to the vineyards and tasting rooms. It’s a tough life but somebody has to do it.

Afternoon of day two of wine tasting
After lunch we went back to the wineries south of downtown because there were still many places to visit and our mission wasn’t complete yet.

Our first stop after going back out was Saviah. Compared to some of the other large and fancy wineries we’d visited, this one was small and unassuming. The wines were nothing to get very excited about or perhaps it was the tasting room associate that turned us off. She was obviously not savvy about wine or the industry. She ignored us while she chatted with a fellow college student and then when we tried to chat her up about wines and such, she looked like a deer caught in headlights. Moving on.

Next we stopped at Waters. If you haven’t been to this winery, I recommend stopping at this one. Beautiful tasting room, lots of nice art, beautiful grounds outside with a little pond to sit by and take in the scenery. Their wines are priced comparable to most of the other wineries, $30 for their Bordeaux-style blend and the same for their Syrah. Their Viognier is a bit pricier than most at $25 but all of their wines are well done. We stayed at this winery for quite some time chatting with other wine tasters and enjoying the sunshine and scenery. There was a pair of Osprey flying overhead and beautiful black and yellow birds hanging out in the small trees just outside of the winery. Not to mention the black and white Magpies that we saw everywhere. Remember Heckle and Jeckle? Magpies! We didn’t purchase anything from Waters as our wine buying budget was just about tapped out.

Va Piano Vineyards was our next to the last stop. This is a fun winery and has the look and feel of Tuscany. We chatted with the tasting room associate who told me she was getting ready to publish a “Tasting Room Etiquette” book. That would be a fun read I’m sure. We tasted all of their wines, which were all delicious and the winemaker wandered through the tasting room and when she pointed him out to everyone, there was applause all around. Either their wines were THAT good, or we were all so buzzed at that point we would’ve applauded if an Oompa Loompa walked through the tasting room. I have a feeling it’s the latter. Anywho, I did buy two bottles of the Bruno’s Blend IV ($20/bottle). This blend is a nice red wine that will go with just about any kind of pasta dish or meat dish. It’s 35% Syrah, 30% Malbec, 25% Merlot, 5% Cabernet Sauvignon, and 5% Cabernet Franc. Yummy!

Last stop – Trust Cellars. At this point, I think we were actually getting tired of tasting wine. GASP! So it ain’t so Joe! We tasted a Syrah and a red blend and a Cabernet Sauvignon and none of them really made me take notice. The wineries were all getting ready to close as it was nearly 5:00pm and everyone was just friendly and chatty and I think most people were just done at that point. I know I was. I had broken the wine buying bank at this point anyway.

We went back to the hotel happy and wishing we could stay another couple of days as we just barely put a dent in tasting wines. We didn’t make it out to the Airport to any of the wineries in that part of town, nor did we visit any of the wineries east of town. We got up the next morning, Mother’s Day, and started our journey back to the rainy and cloudy part of the state.

We’ll definitely go to Walla Walla again. Perhaps at harvest time to see the grapes hanging heavy on the vines. Yeah, that’s the ticket.