"Walla Walla" news and stories

Have you ever wanted something so badly you could just...taste it? In my case, the tasting won't be possible, I'm afraid. You've probably heard of those swanky little boutique wineries in the Napa Valley that have such exclusive mailing lists that there's a waiting list to get on the waiting list? Some cult Cabernets like Screaming Eagle and Harlan Estate fetch thousands at auction, and people buy them just because they can.

Enter Cayuse, Walla Walla's most disarmingly exclusive winery. Owner Christophe Baron didn't set out to make a cult wine; he just happens to be a fabulous winemaker with great viticultural principles who stumbled upon an excellent piece of land in Walla Walla, which used to be home to fields of sweet onions and now is surrounded by vineyards.

Baron farms his vineyards biodynamically, which is basically a step beyond organic: it's not just avoiding chemicals and fungicides, but proactively keeping the plants and soil healthy and in cycle with each other and the cosmos. (Yeah, it sounds a little wacky, but you should taste the wine. Biodynamic wine is truly alive in the glass, as one winemaker described it.)

Alas, the Cayuse wines are just too good for their own good. A sign on the door of the downtown tasting room says they're open "a few days a year"--with those days unspecified, of course, and possibly never even to be. My dad, who lives in Walla Walla during the summers and has developed quite the wine palate, tried to get on the Cayuse mailing list. He got a letter back saying he was accepted for the waiting list, but with Cayuse getting wine scores in the mid- to high-90s and everyone from investors to fanatics panting to get ahold of the wine, I advised him to adopt a burgeoning winery elsewhere.

If you're an eternal optimist, go ahead and sign up for the waiting list to the mailing list. Or head to Walla Walla on some odd day--maybe the tasting room will be open after all.

I have to admit, college and I were not the best compadres. I worked full time while going to school and frankly what I was learning and the cost accrued from said learning never did appeal to me. Now that I am established and a little bored in my career of ten years, it would take something pretty exciting to make me hit the books again. Imagine my surprise when I opened the Wall Street Journal this morning and discovered this article about the wine making program at a small community college in Walla Walla, Washington. It's a hands-on program that teaches everything from tannins and terroir to winery Spanish! How great is that?!

While I may not be ready to strap on a new back pack just yet; I'm going to at least order a few of their wines and review them here on Slashfood. Would you like to be in my study group? ;-)

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