Walla Walla The New Napa Valley?

The Napa Valley has St. Helena -- a charming and lovely town, yes, yet overrun with expensive designer shops, ultra-high-end restaurants, and chi-chi boutiques. It stopped being a functional town for local residents many years ago. The Walla Walla Valley has Walla Walla -- charming indeed, yet still down-home. Tourists still have to hunt a bit if they want to find the fancy and the frou-frou in Walla Walla. Yet both communities are capitals of their own wine regions. How, then, can we prevent Walla Walla from becoming a St. Helena -- or even a Napa? (Well, Napa Auto Parts stores in Walla Walla -- that's okay.)

Some local car bumpers have lately been pasted with a new sticker, "Don’t Bend Walla Walla." The reference is to a Bend, Oregon, company that has plans to build a destination-resort near Walla Walla city limits. But the resort is inevitable, considering the explosion Walla Walla has felt from wine tourism. Yet during a county planning meeting where a local wheat farmer opposed a vineyard owner building a new winery in an agriculture zone where his vineyard was located, the opposition commented, "I don’t want to see Walla Walla grow like Napa and become a wine Disneyland for adults." While I favored the proposed new winery, I thought to myself when I heard the comment, "Me neither. I don’t want to see the town that I was born and raised in, the town I want to retire in, turn into another Napa Valley."

But is Walla Walla, with its rural charm and blend of eccentric personalities, destined to become the new Napa or St. Helena? Is it inevitable?

My Uncle Larry dropped by last week. He had a wine magazine guide from Napa Valley and Sonoma -- he and my Aunt Barb just came back from touring these most famous of California's wine regions. They began their trip thinking they were going to have the ultimate new world wine experience. But they came back disappointed -- indeed, Barb and Larry hated their visit down south. Larry had imagined that he would be returning to the rustic charm of old wineries in Napa and Sonoma that he had seen decades ago when he was a young man, but, he said, now all those wineries he remembered are hidden behind fancy tourist-oriented facades. And the wine, he said, is mediocre wine. Barb and Larry drove on roads congested with tour buses filled with non-wine-buying-looky-lous and stretch-limos full of obnoxious tasting-room drunks. I had to admit that I've seen those kinds of limos here in Walla Walla. Are limos filled with happy-hour drunks endemic to all wine country?

A while ago someone asked a group of us who know wine fairly well what wineries to visit in Napa. Someone in the group mentioned all of the wineries in California housed in beautiful structures, built to create a kind of Disneyish wine-country ambiance. I wondered, But how are their wines? I finally asked the person who wanted the Napa recommendations, "Are you looking for beautiful architecture or are you looking for good wine?" The two can go together, of course -- several fine Walla Walla-area wineries are beautiful and they make superlative wine -- but that's not always the case. I suggested that when visiting any wine region, don't ignore the mom and pop garagistas. Maybe their wines haven't yet received the attention of Robert Parker or the Wine Spectator, but who cares? If the wine tastes wonderful, isn’t that enough? In my experience, the small, local unpretentious wineries are the places where the people are making wine for love, not image. And it's love -- plus good vineyards -- that produces the best wine, I think.

Don’t get me wrong. Obviously, I love living in Washington wine country and I am thankful for the wineries and the associated economic growth they have brought to Walla Walla. Our town has a new vigor and excitement. But we have to learn from Napa, and by that I mean we can learn from Napa what to do and, especially, what NOT to do.

One thing I think we've already learned from Napa's and St. Helena's experience is that buses filled with tourists are not always a good thing. There's no guarantee these folks will spend the night in any of our local hostelries, and there's no guarantee, either, that a bus-load of people will result in any great additions to the local economy. In my experience, people who come to Walla Walla for the wine as couples or small families or even as singles tend to drop much more cash into our local wineries and businesses than tour groups do. In fact, in my seven years working in tasting rooms, I have yet to have a truly good experience with a tour group that arrived at the winery on a bus. Seriously, I mean that. I've sold groups a few bottles of wine, but not enough to make up for the time that tour groups require of tasting-room staff. Sometimes it feels like the winery is little more than a bathroom stop for such groups. Then there's the issue of tour groups that schedule a visit to a winery at a certain time, so the winery brings on extra tasting-room staff to handle the crowd -- and the group doesn't show. Yeppers, it's happened. I've heard some wineries in the Napa Valley are charging tour groups non-refundable reservation fees, and I think that's something that the more tourist-oriented Walla Walla wineries should consider.

But for me, working in a tasting room, nothing's more frustrating than when I'm serving a visitor who is serious about learning about the wines, and then a limo group of eight or 10 or 12 people bursts through the door. The intimate environment of the tasting room, which is properly a place of education, is immediately overwhelmed with noise and bother -- you'd be surprised how many people, when they arrive at a tasting room in a group, seem to require a loud conversation on their cellphone as they walk through the winery door.

Don't get me wrong. There are plenty of days when I envy those who visit wineries in a limo. I wish I could have my ass hauled around from winery to winery without a care in the world. But when I am working I am conscientious about the serious wine tourist who is here to experience the Walla Walla Valley and what it has to offer. The serious wine tourist wants to taste, savor and experience the wines. Getting hammered isn't on their agenda.

What I am hoping for Walla Walla is that we continue to grow and keep the state of Washington happy with our revenue taxes on wine, food and accommodations. But we need to be cautious about our growth. I think there are ways to encourage more wine tourism -- and there are ways not to. The experiences of California's famous wine regions, which have been in this game for a long time, provide us an opportunity to learn both.

The Ballad of North and South - Walla Walla Syrahs

With apologies to Rudyard Kipling - -

"Oh, North is North, and South is South, and the twain shall often meet...

Till Earth and Sky stand presently at Bacchus's great Judgment Seat

Two wines from Walla Walla recently got my interest, one from north of town and the other from south. Both are estate wines; the northerner comes from 100-year old wheat land and the southerner comes from old rocky river beds. What do they have in common? The comprise examples of the finest estate Syrah grown and made in the Walla Walla Valley, and as it happened both wines stood side by side in my house the other evening.

I knew the northern wine had come from Spring Valley Vineyards as soon as my nose hit the bowl of the glass. These old northern slopes of wheatland resembles those vertigo-inducing slopes of Northern Rhone and the earthiness of the estate's old wheat fields came through just as it does with their Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. It's a smell that I happen to love, as it reminds me of my grandfather and the smell of his OshKosh B'Gosh overalls from his days out in the wheat fields. Violets from my grandmother's garden came through as well.

This 2004 vintage, named "Nina Lee" by Spring Valley, is very large, with fruits of blackberry and plums and a hint of chocolate. There seem to be enough tannins going on that you'll be able to put some significant age on the bottle, though it is delicious now. There's an interesting contrast, in fact, between the wine in the bottle and the wine's label: the wine is big and dense, yet the woman -- Nina Lee herself, in a fetching photo from the 1920s -- is petite and delicate looking woman. But don't be fooled by her size. From what I've heard about her, the wine named for Nina Lee beautifully and accurately represents her big and bold spirit.

From vineyards south of town came the Cayuse Cailloux Syrah 2001 from Cayuse Vineyards. The stones held the secrets of the grapes and the name, Cayuse, which was given to a local Native American tribe by French trappers, is an evolved spelling of the French word "cailloux," which means rocks.

When I first smelled this wine it reminded me of an old French wine -- a mixture of perfume and soil, of a woman's subtle fragrance and a barnyard's odor. Well, that's French and French-style wine for you! But later the nose opened up and developed smoky notes with hints of coffee and florals - again, violets. The mouth was full and intense. Blueberries came though with a finish of Chinese Five-Spice. To me, this Syrah resembled the noble red grape from the rocky slopes of France's Rhone Valley. I thought it had just the right amount of tannins, but in my heart I knew we had opened it too soon. This Cayuse Syrah had more stories to tell if left in the bottle a few more years.

The ballad ends with two empty bottles that once held two different styles of Syrah from two different areas of the Walla Walla Valley. One defining thing they have in common: they are both beautiful wines that this woman from the West of Walla Walla would never turn down.

But there is neither North nor South, Border, nor Breed, nor Birth,

When two strong Syrahs stand face to face, tho' they come from the ends of the Walla Walla!"

May Day - Walla Walla Spring Release Around The Corner

Ahhh...the first of May! There is something about May Day that makes me nostalgic. It makes me think of:

When I was a little girl we would make May baskets out of construction paper. Often in the shape of cones with a ribbon hanging from the top. We would fill our "pocket full of posies" and hang them on the door knob, ring the bell and run before our mother answered the door. Then we would walk in the back door nonchalantly as if we knew nothing. Mom of course, never let on.

On the playground we had a Maypole draped with flowers and ribbons of pastel colors. Holding the ribbons, we had rehearsed a dance so that the ribbons wound round the pole in a weave. The legend was that the better the pattern, the better the harvest would be that coming fall. I now raise an eyebrow with a snicker at this memory and wonder if those prim and proper hair-bun-sensible-shoe-wearing teachers really knew the meaning behind this Beltane frivolity. The Maypole is probably the most well known, even to non-Pagans, as simply a phallic symbol to reflect the fertility of the season.

Every year I tell myself that this will be the year I will make my own May wine and wine from rose petals.

May wine, also known as Maiwein, is the name of a German aromatized wine and served in the spring, traditionally on the May Day holiday. The base of this wine is made with sweet woodruff, a fragrant creeping herb, that is steeped in white German-style wines such as Riesling. Often served in the Maibowle (May-bowl) and strawberries are floated in the bowl.

Many May moons ago I would make a yearly trek to the now defunct Zillah Oakes Winery and buy a case of their May wine that was released just once a year and of course always at the end of April. The off-dry wine was perfect for a May picnic with the aroma of the woodruff and a hint of strawberries. I would serve the May wine with chilled pinwheel shapes of boneless stuffed chicken breasts filled with spinach and pesto, croissants and chocolate covered strawberries.

Last night as I was admiring the new buds from my 10 rose bushes and I thought to myself, "Will this be the year I will finally make rose petal wine?" Then all of a sudden reality knocks on my ethereal memories - - Spring Release is this weekend! It will mean to me the wine loving masses all descending on Walla Walla. My ears will be left ringing from hundreds of voices kicked-up a few volumes, my cheeks will hurt from smiling with the happy customer and trying to make the unhappy customer smile. When I reach my quiet sanctuary Sunday evening it will mean that my legs and feet will be sore. By the time my head hits the pillow there will come a wave of satisfaction that my tired old body once again accomplished another Spring Release weekend in Walla Walla, while my mind will wonder, "Will this be the year I will finally make rose petal wine?"

Long Shadow Vintners Poet's Leap Riesling - 2005

The Poet's Leap label comes from the prestigious world class collection of Long Shadows Vintners and crafted from Washington grapes by Armin Diel, proprietor of the renowned Schlossgut Diel in Germany. We served the chilled bottle of this off-dry wine before dinner last weekend. What a treat!

With both of the red and white vintages, the 2005 growing season will be remembered as one of Washington's finest and Poet's Leap Riesling rings true of this - fresh and perfectly balanced. It is a blend from two of the older vineyards in the area - Dionysus Vineyard north of the Tri-Cities, planted in 1972 and Weinbau Vineyard on the Wahluke Slope, planted in 1982.

We couldn't have served a better wine to pair with our appetizers of artichoke cheese torte, spicy bandarillos, assorted Greek olives and a plate of simple radishes and sliced cucumbers sprinkled with Kosher salt. As we know, when in doubt about what wine to pair with cheese, Riesling always works and the hint of artichoke in the cheese torta was complimented and the fruit flavors of the wine cooled the spiciness from the colorful banderillo kebabs. The flavors of Poet's Leap off-dry wine are honey-dew and apricot with a light-bite of citrus. The finish was clean and bright without being cloyingly sweet.

In a few years, we will soon be seeing more and more Rieslings (dry and off-dry) from Washington state on the store shelves because of our almost-perfect growing conditions. In fact, Bonny Doon from California, known for their eclectic and colorful labels such as Cardinal Zin, just broke ground this week in Richland for their new winery - - Pacific Rim will produce dry Rieslings from Eastern WA grapes. When in doubt, Rieslings are the perfect wine to pair with cheese and spicy Thai food. For those of you "I only drink reds snooty-von-snoots" (yes, you know who you are), you will be missing out and be left in the dust if you don't add this varietal to your limited and narrow-minded wine repertoire.

Wild Walla Walla Wine Woman On the Run- Part Deux

She's baaaack! Just a few quick notes while I try to absorb the shock of being back to my old routine.

The state of Washington did it! The Washington wine industry celebrated an important milestone this week when the Washington State Liquor Board gave a license to the state’s 500th winery. And it just so happens that the winery will be located in Walla Walla. Sweet Valley Wines will join 499 other wineries licensed in the state since 1962. Owners of Sweet Valley Wines, LLC are David and Karen McDaniels.

In the last six days, we tasted some wonderful wines and many of them were from the Walla Walla Valley (we took notes and will share them ASAP). Also, we met up with some great winemakers and did some touring of some of the newer Washington State’s AVAs. We tasted so many wines (even a Bordeaux and a California Zin) that we had a collection of the empty bottles on the kitchen island for days. I finally dumped our "trophies" as the place was beginning to look like a college frat house.

Walla Walla’s Spring Release festivities start up next week. Think I better take it easy this weekend.

Wild Walla Walla Wine Woman On the Run

Just a few thoughts before I head out in the world of vacation-land:

Hey Tiny (reader from Alaska)! I understand you were in Walla Walla doing some wine tasting, but you didn't leave a contact number for me (please send me your email or comment if you read this)! I wanted to thank you for the excellent gift of coffee beans! What a wonderful surprise and what a wonderful treat! The winery was enjoying the wonderful smell of the fresh roasted beans and almost didn't want to give 'em up! Many thanks again!

Last week, a group of friends and I dined at the new Italian restaurant at the Walla Walla Airport. Caravaggio is owned by Walla Walla Catering Company - partners, Carissa Bossini Meliah and Laura Price. The name Caravaggio comes from a small municipality located in Northern Italy about 30 miles northeast of Milan, which is also the birthplace of Carissa Bossini Meliah's great grandfather. Carlo Bossini arrived in the United States at Ellis Island and settled in Walla Walla in 1919 where he began farming. The Walla Walla Sweet Onion played an important part to the Bossini farming. Today four generations of Carlo's family still live in the Walla Walla Valley. And that --- is the origin of the name. This is one of the many threads of family history that makes Walla Walla so great.

So how was the food? Delicious! How was the service? Very attentive! I ordered Nick's Pasta Florentine Diavolo. A spaghetti in a creamy garlic sauce with spinach, mushrooms, pancetta. I am assuming that diavolo (devil) was the red pepper flakes that gave this pasta a spicy kick. A delicious house salad dressing was served with lots of rosemary, but I also used it to dip the fresh warm bread in.

Caravaggio has a great local wine list. Did you know that you can "hop a flight" at the airport without even leaving the building? The lounge at Caravaggio is offering flights of local wines. Guests can choose the "destinations" of their flights from more than a dozen local wineries. The wine list features 26 different varietals from local wine country. Wine flights start at $14 for five two-ounce pours and customers may choose their "itineraries" that highlight different regions in the valley, or create their own flight selections. Very clever idea.

This morning I noticed the lilacs are in bloom and local asparagus is in the stores --two of my favorite spring things. I never get tired of our local 'gras and I will prepare it a variety of ways until the last of the local spears are gone. I found a new and EASY asparagus recipe to use for appetizers:

Take 8 or 9 asparagus spears, depending on size, and snap off the tough ends. You will need about a 1/2 (16-ounce) package of thawed phyllo dough sheets. Unwrap the phyllo and cut the stack in half lengthwise (save the one stack for later use). It is important to cover the phyllo with a damp towel to keep it from drying out. Take 1 sheet of phyllo and brush lightly with some melted butter (over all you will need about 1/4 cup butter, melted ). Sprinkle grated Parmesan over the brushed butter (you will need about /4 cup finely grated). Place 2 to 3 asparagus spears on the short end of the sheet. Roll up, jelly-roll style placing each piece, seam side down, on a baking sheet. Brush with more melted butter and sprinkle with more Parmesan. Repeat until all the asparagus spears are used up. Place baking sheet in oven and bake for 15 to 18 minutes, or until golden brown and crispy. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

This asparagus appetizer definitely calls out for a glass of crisp Sauvignon Blanc or lightly oaked Chardonnay. Lots of good local whites out there from Waterbrook, Forgeron Cellars, and Three Rivers to name a few.

Starting this evening at 5:00 pm, and most of next week, I will be taking a much needed vacation. My plans? Nothing exotic. No villa in Mexico. Just "mi casa" in Walla Walla and I will be away from all things that resemble computers and cell phones.

I plan on staying home for a few days and no, it won't be all lost days of "Wine and Roses." I hope to catch up on spring house chores. New window screens, re-painting the front light post, planting some herbs and flowers, tidying up the rock garden, and new soil in the wine barrel planters to name a few of my chores. One day will be spent experimenting with recipes on the new grill/rotisserie and one evening I am hosting a casual dinner party with other wine lovers and some local winemaker stars.

A road trip to visit some of the new Washington state appellations is also on the schedule. But my biggest thrill will be waking up with no alarm (I'll miss you Bob and Tom, Kristi Lee and Chick McGee) and later sitting on the deck drinking morning coffee (thanks to Tiny) with no care or schedule. Later in the afternoon I will start the deck ritual all over, but this time with a glass of wine. See you in about 10 days!

More Taxes = Think Washington Wines!

This past winter, Washington winemakers and grape growers voted to impose on themselves a higher tax. The tax dollars will pay for advertising to encourage people to think and buy Washington wines. These increased taxes will assist in financing the Washington State Wine Commission, a promotional agency. The commission’s primary source of funding is from the vineyards and wineries, as well as some state and federal funding.

Under this vote, commission fees will double from 4 cents per gallon of wine made at the wineries to 8 cents per gallon. Vineyard taxes will raise from $6 per ton of grapes to $12 per ton. The increase could start as early as July or get increase over the next few years.

Washington state's wine industry has exploded in the last twenty years – from less than 20 wineries in 1981 to nearly 500 today with more than 30,000 acres of wine grapes. The wine/grape industry is worth an estimated $3 billion to the state's economy. With this substantial increase of self-imposed taxes, money will be used to market Washington wines in key markets increasing awareness and for the wine consumer to think Washington, instead of California, Australia and Europe.

Attention people - THINK WASHINGTON WINE!

Wine Blog Tag -- I'm it!

Russ at Winehiker started a game of wine blog-tag. Dr. Debs at Good Wine Under $20 was tagged and she tagged me - - I’m it! I won’t let them down and will answer the burning blog-tag question, " Why do we blog?" Using a similar format as Dr. Debs to answer the question:

1. Why did I start blogging?
Since I was a kid I loved writing stories and letters to my pen-pals. In grade school I won spelling bees. (Alas, things change and bless spell check. My grammar has slipped, but I never claimed to have a PhD in English.) In my youth, I kept a diary and wrote screen dialogues for Annette Funicello, hoping that Disney would want to buy my adolescent scribbles. My crowning moment was when the junior high English teacher asked us to write a saga about the traveling pop bottle - something I could sink my teeth into, including a classroom audience. Yes boys and girls, that was back in the "old" days when pop came in glass bottles and often found on the side of the road -- all with their own stories of how they got there. As a young adult I continued to write - usually family memories. I was trying to be the next Laura Ingalls Wilder - "Little Red House..."

About 10 years ago I joined an eclectic group of journalists, authors, and activists based out of San Francisco and became fascinated with their blogging group. With a little encouragement – here I am.

2. Why do I blog about wine and Walla Walla?
Before I started the blog I knew I did not want to blabber about anything. I wanted it to be interesting - a subject that others would enjoy. I wanted readers. Would I find readers that would be interested in my daily routine of feeding the cats, Crosby and Nash? Would anybody care to hear my repretoir of songs I sing to the kitty-boyz ("Teach Your Kitties Well" to the ever popular "Our house, is a very, very, very fine house, with two cats in the yard...?" Who wants to read about my needlework crafting? Would you want to read about my love of planting flowers and motorized garden tools? What reader would really care about my collection of Theodore Roosevelt biographies (you read one bio of TR and you read them all)? Who would really care about my odd and eclectic tastes in music from country crooner Alan Jackson to bat-head-biting Ozzie Osbourne with a dash of Josh Groban and Shikira tossed in to round things out? Or how I cannot listen to a Beatles or John Lennon song without sobbing now days?

One day I was working in the wine tasting room listening to tourists talk about how they love Walla Walla and her wines. And then it came to me --I knew what I had to blog...

3. Why keep blogging about wine?
Because I am hooked. Because I am having a lot of fun. I am meeting new people and having opportunities to taste wonderful wines that I might not otherwise get to taste. Because I have found myself having new experiences that I normally would not have if I had not started "Through The Walla Walla Grape Vine." (Example: next week I will be interviewed by a wine group from Los Angeles for a radio podcast. More on that later.) Because I think I have something to say and most of all, I will keep blogging for my readers.

4. Why do I think blogging about wine matters?
The old image that wine is reserved for men of status and wealth has disappeared. Wine is happening all over. It’s on the internet (over a hundred wine bloggers, several wine magazine sites and wine-dot-coms), wine education is everywhere from college classrooms to online programs, wine stores are popping up all over and grocery stores have fighting varietal shelves with eye popping labels seeking attention from housewives.

It’s not what I think. It’s about what is happening in Walla Walla, the State of Washington, the United States and all over the world! To quote Ernest Hemmingway, "Wine is the most civilized thing in the world."

I will now continue the chain that Dr. Debs started - I will tag two other wine blogging women. One as far away in Tokyo with Melinda from Tokyo Through the Drinking Glass and local winery blogger, Denise from Wine Matters in Walla Walla - Trio Vintners. You-are-it!!!

Wine Bloggers Play Well With Others

It was bound to happen - bloggers with bad behaviors. That's right - big blue meanies in the blogosphere.

If you want to start writing or reading blogs you are guaranteed to find a topic that interests you whether it be food and wine, hobbies, politics, new mothers, celebrity gossip or just someone ranting on their personal soap box. And it isn’t just individuals anymore. As an example we are seeing a growth in wineries blogging about their business and winery events.

Recently blogging meanies popped out in the blogging world as written in the San Francisco Chronicle by Dan Frost - Bad Behavior in the Blogosphere. The bad behavior consisted of anonymous rude comments and to the extreme of death threats. As far as I know, the wine community of bloggers have not been hit with this kind of bad behavior. Could it be we have some of the best readers and bloggers in the whole blogosphere? Could it have something to do with the topic - wine and food? How can you go wrong when you are with other wine aficionados and foodies?

So far, the world of wine blogging is a world of peace and camaraderie. We are gracious to link other wine blogging sites and exchange ideas. In fact once a month we gather for Wine Blogging Wednesday where a host gives us a wine blogging assignment. The host will later post our completed "assignments" on his/her wine blogging website. Why are we getting along and some other groups are having problems? Could it be that we are nipping at the grape? Maybe those outside of the wine blogging world should take a cue from us and drink more wine and they might become nicer people.

Blogging pioneer Tim O'Reilly wants to change the way we read, comment and write blogs by creating a Blogger's Code of Conduct. "Radar" O'Reilly (obviously not related to Bill O'Reilly if he wants civility in speech) suggests that we, in the big blogosphere, post little "badges" on our blogs and enforce a "Civility Code" on our readers with standards such as: we will no longer allow anonymous comments, we will connect privately before we respond publicly online, ignore all trolls, and bloggers will give the readers a warning of our content (like television and porn sites), to name a few.

While O'Reilly's intentions are well and good, in the mean time: we don’t need no stinking blog police! I don't need a code of honor and I don’t need to hang a sheriff’s star on my blog. And why do I feel this way? Because dammit-Janet, it is my blog and I can do what I want! I am not blogging in Iran! As it is, if I delete any comments it always has to do with spam. At this time I am fine with anonymous comments from the "shy" readers and sometimes my siblings (I know who you are. I'm telling Mom.). I plan on allowing anonymity until it becomes abused. Enforcement like this reminds me of television censorship. Instead of trying to enforce your personal rules on a particular television program or magazines that others enjoy --umm - how difficult is it to turn the television program off and not buy the magazine?

At this time, we do not need a little tin star to remind us how to behave, at least not on this blog. Besides, if any of my readers, fellow wine bloggers or purple grape meanies ever wrote anything mean on my blog I would just assume they were hung-over from drinking too much 2-Buck-Chuck. Cheers!

Wine Blogging Wednesday #32 - Regular vs. Reserve

Our assignment for WBW #32 addresses a matter of choice: Regular vs. Reserve. The premise is to describe two bottles of wine from the same varietal from the same producer and compare and see how the juice differs inside of these two bottles. In other words, which wine do I prefer, and do I feel the "reserve" named wine is worth the higher price?

But rather than narrow the choice down to a single varietal from a single winemaker, I chose to go with the same varietals -- plural, that is. I got some suggestions from Anne (Tasting Room Manager) and Patty (Marketing Director) at Forgeron Cellars in Walla Walla for examples, and in the end we agreed that Forgeron Cellar's popular Red Table Wine and Forgeron's proprietor's blended reserve, Vinfinity, would make perfect compare-and-contrast examples, as these wines are made from very nearly the same blends.

The Red Table Wine (aka RTW) is a non-vintage blend of, primarily, Cabernet Sauvignon for structure, followed by Merlot for roundess and a dash of Syrah for spice. While the blend is a great value for $16 a bottle, Forgeron did not skip on quality, as some of Washington State's most notable vineyards, including Klipsun, Alder Ridge, Dubrul, Sundance, Boushey and Pepperbridge, contribute fruit to the finished wine.

The 2002 Vinfinity is somewhat pricier, $46, and comprises a blend of 41% Cabernet Sauvignon, 41% Merlot, and 18% Syrah. But like the Red Table Wine, it is made from Washington grapes from the Boushey, Alder Ridge, Clifton and Klipsun vineyards. I have tasted the '02 Vinfinity at various times and have watched this wine come of age. When it was first released, in December 2005, the wine featured big but balanced tannins, but now these tannins have softened, and the wine's mouthfeel keeps getting silkier. I have to be honest here: I tasted the '02 Vinfinity when it was first released and I thought it was, well, just okay. It offered nothing really very memorable for me, and frankly I kind of avoided it. However, in the last few months I re-tasted the wine, and wow, what elegance! It's got lots of depth and complexity now, yet I think it's going to keep getting better.

Both of the wines, the Red Table and Vinfinity, show big flavors of cherry and dark cocoa with a hint of spice in the finish. But do I think there is a difference? Which is another way of asking, of course: Is the Vinfinity worth the higher price? Yes, absolutely. I am not sure what winemaker Marie-Eve Gilla does in the cellar when she practices that "voo-doo-that-she-do-so-well" (or is it the chant of "ting-tang-Walla-Walla-bing-bang"?), but the Vinfinity is clearly a higher quality wine than the Red Table. Yet this isn't to dis the RTW: each wine serves a purpose and has a place for the money that cost. Forgeron's RTW is meant to be enjoyed now. The only age I think it needs is in the car between the store and home (well, you could probably put a year on it -- but why?), while the Vinfinity can be aged for about seven to ten years from the date of vintage. Softer tannins showed in the RTW from the very beginning, while the bigger tannins the Vinfinity showed makes for an ageworthy and, eventually, more elegant wine.

Which do I prefer? That's the tougher question, because I like them both for different reasons. I also pair the wines differently with food. For everyday sipping or for spur of the moment and casual entertaining, I really enjoy the RTW. Guests always comment favorably. And they are always amazed at the retail price for the quality. The RTW is definitely a wine for barbeques or Monday night meatloaf. My favorite pairing is a glass of RTW with a handful of Hershey chocolate kisses.

The Vinfinity is special. It is meant to be paired with a beef filet or smoked salmon and a Vinfinity reduction sauce -- it needs rich, almost decadent meat to match its silky elegance. It deserves a better chocolate than Hershey kisses - say one of the exotic chocolate bars from Vosges Haut-Chocolat. Vinfinity is a wine that is saved for special events and gatherings with family and close friends. So why not serve the very best?

To really sum up this exercise of regular vs. reserve, I will quote winemaker Marie-Eve, of Forgeron Cellars - - “In wine there are few truths, and many opinions...”

Cooking Through The Walla Walla Grape Vine

Some changes - a new title and format for my monthly "Cooking with Washington Wines." The Walla Walla Valley is filled with talented foodies and gourmets who also know their wines. So I thought recipes from some of Walla Walla's best winemakers, wineries and chefs would make a perfect monthly addition.

To kick off the new monthly recipes, winemaker Eric Dunham from Dunham Cellars and Dunham's vineyard manager, Ken Hart together developed this recipe of harmonic flavors. Family-owned Dunham Cellars has established an award-winning reputation for their Cabernet Sauvignon and Syrah. When Eric's first vintage, a 1995 Cabernet Sauvignon, was released, it was noted as being one of the finest wines made in Washington by Wine Enthusiast Magazine.

Eric and Ken have been cooking almost as long as they have been eating, and both are very creative and skilled in the kitchen. Dunham Cellars originally used this recipe for one of their wine club events and they received such a great response that they included the recipe in one of their wine club shipments (recipe cards are sent out to members in each shipment). I am told that this recipe is also a Dunham Cellar's staff favorite as well and the addition of the cranberry-wasabi relish makes this pork roast really memorable.

Pork Roast with Cranberry-Wasabi Relish

Pork Roast ingredients:
2 pound pork Roast
Italian seasoning
Salt & pepper
1 pound bacon
Butchers twine

Cranberry-Wasabi Relish ingredients:
One 12 ounce package frozen cranberries (thawed)
1 cup sugar
1 tablespoon Wasabi horseradish
¾ cup sour cream

Pork Roast preparation: Pre-season pork roast with Italian seasoning, salt, and pepper to taste. Wrap roast with bacon using butchers twine to secure. Grill until cooked through (boneless pork loin - an average of 25-30 minutes per pound @ 325 degrees) .

Cranberry-Wasabi Relish preparation: Chop thawed cranberries in food processor until consistency of relish. Add sugar, Wasabi horseradish and sour cream. Mix until creamy.

This pork roast pairs well with the Dunham Cellars Trutina, which also happens to be Dunham's featured wine for the month of April. It is a Bordeaux-style blend of 42% Merlot, 45% Cabernet Sauvignon and 13% Cabernet Franc. Bon appetite!

Nicholas Cole Camille - 2003

To give you an example of how many of us are connected in the Walla Walla Valley: last month I ran into an old friend at a wine industry mixer. Mike Golden was not only a classmate at the Institute of Viticulture and Enology in Walla Walla, but I was maid of honor at his wedding over 30 years ago! Mike was at the mixer representing Nicholas Cole Cellars and I had an opportunity to taste one of their wines I have been hearing so much about – Camille. I wasn’t disappointed.

2003 was a good year for Washington State grapes and it reflects on Camille. But then again, how could you miss when you have three of the most distinguished Washington State vineyards making up this claret-like blend of 47% Cabernet Sauvignon, 37% Merlot, 15% Cabernet Franc? The diversity of Klipsun Vineyard from Red Mountain, Champoux Vineyard from Horse Heaven Hills and Seven Hills in the Walla Walla Valley gives Camille generous, yet elegant flavors.

The nose reminded me of a box of rich chocolate covered cherries. You know, the good kind with cherry liquor. And the flavors of chocolate and cherries continued onto my palate. A little spice at the end with flavors of anisette and pepper. However, the spice did not seem to overpower the chocolate, but compliment it. Soft tannins and a very silky mouth feel - a wine that is worthy of ageing.

La Donna Legg, who coordinates the Nicholas Cole Cellars wine club, says the new 2004 Camille is awesome and will be released next month at the May Spring Release weekend. Cheers!

Cork Decor - Is it a good thing, Martha?

I wonder what Martha Stewart does with all of her wine corks? I have kept a limit on the decorative crafty-busy-hands-happy-heart cork projects in my house, but I am still hanging on to corks. Why? Some of them tell stories of wines during great events in my life - - memories.

On my kitchen island, I keep a vintage blue canning jar to hold the corks of many past opened bottles of wine. Eventually, when the jar gets full, they go into a box to start over. So far, out of the box has come a few kitchen cork trivits glued in the shape of grape clusters and one wine cork bulletin board displaying several local Walla Walla wine corks, as well as corks from memorable wine events.

While web surfing arts and crafts, I discovered a world of cork crafting beyond my imagination and the majority of the projects I will never do. There are also the handy and useful tips such as mix separated corks into your garden mulch to help keep soil moist longer or start a fire with them. Soak wine corks in a glass jar of mineral spirits - toss two or three of them in the fireplace or grill and you will get a fire going in no time. Use corks for fixing bathroom and kitchen plumbing leaks. Lose an earring backing - cut out a piece of wine cork to fit.

Dazzle your dinner guests with charger plate covered with corks and matching cork napkin ties. Drill a hole in the center of a wine cork. Glue in the hole colored 3/16 cording about 12" long and voila - napkin ties for entertaining! Add wine cork place cards - slice a single slit on the opposite side of the cork and it holds a name tag to place on a guest table.

Do you want to make gifts with corks? Make wreaths! Birdhouses! Christmas ornaments - angels, reindeer and Santas! Fashionable houte couture! Candle decor (see above photo)!

Make corks a part of your house with cork baseboards. Glue corks on your kitchen wall as a back splash coating them with three coats of polyurethane. Why stop there? Make a whole wall out of corks!

Or you can do what I do - - I toss them on the floor and let my cats, Crosby and Nash, bat them around the floor. Cheap cat toy.

Russell Creek Cabernet Sauvignon - 2002

Okay - I am dating myself here, but back in the late 80's I remember being invited to a few crush parties at the home of Dr. Roy Fowler in Walla Walla. Dr. Fowler had a few grapes in front of his country home and in the fall, a few of the local "garagistas" would gather for crushing of the grapes. Besides the crush, there was always lots of wine and fabulous food designed by Dr. Fowler's chef-daughter.

If memory serves me well, one of those garagistas was now-winemaker Larry Krivoshein of Russell Creek Winery. Larry's original wine label was named "Diggers." The name "Diggers" was a tongue in check regarding Larry's profession at the time. In fact, I remember having a bottle of Diggers red wine in our wine collection. My former husband and Larry were professional colleagues. If you haven't figured out yet where the name "Digger" comes from, does a funeral director come to mind? Okay and that was another time many moons ago. Now to the wine ---

A few weeks ago I enjoyed a glass of Russell Creek Cabernet Sauvignon - 2002 at Vintage Cellars downtown Walla Walla. Russell Creek Cabernet Sauvignon is a blend of Walla Walla and Columbia Valley grapes. In the nose I picked up a little earth and cedar. A mouthful of semi-sweet chocolate, a bit of mocha and dark brambleberries. I would say that it typifies some of the big tannic "monsters" that Walla Walla has been known for. This is definitely a food wine (the glass of wine begged for a thick slice of prime rib or medallions of beef with a wild mushroom ragout) and a wine that I feel is going to age very well. It's also a great value for the quality at $28 a bottle. Sante!

Mama, Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Wine ...

If Willie drank wine for pleasure instead of sipping bourbon and smoking from the bong, he would lament these words with his guitar.

Alder Yarrow at Vineography could not have said it any better. Men, Please Don't Be Wine Assholes. The blog gave me a chuckle, then brought forth repressed stories of my own experiences with the notorious WA.

Vineography directs us to a story from the United Kingdom, Men Pretend To Be Wine Buffs To Impress: new research shows that nearly 22 percent of men admit to embellishing their expertise about wine in order to impress their dates. Among 19 to 30 year-olds, that number jumps to 29%. And 35% of men refuse to let their partner choose wine in a restaurant because they do not trust them to make the appropriate choice, according to the British study. It's 2007 and we're supposed to be well beyond all that, but you'd never know it from these kinds of men.

In my experience you never know when the WA will strike. It might be a WA trying to impress his date in a tasting room or a wine newbie being trained in wine working environment who in three days becomes the wine expert and dismisses any woman's knowledge on the subject (especially the woman who trained him!).

In the tasting room environment I have seen more than my share of WAs, though, if anything, they give me great stories to share later. What I discovered is the majority of the WAs come into the winery after sitting in a bathtub filled with his favorite aftershave. So everyone in the tasting room, with no choice in the matter, gets to sample his "Ralph Lauren Polo Cabernet Reserve." Now, any wine aficionado knows that you either use little to zero fragrances on your body when tasting wine. This is out of respect to other wine tasters, of course.

Sometimes the WA travels in packs, dropping names and demanding special discounts or library wines not for sale. Sometimes the WA announces for all in the tasting room to hear that he "doesn't do white wines" and in his mind he thinks it means his tastebuds are superior to whites. Sometimes the WA states out loud that a wine others have been enjoying all day "is just overloaded with brett," meaning brettanomyces, when brett isn't even visible (Brettanomyces is a natural species of yeast that begins to make its presence known in red wines after fermentation. It is largely responsible for the earthy qualities long associated almost exclusively with European wines. A controversial little wild yeastie and while it can be considered faulty, others covet it and in small quanities it can compliment the flavors in wine.).

One of my favorite WA stories involves a man who walked into the tasting room with a woman who, it became obvious, knew nothing about wine. Also clear: this was their first date. So the WA couldn't resist the temptation to dazzle the "little lady" with his wine knowledge. The breadsticks we kept on the counter for cleansing the palette were not good enough for the WA; he asked if we had any bread instead to cleanse his palate. We didn't, so he went to his car and brought back his own bread along with a bread board and knife. Of course, he insisted on clean glasses with every wine he tasted instead of rinsing or leaving the leftover wine residue in the glass. I watched the show with fascination and the more he talked about wine, the less he really knew. In my opinion, if this woman is still seeing the WA and picked up any wine knowledge from him, all the WA did was create another WA -- a female one.

Which brings me to the point of the WA. They come in all shapes, sizes, ages and gender. Women are not exempt from holding the title of WA. In my opinion, being a WA really is about our insecurities with wine, especially when we want to squash someone else's knowledge about the subject to shine the light on us. Somewhere along the line of wine conversations, I have no doubt of my own guilt.

I've been fortunate, though, that none of the important men in my life has been a WA, at least in my presence. There is mutual respect. My father fermented anything he could get his hands on, and he took me along in his fermenting adventures. I learned a great deal from him about fruit and chemistry; he never thought I was too young or too inexperienced or too "girly" to learn. From my significant relationships and from wine educators I have always received respect for my opinions and, most of all, for my sensory evaluations when ordering wine in a restaurant, blind tasting events or in a blending committee.

And that's just the thing: People who are secure in their wine knowledge always respect the opinions and judgments of others, because true wine aficionados are always ready to learn something new about wine. You never know who might teach you something new, or what the occasion might be. The best wine consumers I know -- the people with the most knowledge, the best palates, and the most respect for wine as well as for their companions -- never try to impress anyone. When you show off, you lose an opportunity to learn, and true wine aficionados would never miss one of those. But WAs always do.

The more I think about this, maybe a WA is just an asshole no matter what.

Seven Hills Ciel du Cheval Vintage Red - 2004

A couple of weeks ago I had an opportunity to visit with Kirsten of Seven Hills Winery and to sample the 2004 Ciel du Cheval Vintage Red Wine from Red Mountain. Okay, I am stretching this a bit - it was more than a sample. It was at least two glasses -- and I wanted more.

Estatlished in 1988, Seven Hills Winery was one of the first five original wineries in the Walla Walla Valley. Using only top-tier vineyards, they produce less than 10,000 cases a year. The Red Mountain appellation is one of the most distinctive viticultural areas in the state of Washington and home to one of the most prestigious and renowned vineyards in the state, Ciel du Cheval (French for "Horse Heaven").

To sum this wine up in one word - "elegant." I really do not need to say much more than this. No need to give any descriptions of nose, taste, awards or points. "Elegant" says it all. A unique blend of 32% Cabernet Sauvignon, 29% Merlot, 26% Cabernet Franc, and 13% Petit Verdot and cellared in the finest French oak.

Elegant.

~March Cooking With Washington Wines~

Okay, so you didn't have a Jewish bubbe growing up - but you can still enjoy some savory and celebratory meals as if you had a bubbe without the kvetching and getting all ferklempt, furblungit and appearing like a real goyishke kup.

Chicken liver pate does not touch my lips, but this recipe is reminiscent of chopped liver in the very best vegetarian way and you will look like a mavin in your kitchen. Serve along side a very kreftig soup (see my matzo ball soup recipe) or perhaps for just a little nosh and I guarantee that you will kvell. My mishpacha loved it! Pair with a variety of wines such as a Walla Walla Merlot, Washington Riesling or Chardonnay. That's a real good chochmeh and will bring glick to you and your chevra.

Veggie Walnut Pate

1/2 cup walnuts
8 - 10 button mushrooms
2 shallots, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
2 cups of a combination of carrots and/or red and/or green peppers
1 tsp dried basil
1 tsp dried marjoram
Kosher salt and black pepper to taste
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 Tbsp lemon juice

Mix all of the ingredients (except the olive oil and lemon juice) in a food processor to the consistency of coarse bread crumbs. Heat the olive oil in a small skillet and sauté the mixture for 6-8 minutes. Add the lemon juice. Serve warm or cold with matzoh or water crackers. Makes 2-3 cups.

l'chaim!

Merlot: Go For the Good Ones - Follow Up

The last couple of days, while drafting the blog on Merlot: Go for the Good Ones, I decided to follow my own advice and opened up a couple bottles of Washington State Merlot. Both wines contained Walla Walla grapes, but different vintages and the biggest difference - price. I wanted to see if the price fit the bottle while still keeping the quality.

The first bottle opened was a Lecole No 41 Walla Walla Merlot - 1999. Note that this is a library wine, but I believe if it is still available in limited quanities (Contact Jaimie at Lecole and tell her I sent you). The Lecole was priced at $33. It contained 95% Merlot with 5% Cabernet Franc. I was wise to let it stay open for a second day because it just - got - better. I was surprised that with 8 years behind it, this Merlot still had a lot of structure - the tannins were very visible as well as the acidity. This wine really deserved a good beef steak, but at least I was able to pair it with a good piece of chocolate. Lots of cherry, plum and deep rich cocoa on the taste buds with some cigar box on the nose. Surprisingly I could still pick up some oak. If Parker Points interest you, 91-WS and 92 -WE.

The second wine was Sagelands Vineyard Merlot Four Corners - 2003. This label is owned by the Chalone group and bottled in Walla Walla. The "Four Corners" has to do with the four appellations that went into the bottle - Wahluke, Horse Heaven Hills, Rattlesnake and Walla Walla. What a great value this wine is at $13.00! Softer than the Lecole, but still a perfect everyday sipping wine. The nose was very strong of graham cracker and marshmallows. Lots of ripe cherry in flavor and ending with a spicy finish. Do I think it will have the aging power that the Lecole Merlot had? No, but that’s okay. Some of us cannot afford to open a bottle of Lecole library wine for every day sipping (you know - that daily heart medicine that our doctors have prescribed for us). For the quality and the dollar - it’s a great wine for evening patio sipping and I would pair it with a piece of salmon and even smoked salmon for brunch or snacking. Parker Points on that 87-WS and 91-WE and WE gave it a "Best Buy."

So the point of this exercise is indeed, when it comes to Merlot, go for the good ones and they will be from Washington State. And no matter the price - you cannot go wrong.

Merlot: Go For The Good Ones

Newton's Third Law of Motion: For every action there's an opposite and equal reaction. Catie's Addendum: In wine too!

A new article in the Wine Enthusiast, Merlot: The Best Red You're Not Drinking, not only lists some of Walla Walla's finest Merlots, it tells the interesting recent history of Merlot sales in the United States. In the 1990s it was fashionable to ask for a glass of Merlot; in 2004, a Hollywood movie brought Merlot sales down. The general Merlot rule, advises the article, is "Go for the good ones."

The piece reminded me of my own personal experiences with Merlot. Growing up, I don't remember seeing a bottle of Bordeaux in the house. We may have had one, but I remember mostly the Italian and Spanish varietals as well as some home-fermented wine. Oh and let's not forget the unopened bottle of Thunderbird in the back of the fridge that Dad kept for a joke. Yes, call it corny, but Dad got a kick out of asking guests if they would like a glass of fine wine and then bringing out that same bottle every time. But in the '80s Merlot took off in the State of Washington. Almost every spring we would wander across the state, often making stops at wineries during the Spring Release weekends. Sometimes we would revisit the memorable wineries in December in search of our Christmas wine. Merlot was everywhere, and I developed the taste for a good Merlot. Sometimes I sampled the California Merlots I found in the supermarket, but they just didn't compare to a good Washington Merlot.

In the '90s I joined an online community of authors, journalists, programmers and activists. Many were wine aficionados. The majority were California-based, and oh how they scoffed and ridiculed me whenever I mentioned I had tasted a good Washington Merlot! As far as some of them were concerned, Merlot was no more than a weak blending grape. (I guess they'd never heard of, say, Petrus.) Like Miles, the Merlot-loathing character in "Sideways," many of my online colleagues had not tasted the fruit of Washington. Well, no longer do they scoff, and I wonder if it has to do with the positive publicity that Washington has received for its Merlot. The land in Washington state is vast and abundant; the air's fresh and the water's clean, and we're at the same latitude as France's premier viticultural areas: Burgundy, Bordeaux and the Rhone. In fact, young French winemakers are making their mark in our Northwest state. Perhaps my critics from the online comunity are now enjoying a glass of hearty and rich Washington Merlot with their plate of crow?

Here are recommendations by members of the Wine Enthusiast Tasting Panel for some of the best Walla Walla Merlots available at various price points. They were organized into four categories and based on retail price.

Everyday Merlots ($15 and under at retail):

Couvillion Winery 2004 Merlot (Columbia Valley); $15. (note: Jill's Merlot is sold out. We were fortunate enough to get in on a few bottles when we did. In my opinion, this was priced way too low for the quality. )

Weekend Merlots ($15 to $40):

James Leigh 2003 ‘Spofford Station’ Merlot (Walla Walla Valley); $32

Abeja 2004 Merlot (Columbia Valley); $35

Beresan 2004 Merlot (Columbia Valley); $29

Splurge Merlots ($40 to $100):

Dunham Cellars 2004 Lewis Vineyard Merlot (Columbia Valley); $75

Expense Account ($100 and up):

(No listing)

If a "Sideways" sequel is ever made, maybe Miles and his dinner companions could order a glass of %$*&#! Merlot, but this time I advise them: Go Washington! I bet he would stay and enjoy a glass.

Guest Blog: Eight Reasons To Kill the 100-Point System

Imagine there are no wine scores.

To borrow from John Lennon: It’s easy if you try. Imagine no 95-point Bordeaux. Imagine no 92-point Cabernet, no 94-point Syrah. Imagine a wine market that encourages people to educate and develop their own palates rather than depend on a 100-point shortcut. You may say that I’m a dreamer, but imagine people thinking…even tasting… for themselves.

The 100-point scoring system, which is usually credited to famous (or infamous, your choice) wine critic Robert Parker, is used by Parker at his Wine Advocate newsletter as well as by the Wine Spectator, among other publications, to rank wines by quality irregardless of cost. In a market as complex and confusing as wine -- and confusing, frankly, even to experienced wine consumers -- any tool that helps sort out the choices is welcome indeed. As a result, the scoring system has become enormously influential. But lately, industry observers including Paul Gregutt and Tom Wark have begun to doubt the system’s value. Me too.

Here are eight reasons why I’d like to kill it:

1) It’s Not Really a 100-Point System. Parker and the Spectator automatically give any wine, including the stuff Grandpa stews in the basement, 50 points just for being made. But as Gregutt points out, that’s not even the half of it: it’s really a 10-point system. Very, very few wines rate at or better than 95 points, the Spectator’s threshold for “classic” wines. At the same time, few wines rate 85 or below, which may be still what the magazine calls a “good” wine but for all intents and purposes is the point of no return for wine shoppers. Yet within this narrow 10-point span, fortunes and reputations are made and lost quicker than in the stock market.

2) The Arbitrary Benchmark. Can anyone truly distinguish an 89-point wine from a 90-point wine? Yet in the market, 90 has become the crucial benchmark, the equivalent of .300 in a baseball batting average. Above it you’re golden, below it you’re merely plain.

3) The Entrance of Evil. Such is the power of 90 that a wine consultancy in California for wineries, Enologix, will guarantee, for a price (a winemaker friend told me it can be as high as $100,000), that your wine will earn 90 points or better if you follow Enologix’s advice. In effect, Enologix tells you how to make a wine that panders to the taste buds of Mr. Parker and those who let him do their thinking for them. That disrespects the intelligence of wine consumers. It pegs the definition of “quality” to an arbitrary number that has no relation to a full wine experience. It’s evil.

4) The Value Equation. Shoppers calculate value with every purchase. So which is the better value: the $15 88-pointer from South Africa or the $30 90-point wine from the Napa Valley? How about the $20 89-point wine from Walla Walla? A value calculation for wine should be based on cost measured beside quality and context, which is to say beside winemaking, vineyards, regions, style, taste, and the occasion. Dividing cost by score is like calculating the value of a ballgame just by hits, runs and outs.

5) Rating Versus Marketing. The wine industry itself has shamelessly used wine scores for a purpose -- marketing -- for which they weren’t originally intended. Wine ads in the connoisseur magazines trumpet 90 scores and better; no one brags about an 86. That’s why few wine shoppers bother with wines scoring 85 or below no matter how inexpensive they may be. The industry tells us they’re no good.

6) Food’s Left Out. The 100-point system can’t measure how a particular wine will pair with a particular food. And that, of course, is the whole point to drinking wine -- or, at least, ought to be the whole point in a wine-world gone wine-right. Fact: An 87-point wine matched with the right food in the right social situation will give you a much more transcendent and memorable experience than a 92-point wine paired badly with food or shared with the wrong company.

7) Male Versus Female. Any system that rates or measures power -- and in the wine industry, high scores equal power -- is a male system, created by men to measure and compare, well, whatever it is men must compare. Yet survey after survey shows that more than half of wine shoppers are women. I once asked a female sommelier at a fine restaurant if she looked at wine scores. No, she said, never. How, then, does she choose wines for her list? By tasting them and learning about the winery and vineyards, she told me. By learning about the region the wine was made in and by building a relationship with the winemaker, by gaining an understanding of what they were trying to accomplish with their wine. Oh, and by testing the wines with the foods her chef prepared. She’s not the only woman to tell me the same thing. Fact: Women choose wine according to context; men rate wine according to a set of power scores.

8) The Real Issue. Wine scores are a short-hand cover-up for the fact that many, if not most, wine consumers find wine descriptions baffling and useless. “A strong undercurrent of rich loganberry layered with dark chocolate and hints of blue-stone minerals” -- this means what, exactly? For all practical purposes it’s nonsense, and it tells you absolutely nothing about what food to pair this “strong undercurrent of rich loganberry” with. With very, very few exceptions, wine writing has not achieved the graceful combination of art and meaning that the best food writing has, or the best music writing, or the best art criticism. Fact: Wine scores have gained outsized importance by default. Wine shoppers have nothing, really, to help them make a wine decision except a number. That’s not their fault, and it’s not really the industry’s fault. It’s our fault -- the writers.

What we need to provide wine consumers and ourselves is more better wine experiences. We can do that with words rather than numbers -- it may not be easy, but it’s worth trying. And that is how the world will better live as one, as Mr. Lennon might’ve said if he and Yoko had bedded down for peace inside the Wine Spectator’s offices.

____________________________________________________

Steve Bjerklie reports for The Economist and many other publications about wine, food, politics and cultural and historical subjects. Last year he wrote about Walla Walla's now-famous French winemakers for The Economist as well as for Mid-Columbian Magazine.

The Marcus Whitman Hotel

When I was a youngster growing up in Walla Walla, three words meant magic: Marcus Whitman Hotel. When our parents said them, my siblings and I knew they were talking about something special, a place of monumental grandeur.

In 1927 the city fathers of Walla Walla decided to construct a luxury hotel to attract visitors and conventions. Not only did this hotel become the tallest building in the city, but it hosted many dignitaries and celebrities, including Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson, trumpeter Louis Armstrong, actress and diplomat Shirley Temple, and my maternal grandmother’s cousin "Ike", or as he's sometimes called, President Dwight D. Eisenhower. The proud citizens of Walla Walla named their hotel after local and historical missionary Marcus Whitman.

The hotel was the big-night place to go for everyone in southeastern Washington and northeastern Oregon. During the Swing Era all the touring big bands stopped by to play dances. It was a business destination too: dozens of important agreements that would determine Walla Walla's future -- including its wine future -- were made over lunch or dinner at the Marcus Whitman. In the mid-1970s the hotel housed a chain restaurant/bar, the Black Angus. The bar back then was a kind of disco paradise: smoky glass windows, a stainless steel dance floor, a big mirrored disco ball -- the preferred dress for men was a leisure suit in pastel. Many of the hotel rooms became luxury condos. But after the restaurant closed, slowly the grand Marcus Whitman hotel slid into a neglect and disrepair. By the early 1990's, the beautiful antique furnishings that once decorated the lobby were stripped clean, and the wallpaper was torn and stained. There were rumblings about bringing in the wrecking ball for a mercy demolition.

Then, in 1999, Kyle Mussman bought the historic structure. Sharing a community vision with the City and Port of Walla Walla, he restored the beautiful hotel and expanded it, and after the $35 million renovation the elegance was back -- indeed, the hotel is better now than even in its heyday, with cutting-edge technology for today's needs. Now known as "The Marc," it has become a splendid home away from home for many wine tourists while locals once again enjoy fine dining at the hotel. Back in the day, steak was king of the grill in The Marc's dining room, but now the menu highlights fresh regional foods and our terrific local wines. And every time I visit The Marc I see Kyle Mussman greeting guests or even serving in the restaurant. It impresses me that he is a visible and a hands-on host/owner.

Last week, the local wine industry were Kyle's guests for an industry mixer held in one of the conference rooms. Kyle, Executive Chef "Bear" Ullman and staff were available for questions, and the Whitman staff spoke to us about the exciting new changes to their menus. There will be more emphasis on "fresh," with meats from locally raised livestock and wild-caught rather than farm-raised fish. At the mixer, samples from the new menu were served along with a very large assortment of local wines (I have pages and pages of wine notes to be blogged for you on another day soon). It was a wonderful evening, a chance to catch up with old wine friends, make new wine friends and most of all to visit with Kyle, who has become a true Walla Walla hero to me. Living here means a lot to me; it's my birthplace and home. I have hundreds of wonderful memories, including many of the Marcus Whitman Hotel. Kyle has my gratitude for saving a landmark that the people of Walla Walla can be proud of once again.

(PS - After the mixer, a few evenings in a row were spent at the Marc's Vineyard Lounge enjoying some very smooth and tasty vodka martinis and choices from the new bar menu, including fresh handmade potato chips, pulled pork sandwiches, and a seriously delicious watercress and watermelon salad. The service was attentive and charming. The cocktails were smooth, generous and served in stylish glasses. The food was full of flavor and, well, just damn delicious!)

Washington Women and Wine

Lately, there seems to be too many articles claiming wine-buying-women do not have a clue on what they are buying. While we are the in the largest percentage of wine buyers, according to these articles it appears that we buy wines based on cute puppy-dog labels instead of the content in the bottle. Hmmm... that sounds like another ranting blog to me, but in the mean time let's focus on last night because in New York City there was a celebration for women who know their wine!

Chef Amanda Zimlich of The Madison Park Café, a French style neighborhood bistro in Seattle, and winemaker Marie-Eve Gilla of Forgeron Cellars in Walla Walla were invited to the James Beard House in New York City to create a “Washington Women and Wine” dinner. Chef Amanda Zimlich's menu highlighted local Northwest ingredients to create French bistro cuisine, both “old school” and “new school", designed to compliment the wines of winemaker, Marie-Eve Gilla of Forgeron Cellars in Walla Walla. The menu for the evening:

Hors d’oeuvres-
• Wild King Salmon Gravlax with Meyer Lemon Gremolata
• Caramelized Walla Walla Onion & Gruyere Tartlets
• Torchon of Hudson Valley Foie Gras with Pickled Currants & Preserved Walnuts
• Chilled Cream of White Asparagus with Parmesan & Thyme

Dinner-
• Penn Cove Mussel Bisque with American Sturgeon Caviar & Celery Leaves
• Forgeron Chardonnay, Columbia Valley,2005
• Full Circle Farms Organic Red Beets with Blood Orange Vinaigrette, Crushed Oregon Hazelnuts & Mount Townsend Seastack Goat Cheese
• Forgeron Vinfinity,Columbia Valley, 2002
• Eaton Farms Braised Oxtail with Celery Root Purée & Washington Black Truffles
• Forgeron Cabernet Sauvignon, Pepper Bridge Vineyard, Walla Walla Valley, 2003
• Sonoma Artisan Roasted Moulard Duck Breast with Bluebird Farms Farro, Confit of Spring Onions & Spiced Wild Huckleberry Jus
• Forgeron Syrah, Columbia Valley, 2002
• Crème Fraîche Panna Cotta with Compote of Yakima Rhubarb & Vanilla Crème Chantilly
• Forgeron Late Harvest Gewürztraminer, Yakima Valley, 2005

French born and educated with a Masters in Viticulture and Enology at the University of Dijon, winemaker, Marie-Eve Gilla has extensive experience as a winemaker, in the Burgundy region of France, Oregon, and Washington. Under Marie-Eve's direction, Forgeron Cellars focuses on producing true varietal wines. Marie-Eve says, "My wines have a sense of place, they reflect their terroir, which is composite of the vine location and the grower dedication. I practice minimal intervention winemaking, enabling each grape to fully express itself. Using this winemaking philosophy allows me to craft food-friendly wines of great character."

Chef Amanda Zimlich is a Seattle native who began her culinary career at an early age by picking herbs for her neighborhood catering company and graduated summa cum laude from the four-year Bachelor of Professional Studies Program at CIA in New York. In Missouri, she helped create a much needed and highly successful Culinary Arts Program within the public school system. In Seattle, she was the Executive Sous Chef at Barking Frog in Woodinville for three years before becoming chef of The Madison Park Café a year ago.

Wine Matchmaker, Make Me A Match!

Are you tired of spending Saturday nights alone watching 'Sideways' with your six cats? Do you wish you had someone to share your Pouilly Fuisse, Cayuga, Walla Walla Bionic Frog, Cap Classique and your Trockenbeerenauslese with? Wanting to find that perfect person who will appreciate your 1787 Chateau d'Yquem? Or do you just need a listening ear and broad shoulders who will understand the anguish you felt when you discovered you had tri-chloroanisole? If the answer is 'yes' to one or more of these questions -- have we got the perfect dating site for you!

WineLoversMeet is a new concept in online dating for winelovers - from the serious wine-geeks to the wine novice. Meeting new people and dating isn't that easy, so they've narrowed down the wine-bar-playing-field for you. Wine Lovers Meet even offers wine education to refine your wine knowledge so you can look like Robert Parker's and Jancis Robinson's love child and dazzle your prospectives with your enology brillance. Cheers!

A Wine Toast To My Readers

It is time to give many thanks to my readers. Whether you are a first time visitor or check in every day, I appreciate your time and your kind words that I receive in email.

I started Through the Grape Vine in June of 2005 as sort of a personal diary. "Write what you know," they say, which I might modify to "Write about what you love," because I surely love Walla Walla and I love wine. But who knew wineblogging would grow as much as it has? When I first started wine blogging, I was just one of the maybe 100 winebloggers out there. Now the rate of wine blogging is growing leaps and bounds --300+ and counting. If you are a wine drinker, then you are a wine critic. People have a lot to say about wine, and we are now seeing the professional wine writers, such as Harvey Steiman (Wine Spectator), Paul Gregutt (Seattle Times), and Eric Asimov ( New York Times) blogging about wine apart from what they write for their publications. More over, quite a few wineries are taking time from their busy days and blogging for their customers. This is all good: more wine blogging means more wine education = more wine consumers.

What makes me unique, I think, from other wine bloggers is that I chose to be limited - limited, that is, to a focus on wines from the Walla Walla Valley. Once in awhile I will blog wine information that can affect or enhance the Walla Walla wine-drinking experience. But there are days when it is all I can do to find the time to write about Walla Walla wines and to keep up with them. I can't imagine trying to cover the whole wine universe.

You need to know there are no exact times when I publish or an exact number of blogs I write each. My time available varies -- and sometimes there's just not a lot to say, and I don't want to bore you with a post that was written just because I thought I had to meet a deadline. Seems to me that readers deserve quality rather than frequency, at least here. On the occasions when you don't see a fresh blog from me, you might want to check the archives. Maybe there's something there you've not read before. Of course, other times there's much to say and the new posts come fast.

Besides knowing that I have you, the readers, it also makes my blogging day when I receive links, syndication, emails and comments. At this time I am ranked no. 49 in the 100 Top Wine Blogs through AlaWine. Also, if you enjoy what you are reading, you can let Local Wine Events.com know at Local Wine Events or at Local Wine Events Blogs. I am listed twice.

Again, many, many thanks to all of you. If you were all here, I would treat you to a glass (or two) of Walla Walla wine. Cheers to my friends and in the mean time, I will keep on blogging.