Barring the apocalypse, if it’s the first weekend in November, you can be sure my husband and I will be in Walla Walla for the southeast Washington wine region‘s Fall Release festivities. This year we arrived early Thursday afternoon to get in some tasting before the crowds arrived on Friday, and we were greeted with rather chilly but sunny, hazy weather following our drive up the Columbia Gorge from Portland.

We started at Valdemar Estates, a beautiful, brand-new winery that boasts a sleek, modern tasting room perched three floors above the production and barrel storage spaces.    Entering through tall black metal doors,   we opted to take the elevator rather than climb the sweeping flight of stairs and emerged facing the wall of windows and a gas fireplace which give on to wide patios    and views over the Walla Walla Valley and the Blue Mountains beyond.     Those patios must make for wonderful tasting spaces on warm days!

We were greeted by Alberto, one of the tasting room hosts, who made us comfortable at a table and gave us a little history of the winery and the wines as we looked over the tapas menu and picked the wine flights we wanted to try. Valdemar offers the wines of a fifth-generation Spanish winemaking family from the Rioja along with Washington state-produced wines. Because Harry and I had recently returned from Spain and had enjoyed a visit at a winery which also produced Tempranillo blends there (shared in my blog here), we were interested to try these wines.

We ordered a flight of the Tempranillos (Crianza, Reserva and Gran Reserva) and a flight of the Washington Syrahs, along with some tapas which echoed those we’d tried in Spain: Pan Tumaca (bread rubbed with crushed tomatoes and topped with Manchego cheese),    Tortillada de Patatas (egg and potato omelette) and some Iberian meats.   The food was great, and while the Syrahs were nice, we felt the price was high (compared to what else we know is available in the area). We did buy some of the Spanish wines, including a lovely, light 2018 Rosé.

Our next stop was also a new winery with quite a contrasting history to Valdemar’s 130 years. Husband and wife Matt and Kelly Austin gave up their careers in Los Angeles as a tax attorney and fashion designer, respectively, in 2014 to seek a quieter life in Kelly’s home state of Washington. Matt went back to school to study enology and then began working at wineries when the small vineyard planted in lesser-known Italian varietals that would become Grosgrain Vineyards came on the market. Kelly took on the design of the tasting room,   labels and graphics (with “grosgrain” — like the ribbed ribbon of the same name — evoking the visual pattern of rows of vines) as well as the revamping of the adjoining existing building on the property into the four-bedroom, four-bath Casa Grosgrain vacation rental. 

Production sits at about 2,000 cases a year, and filling a niche in red-centric Walla Walla, Matt makes several whites and lighter reds along with sparkling wines, using the pét nat, or methode ancestrale, method. They, along with many of the current releases, have already sold out, and it was easy to see why as we sipped and chatted with Matt.   Luckily for us, he had a bottle of the Kiona Vineyard Old Vines Lemberger Pét Nat open,    and at only 11 percent alcohol, it made for a wonderfully light and refreshing sparkler. (Note to self: Snatch some up next year before it’s gone!) I fell hard for the 2018 Grenache for its beautiful color; flavors of raspberry and cherry; and long, smooth finish. We also came home with the 2018 Chardonnay and the 2018 Petit Grosgrain, a GSM blend that would be great on the Thanksgiving dinner table.

Matt and Kelly have plans to increase production each year and to continue to improve the estate property. Beyond the tasting room patio    lies a terraced slope leading down to a pond,   with a hill on the opposite side slated for a stage for hosting concerts and other events in warm weather.

We were delighted to kick off our tasting weekend with such wonderful wines and experiences at two new and rising stars in Walla Walla.

— Patty Vanikiotis, associate editor/copy editor