The Attack: Walla2 or Bust

To the Land of Many Rivers!

With every trip we make along the Washington wine trail, it is further reinforced that the wine industry, as far as it’s come and as young as it still is, is one of the most exciting to be a part of. It’s hardly a wonder that that the substance Galileo Galilee once called “sunshine held together by water” can power such a passionate group of producers, growers, merchants and, of course, the consumers. Even amid a recession.

For this issue we finally packed up the car and headed over the hill to the crown jewel of our state’s wine industry, Walla Walla.

We’ve tasted wine from just about every corner of the state that can go toe-to-toe with Walla Walla’s famous fruit and expert producers. But what Walla2 has going for it that some of the other tour regions do not is concentration of effort in virtually all aspects of the craft. Walla Walla is a wine town now, even outshining the very thing that made it famous in the first place: the onion. It has attracted some of the best talent around, and the Walla Walla Community College Enology program continues to turn out winemakers that are doing really exciting things. (Bunchgrass Winery, K Vintners, and Tertulia Cellars employ graduates from their program as head and assistant winemakers.)

The pride in the industry that’s put the town on the international map of recognition is visible on every varietaly-named street or road and every cluster of tasting rooms or wineries. The cohesion is palpable. And because of all of these things, taking a weekend trip to Walla Walla with the sole intent of immersion in Washington wine and wine culture is most assuredly going to be worth the gas money. It was for us.

Moving along.

If you haven’t noticed lately, and boy we sure have, the Internet is hot, what with all of the Twittering and Facebooking and Twittering and blogging… and more Twittering. It’s like everyone is hanging out at the biggest party ever, anywhere, talking at each other and loving every second of it. Recently, the Wine Bloggers Conference was held down in Napa Valley, where many of the up-and-coming wine typers got to mingle, talk tech, and of course nurse each other’s hangovers. Did we go? Hell no. We had to go to Walla Walla and work on our magazine. That said, next year’s Wine Bloggers Conference is going to be held where else but our very own Walla Walla. Will we be there? You bet your bottle of ‘93 Quilceda Creek Cabernet we will be. Why? Because whether we or anyone else subscribe to the idea that chopping down trees only to print stuff like this is—and forever will be—the way to publish, online publishing really is wave of the future, as they once said. (What’s next, flying cars?)

To be honest, while we love our tangible, take-to-the-can magazine format, it’s always been part of our plan as publishers of all things “Washington wine” to play ball online. What better way to get the word out to the world about places such as Walla Walla, Lake Chelan, South Seattle Artisan Wineries, and Efeste than on the Interwebs? I’ll tell you, kind sir or gentle madam, there is no better way.

Check out our website for spankin’ new updates, more articles, pictures, and a new army of bloggers.

Now, let’s all raise our glasses to a fine August and a swell September.