Walla Walla, Washington is a city of more than 31,000 inhabitants with a name that’s fun to say. Walla Walla is also enjoying a lot of buzz, and not because of the name (which means “place of many rivers” in the Sahaptin family of Native American languages).
With its Walla Walla wines, especially its signature syrah, winning awards and high marks in magazines, and new restaurants opening, tourists are flocking to Walla Walla to see how this region—once known mainly for its sweet onions, wheat fields and Green Giant pea-packing plant—has transformed itself into a wine and food destination.
I wrote an article for the Oregonian about Walla Walla wine country: “The W’s in Walla Walla must stand for wine.”
Writing about wine in general and Walla Walla wines in particular is a lot of fun, even though I’m not much of a drinker. I brought my best friend along on this trip and she couldn’t believe how busy we were. “Do you always work this hard on a travel writing assignment?” she asked. I’m also more partial to white wine than red, so taste testing dozens of red wines is not the easiest job. Not that I’m complaining: writing about wine is definitely a dream assignment.
And you really are supposed to aerate the wine and spit it out, making the noise of a horse with a hair ball.
I also did a sidebar on Waitsburg’s foodie scene (yum) for the Oregonian. To read it, click here.
And if you want to learn more about Southern Oregon wines, you can read an article I wrote about that here.
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