Started by two hobbyists over 30 years ago, Walla Walla Vintners remains one of the best kept secrets around.
Drive up Mill Creek Road, east of Walla Walla’s downtown, and just when you think you might disappear into the Blue Mountains, there is a tiny sign on the left that reads Walla Walla Vintners. Locals, including other winemakers and tasting room staff flock to the winery’s iconic red barn for a taste of rural Italy or France, just six miles outside of town.
Walla Walla Vintners still flies under the oenophile radar, despite enviable ratings. Largely through word of mouth, people that find them stay with them. Launched in 1995, the boutique winery was among the first ten to open in Walla Walla and is now in the company of over 120.
Never ones to toot their own horns, Gordy Venneri and his longtime pal, Myles Anderson, have stuck close to their craft of making premium red wines sourced with fruit from some of the best vineyards in the Columbia Valley. Gordy says, “John Vitalich, the managing director over at Sagemoor Vineyards, told me he thinks Walla Walla Vintners is the best kept secret in Walla Walla.” Myles quips, “And I thought, wait a minute. Is that a compliment?”
TASTING ROOM ANTICS
On any given Saturday, you’ll find veteran tasting room employee Al Rose holding court, pouring polished, seductive wines in a room that looks neither fussy nor finished. A rarity among transient twenty-something tasting room staff, Rose has been with Walla Walla Vintners since 1997.
No stranger to good wines (a transplant from Northern California), Rose attributes his tasting room longevity to pouring “the best red wine made in Washington.”
Gordy says, “Al is very entertaining! People love to listen to his stories and his jokes. He shows that we don’t take ourselves too seriously.”
“I tell only valid and verifiable stories relating to the situation at the time,” Rose defends, and then adds, “unless they’re not!”
Rose is as amusing as he is educational, and is often mistaken as the owner of the joint. “We let him have that throne,” concedes Myles.
OF LEGENDS
Myles’ willingness to let others take the stage was never more evident than when he was recently inducted into the Legends of Washington Wine Hall of Fame. Held at the Walter Clore Wine and Culinary Center in Prosser, Dr. Myles Anderson accepted the award in a speech that lacked pretense and showed his characteristic humor.
He used the opportunity to pay homage to the late Dr. Walter Clore, saying, “He had a soul. He didn’t have an ego. He was unconditionally generous with his knowledge. So in terms of a legend, he is one. I am still stunned by the fact that someone nominated me to be inducted.”
A tireless educator and the Founding Director of the Institute for Enology and Viticulture at Walla Walla Community College, Myles has mentored countless students who credit him for changing the direction of their lives. “My whole objective is to take students places they’ve never gone before,” he admits.
Myles, Gordy, and a third on their winemaking team, Bill vonMetzger, have helped countless other wineries get their start.
“We made the first two vintages of Spring Valley here; we helped Charles Smith, Eagle Harbor, Plumb Cellars and others,” Myles says. “And a number of my students have gone on to create their own brand in the valley, such as Tertulia, Trust, and Trio to name a few.”
YIN AND YANG
Gordy and Myles got their start making wine together over three decades ago when the two bonded over a shared coffee pot at Walla Walla Community College. Gordy, after a trip to meet his Italian relatives and taste their homemade wine, told Myles he wanted to start making wine. Myles said, “I’d like to make wine too. May I join you?” Little did the two realize how far this venture would take them. “It was never supposed to be more than a hobby,” says Gordy. “Myles kept teaching, and I kept working in my insurance business.”
After 14 years as hobbyists, Myles and Gordy were encouraged by friends and winemakers to make a business out of it. “Sometimes we made some surprisingly good wine that didn’t go to the dump,” Myles says with a deadpan expression.
There were distinct advantages to being hobbyists for so many years. “We practiced on friends and not customers,“ Gordy says. Not a vanity project, they kept their regular jobs as the wines took on a life of their own. “The more we made the more we sold,” Gordy says as though still surprised. “We started with 500 cases and have grown to about 5,000,” a size they are comfortable with today.
Despite their accidental tourist approach to business, Walla Walla Vintners found themselves ahead of the curve, being one of the first to produce a Sangiovese. “It was during our trip to Italy with Gary and Nancy Figgins in 1998, where we drank a lot of Sangio’s, that we asked ourselves, why don’t we do that here?” Myles says.
Despite different personalities and backgrounds, they have simpatico palates. Bill vonMetzger joined their winemaking team in 2001 and has crafted consistent wines year after year that satisfy Myles’ and Gordy’s distinctive palates, a long-proven recipe for success that remains a mystery.
“It’s the Walla Walla Vintners style that’s in our brains,” Myles says with a Cheshire grin. “We can’t articulate the style up here,” he says, pointing to his temple, “but we can taste it.”
THE ESTATE VINEYARD
Walla Walla Vintners plans to release a limited quantity of estate wines under a brand new label in 2012. The crew, including the recent addition of Judah Pira, director of vineyard operations, couldn’t be more excited.
“The estate wines are going to change the profile because they’re a little bit richer, a lot of spice, and deep ripe fruit flavors,” Myles says. “These wines will appeal to people who really adore great wines. They’ll have a $60 price point comparable to $300 Napa Valley wines, and $500 Bordeaux wines.”
Everyone on the team agrees that the Mill Creek area is producing wines unique to the rest of the valley. “It’s my guess that this Mill Creek area will become an AVA of its own someday,” Myles says.
Even while poised for more prestige, the winery maintains its rural roots and old school way of doing things. For example, Walla Walla Vintners still doesn’t charge a fee for wine tasting.
The winery, like the relationship between Gordy and Myles, has endured an often volatile industry.
“It works because we respect each other,” Myles says.
Written by Kirsten Telander
GO WINE TASTING
Walla Walla Vintners
225 Vineyard Lane, Walla Walla, Washington
Ph: (509) 525-4724
www.wallawallavintners.com