Travel Changes

Wine bloggers and non-bloggers alike the first section of the New Highway 12 opened this past Monday. It's a bit confusing and if you're not careful you'll miss some of our great neighbors here in the West End. Here's a great little map of the new road.

For those bloggers that are interested in finding something to do in your down time, head out to visit us for a tasting. Show us your conference badge for waived tasting fees. 

Hope to see everyone this weekend!

Shari

UPDATE ---

Here's the most current copy of the West End Winery map.  It includes directions on how to get to Skylite as well. 

Calendar of events

I’m sorry that updates have become less and less frequent. I am trying to be better at posting but things at the winery and in the tasting room have become increasingly busier in the last month or two. There are so many things going on in the month of June, that we are involved in, that I wanted to get the word out. Hope to see everyone at one or more of the events ...

·         June 3^rd – We will be joining in on the national Washington Wine (#WAWine) tweetup down at Olive Marketplace Café in Walla Walla from 5:00 to 8:00 pm. Join us and numerous other Walla Walla wineries as we all meet in one central location and collectively taste and tweet about Washington wines.

·         June 3^rd – Join Thomas Woodley, our national sales coordinator, at The Inn at Langley in Langley Washington for an amazing night of food and wine. Chef Mike Costello has put together an amazing 5-course menu and paired it with some fresh whites and vintage reds. Cost of the dinner is $170 per person which includes food, wine, tax and gratuity. Attendees of the dinner will be offered a discounted room rate to stay at the inn as well.Call the Inn for reservations (360) 221-3033.

·         June 4^th – For those that stay the night, join Thomas Woodley and Chef Costello as they dig into their award winning cellar to host a vertical tasting of vintage Woodward Canyon wines accompanied with some small bites prepared by Chef Costello. The tasting will be free to those who attended the dinner the evening before and cost $35 for anyone else.

·         June 6^th – Join Marlene and myself as we descend upon The Davenport Hotel in downtown Spokane for Taste Washington Spokane on Sunday from 5:00 to 8:30 pm. We’ll join around 100 other wineries and 25 restaurants at the event and will be pouring our 2008 Washington State Chardonnay, the 2007 “Artist Series” Cabernet and the 2008 Nelms Road Cabernet. Tickets are still available so get yours at http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/107945.

·         June 13^th – Join either Thomas Woodley or Darcey Fugman-Small, our owner/general manager, at the Seattle Wine Awards hosted at the historic Rainier Club. We will be pouring our award winning wines – the 2006 Estate Red (double gold), the 2007 “Artist Series” Cabernet (gold) and the 2008 Nelms Road Cabernet (silver). Tickets for the event are still available so get your ticket here.

·         June 18^th – Visit the Walla Walla Valley and join in on the festivities of Vintage Walla Walla. Friday evening, June 18^th, join Thomas, Rick and Darcey for the bbq under the stars out at Northstar Winery from 6:00 to 9:00 pm. Tickets are available for the bbq only or as part of the Vintage WW package.

·         June 19^th – The next day, ten wineries, us included, are hosting special tasting events throughout the valley. For more information on the individual events and for reservations, please contact the Walla Walla Wine Alliance office at (509) 526-3117. Later on Saturday join participating wineries for the Vintage pour gala and silent auction that evening from 5:00 – 7:00 pm. It’s a great opportunity to taste vintage wines with the winemakers who make them. It’s also the chance to bid on amazing packages put together by wineries of the Walla Walla Valley.

·         June 25^th – 27^th – The 2010 Wine Bloggers Conference has decided on a change of scenery and is moving from Napa/Sonoma Valley, California to the Walla Walla Valley. I was able to attend the conference last year and had a blast. It is a great opportunity to meet with fellow wine bloggers and talk about wine and the importance of blogging and social media. California set the bar fairly high last year but I know that Walla Walla is up to the task. The conference is sold out however they are keeping a wait list in case there are any last minute cancellations.

And a heads up look at what is coming up in the month of July ...

·         July 1^st – Join us as we’re pouring a selection of our wines at Olive Marketplace Café at their weekly wine tasting event. For a $5 tasting fee you can taste through our line up of wines. Splurge on dinner while you are there and grab one of their fabulous flat-bread pizzas. Trust me, you won’t regret it.
 ·     July 31^st – Looking ahead, T-Maccarone's and us have paired up to do a farm-to-table dinner out in our Estate Vineyard. Final details are still to come so check back for more information or send me an email at shari@woodwardcanyon.com and I'll keep you updated.

Hope to get a real post up here soon with the happenings at the winery and a recap on Rick and Darcey’s trip over to England and Germany last month. Thanks for keeping an eye on us and hope to see you in the tasting room soon.

Cheers,

Shari

2009 Wine Bloggers Conference

A couple of weeks ago, I was lucky enough to attend the North American Wine Bloggers Conference, or the WBC, which is the second annual conference that is attended by wine bloggers, wine industry, wine media and those just interested in wine. And, I am still trying to catch up on sleep from my weekend in Sonoma. It was three fantastic days of nothing but food, wine and blogging about food and wine. And the good news for those who have not heard yet, is that the WBC is coming to Walla Walla next year, June 25th through June 27th. I can’t wait to introduce some of the bloggers to our wines for the first time.

I started my journey to Sonoma Thursday evening, by flying out of Walla Walla and through Seattle on my way to San Francisco. It turned into quite the trip when I just about missed my connecting flight in Seattle because the boarding gate had changed from what was printed on my boarding pass in Walla Walla. A quick ride on the airporter and an even quicker run through the airport got us to the gate just in time to board for our final destination. Two hours later, an hour and a half flight and thirty minutes of circling, and we were in one of my favorite cities, San Francisco! Too bad I didn’t have a free day to spending roaming the streets.

It was up early the next morning so that I could catch my shuttle that would take me the two hours to Santa Rosa and the Flamingo, where the conference was being held. Upon checking in, it was time to meet and greet, catch lunch and do some wine tasting. Then, it was time for live wine blogging, which is basically sixty seconds to taste a wine and blog or “tweet” about it to the online masses. Next up was the 2009 American Wine Blog Awards and then dinner with Chris Alden as the keynote speaker. The day ended with the after-hours party hosted by the Russian River Valley Winegrowers. The after-hours party was really just Russian River Wineries showing up to pour their wines for us to taste. Every where I looked were pinots. It’s always fun to try something different and that we aren’t producing anymore.

Saturday morning was a fantastic day to be at the WBC. It started off with breakfast and seminars by Barry Schuler of Meteor Vineyards and Jim Gordon of Wines and Vines Magazine at the Culinary Institute of America at Greystone, or as it was called that morning, the Original CIA. Then it was time to play the lottery and board the shuttle for the days travels through Napa. I really do believe that it was playing the lottery, because each shuttle had a different route for the day. I think I lucked out when I got on to shuttle #2! I really don’t know how anyone’s day could have beat ours!

Lunch, for us, was at Stags' Leap where we had a beautifully catered lunch around their fire safe pond, while listening to Vineyard Manager Kirk Grace speak on “Napa Green.” After a quick walk through the vineyard we hopped back on the shuttle for our next destination, Palmaz Vineyards, where Palmaz, Madonna and Viader hosted us to a nice tasting and covered the topic of family-owned and generations in the wine industry. The facility at Palmaz is pretty spectacular. Carved out of the side of Mount George, the height of the wine cave is equivalent to an 18 storey building. Next stop on our day was at Quintessa for the Napa Grand Tasting, where 40 wineries showed up to pour their Cabernets for us. Thankfully, there were a few whites and bubbles mixed in, that helped me refresh my palate.

Final stop on the tour was dinner at Domaine Chandon, in the Etoile Restaurant, which was hosted by Parry Cellars, Louis M. Martini, O’Brien Estate, Newton and of course Domaine Chandon. We had a wonderful three-course meal paired with eight different wines. The meal was amazing! We were greeted at the door with a sparkling cocktail, made from their dry sparkling wine, ice and a little lime. Our first course was the corn chowder with Dungeness crab and paired with the O’Brien Chardonnay and the Newton Chardonnay. Next we moved onto the roasted beef tenderloin with summer legumes, chanterelle mushrooms and Umbrian black truffle all paired with the Domaine Chandon Pinot Noir, Louis M. Martini Lot No 1 Cabernet, Louis M. Martini Cabernet, O’Brien Merlot and the Parry Cellars Cabernet. We finished off dinner with a Valrhona chocolate pate with summer berries paired with the Domaine Chandon Pinot Meunier. I was so full I was afraid that they were going to have to roll me out to the shuttle. After the bumpy and curvy two hour ride back to the Flamingo, I must admit, that I had to skip the after-hours party which was hosted by ViniPortugal and the European WBC.

Sunday, I spent the day traveling back to Walla Walla, which I finally got in at 9:00. It had been a really long day, but well worth the trip! It was great to see the difference between Napa and Walla Walla. As much as I loved being down there though, it was so nice to see home. It made me really appreciate my little comfortable tasting room and lack of traffic on the roads. It was also good that I got to see how the WBC ran and what we were going to have to do to make WBC10 a success in Walla Walla next year. I know that I, for one, can’t wait until we are invaded by bloggers!