Washington Wine Country: Walla Walla

20-22 January 2026

Walla Walla, WA (population about 30,000) sits not far from the Oregon border in southeastern Washington state, about a 4-5 hour drive in either direction to Spokane and Seattle. In Nez Perce, the name means “Place of Many Waters,” a nod to its location at the confluence of the Columbia and Snake rivers. It started as a mining and farming town, and boomed with the discovery of gold in the mid 1800s. Many things in and about town, including the luxury hotel, a liberal arts college, and several creative cocktails, are named after Marcus and Narcissa Whitman, Christian Calvinist missionaries who established the Whitman Mission, and were killed in 1847 over a measles outbreak by the Native peoples they were trying to convert. I was also fascinated to learn that there was a sizeable Chinese population during the gold rush, although "Chinatown" is here no more.

I have an old iPhone 14 Pro on a pay-as-you-go plan that I use as a work phone. I’ve made it a ritual at 0700 the moment I’m off call to turn the sound to silent, wipe the surface with alcohol, put it on low power mode, and place it in a dark cabinet in the rig. It feels like a release. The burden is no longer mine to carry.

Cheers to that!

Today, Walla Walla is still an agricultural town (wheat, onion). In the 1970s though, it was discovered that wine grapes, particularly Cabernet, Merlot and Syrah, grow very well here. The wine boom is the reason for a revitalized downtown, high end dining and accommodations, and over 120 wineries where you can taste for days. The little French restaurant on the main drag, Brasserie Four, is worth the drive from Wenatchee by itself. Best steak frites I’ve ever had, including in France. My favorite Walla Walla wineries are L’Ecole, Longshadows, and Gramercy. Hoquetus was a surprise find, especially since I got to chat with the winemaker in a quiet moment at his new Tavern Ancestrale on E Alder Street.