Christmas in June

This is Day Two (or Three depending on how you count) of the WBC’10.  Day Zero was the Yakima Valley tour and Yesterday was Day One in Walla Walla.

 My brain is on sensory overload (so this blog may be a little disjointed) and I have been described by Barb as a (really big) kid on Christmas morning.  The presents keep coming for two more days though so there will lots more to absorb. 

So far, my highlights have been meeting some great bloggers and industry folks from all over the U.S. and the world, Argentina, Spain, Australia, South Africa, and Georgia (actually I think they were from the state, not the country).  Barb and I even met a very nice young lady from Tennessee who now lives in New York and works for Rias Baixas Wines, a Spanish wine distributor.  Chandni seemed quite distressed that she now has to wear shoes.

Also a highlight from Thursday was meeting Dick Boushey, Joe Hattrup, Wade Wolfe, and Hugh Shiels for the first time, all top notch wine growers from the Yak.  Matt Rawn from Copeland (and Two Mountain) was there too, and while he grows great fruit too, he’s more like an old friend to us by now.  I’ll take my time writing about those experiences and the wines these other vineyards and wineries have produced in the near future.   Another neat experience was meeting Becky Yeaman (Wade’s wife) of Thurston Wolfe and finding the inspiration for Sweet Rebecca, which by chance we had just drank the prior night as our dessert.  An adorable name for a wine and the namesake was just as nice.  I need to learn more about Wade and Becky and I’ll seek them out this summer after the hubbub has died down a bit.

I’ve traded away most of my Let’s Make a Deal wine and have gotten some great wines from Canada and California in return, with more pledged to be on the way.  I also brought over about a half case of other wines that I’ll barter with over the next couple of days.  Anybody here who wants some, look me up, Twitter @yakyakwine.  What I have left are Syncline Cuvee Elena from the Gorge, Severino Red Wine from the Yak, White Heron Rousanne from Quincy, and Pangaea Cab Sauv from Horse Heaven Hills.  Other than the Syncline, I’d imagine the other wines aren’t available outside Washington and they’re all nice juice and I’m anxious to trade for juice from anywhere.  Even California.

The Walla Walla highlights have been many but my favorite so far is meeting Dana Dibble of Riverhaven Cellars.  Dana is the vineyard owner and grower of some truly nice Syrah and Cabernet Sauvignon.  He also grows some other important fruit and I asked him to sign my bottle as Prune Grower.  He happily obliged and we had a really nice conversation about the difference between plums and prunes, which before yesterday I always thought were the same thing.   Funny though, after drinking Dana’s wines, Barb and I both had to make a beeline for the restroom.

 Cleaned out and ready to go, there will be more later from The Walla.  Nah, that doesn’t have the same ring as The Yak.