The SOMM Journal

April / May 2017

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70 { THE SOMM JOURNAL } APRIL/MAY 2017 WHEN THE SECOND ANNUAL REVEAL WALLA WALLA VALLEY Wine Auction kicks off on April 9, wine industry professionals can expect a warm welcome. The event brings sommeliers, wine buyers and food-and-beverage directors together for a day-and-a-half immersion in the riches of this place. Thirty winemakers have crafted unique, small lots for Reveal 2017, with proceeds from the auction benefiting the Walla Walla Valley Wine Alliance. "These are wines you can only get here," explains Nina Buty of Buty Winery, and they are a sort of Holy Grail for buyers—one-of-a-kind wines that create experiences for their clients unavailable anywhere else. The treasures of this little burg in southeast Washington are up for auction, and Reveal attendees are ready to bid. Although Reveal is still a nascent event, it's easy to feel at home in this town. Walla Walla exudes charm, rimmed on the east by the Blue Mountains and laced with rivers and streams providing recreation as well as irrigation. Great wines abound here. Walla Walla wines appear on top-100 lists with a frequency belied by the appellation's size. This is the home of longtime standouts like Leonetti Cellar, Pepper Bridge Winery and L'Ecole No. 41, to name just a few. But with 120-plus wineries working with some of the best fruit in Washington, many produc - ing just 2,000 to 10,000 cases a year, the valley glows with hidden gems. The historic Marcus Whitman Hotel anchors the northwest end of the Walla Walla business district. Boutiques, bakeries, confectionaries and at least 25 tasting rooms line the downtown streets. There's a vibrant food scene here, too, driven by independent chefs such as French Culinary Institute–trained Andrae Bopp, owner of Andrae's Kitchen, Walla Walla's go-to destination for creative, casual food. Bopp serves breakfast, lunch and dinner every day from his unlikely location inside the gas station quick-mart at the Farmers Co-Op, with a menu ranging from smoked brisket to tuna divorciado. One of the local wineries' favorite caterers, he plans a full-blown outdoor pig roast at Dusted Valley Winery to kick-off Reveal. If Bopp offers quirky, the Whitehouse-Crawford Restaurant, just around the corner from the Marcus Whitman, answers with casual elegance. Renowned for its new American cuisine, the restaurant will serve lunch before the auction, during the Reveal barrel tasting at nearby Corliss Estates. It's an easy stroll of one or two blocks, where wine buyers will be welcomed inside the tasting room and attached cellar, rarely opened to the public. Tucked behind the company's offices is the state-of-the-art technical tasting room, a sleek space with stainless- steel ceiling, an air filtration system to eliminate foreign aromas and a sound-proof, locking door, enabling the winemaking team to taste without distraction. But the big event, of course, is the auction. Perhaps the biggest takeaway of Reveal is the multi-faceted nature of this valley. Former NFL quar terback Drew Bledsoe, a Walla Walla native, opened Doubleback Winery in 2008. He is co-chairman, together with Pepper Reveal WALLA WALLA VALLLEY THE UNIQUE WINES OFFERED AT THIS PRESTIGIOUS AUCTION ARE DESIGNED TO SHOW OFF THE BEST THE VALLEY HAS TO OFFER story and photos by Anne Sampson Sabrina Lueck (right), wine science instructor at Walla Walla College, together with Charles Frates and Kristina Rivero, half of the stu- dent winemaking team that produced College Cellars' Reveal lot.

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