Also recommended, but no tasting note given. Walla Walla Vintners (hereafter abbreviated to WWV) was founded in 1995 by Myles Anderson and Gordy Venneri after they’d spent fourteen years making wine as a hobby and being inspired and coached by such pioneering neighbors as Gary Figgins and Rick Small – mentoring of a sort that the affable Anderson and Venneri in turn offered younger area start-ups including some who are now stars. While production significantly in excess of today’s roughly 5,000 cases is not envisioned, and although WWV’s existing fruit sources are nearly all renowned, estate vines will play some role in the future. Anderson and Gordy Venneri profess to have changed little in their unexceptional cellar regimen since they went commercial, though they say they were free-wheeling with experimentation before that. They inoculate both for primary fermentation and malo; extraction is all via punch-down in small, open-top fermentors; and wines are blended late, following a second racking, before being bottled at anywhere between 15-19 months. Results are on the whole soft and approachable, though in several instances finishing drying and bitterness disturbed me, and I often found disconcerting and inharmonious an alliance of herbaceous and tart elements with confectionary notes of vanilla, caramel, and deep toast (at times nearly burnt) from cooperage (whose newness and provenance vary, but often include some American and/or Hungarian oak), a juxtaposition that Anderson and Venneri – not to mention their strong band of customers and enthusiastic critics – evidently perceive differently and embrace. And incidentally, this duo’s often detailed suggestions for accompanying cuisine also feature confitured, confectionary, torrefied, and brown spice elements. Tel. (509) 525-4724