Washington Trip 2026 – Pt. 1 Walla Walla

After visiting Oregon a few times, my wife and I decided to visit Washington for our anniversary this year. I spent a ton of time scouring r/wine looking for places to visit – we decided to visit the Walla Walla AVA, the Red Mountain AVA and the Colombia Gorge AVA. We flew into Seattle and drove over 1,100 miles on this trip. This review will be completely from a novice standpoint – no real tasting notes, but will discuss our wine and food. I will say we were blessed with terrific weather for summer – daytime highs were in the 70’s and lows in the 50’s – quite a change from us in Florida.

Walla Walla AVA

We drove to Walla Walla (4.5 hours from SEA) and went immediately to Hattaway’s on Alder. Hattaway’s was opened by a couple that moved from Georgia to Washington, and brought some southern flair to southeastern Washington. We had a pimento cheese appetizer that was terrific, along with Sleight of Hand Cellars “The Conjurer” Red Blend. The entire meal was terrific and would recommend on a visit.

Day two was reserved for wine tastings. We started our day with a three mile hike at Lake Bennington – a local reservoir. Our first stop was at The Walls, located in Walla Walla proper. They do serve lunch (salads and pizzas) and we had two different tastings – I had the reserve tasting, and my wife had the Pášxa tasting. The food was great, and the tasting was good – although very “typical”. We ended up with three bottles from here – one Pášxa Syrah (which originates from the Rocks District – a sub-AVA of Walla Walla) and two of their The Walls vintage (Ramparts Rhône. Blend and Wonderful Nightmare Tempranillo). Would recommend.

Our second stop was Gramercy Vineyards. This was in an unassuming tasting room not far from The Walls. We had Drew taking us through the wines – he did a terrific job explaining the wines and we enjoyed out tasting here. We really liked both the Mourvèdre and the Grenache and ended up talking both home.

The final stop was the most infamous – and the most memorable of the entire trip. Having heard on here about El Corazon, we decided to dip in late afternoon and do a tasting. We met Spencer – host and winemaker – and our evening was on. We tried all of his wines – no formal tasting here – and our favorite was the Dos Jefes Red Blend, as well as the bubbles he poured for us. This was the least pretentious, and most “loose” wine tasting I’ve ever been to, and I would highly recommend the experience. Note – El Corazon does play 70’s soft porn in their tasting room, and the entire vibe is sex-positive and LGBTQ+ friendly. It was incredibly empowering and I for one love to support places where everyone is welcome.

We ate that night at T-Mac’s – it was fine after a long day of tasting.

Day three saw us leave the area and head to Red Mountain (about an hour and fifteen minute drive). We started with a brunch at LuLu’s in the Tri-Cities area – the food and vibe was good and it provided a good base for our tasting, which was at Hedges Family Estates. We ended up with two tastings here – one was a normal tasting of all their current vintages, and I had the Red Mountain Vertical tasting – which was their Red Mountain blends starting from 2002. This was the most impersonal of all the tastings we did, and we did not take anything home here.

That evening, we headed to The Kitchen at Abeja for our anniversary dinner. It’s a five course Prix Fixe dinner, with an optional wine pairing. We had a terrific meal here – the highlight of our trip, and the wines here were also excellent as well. We took home an Abeja Chardonnay from their estate here.

Our final day in Walla Walla saw us go for another hike in the morning and then find ourselves at Rotie Cellars – it’s in Milton-Freewater about 15 minutes south of Walla Walla. Rotie is in the Rocks District and it shows in the wines. We loved our tasting here – all the wines were great, so great in fact that we joined their wine club. Their tasting room is in the middle of their estate vineyard, and you can see how this area got its name.

The last winery stop was at Echolands – wow. The view from their tasting room overlooks the Blue Mountains and is 10/10. The wines here are also great – we had a really nice snack of pimento cheese here paired with both their red and wine wines. It’s a beautiful place and I would recommend it here.

We ate the final night at Passatempo Taverna – the food was great and the service exceptional. This place is also owned by the owners of The Walls.

I’ll do a second post about our trip to the Columbia Gorge AVA as well as one night in Woodinville. Cheers!