02/20/08 Taste Walla Walla

Taste Walla Walla. I'm Greg Martin with today's Fruit Grower Report. Being a relatively new wine growing area that is really starting to take off, Walla Walla is not sitting back and waiting for people to find them. They are taking the wine to the masses. Jordan Small with the Walla Walla Wine Commission says the Taste Walla Walla event is designed for two reasons. SMALL: Well we go to both Portland and Seattle  just bring the wines to that market and get people excited about the wines there and hopefully they will want to come over and visit Walla Walla and visit the tasting rooms and come spend the weekend over here. We are also really trying to connect with the members of the trade over there. We have a bunch of wineries who don't necessarily have distribution or their smaller and they're looking to find a company that'll help them out. The event in Portland is this coming Monday the 25th at the Portland Art Museum. So what can people expect? SMALL: We have about 58 wineries participating. It varies a little between Seattle and Portland. They can come and chat with the winery representatives. A lot of the wine makers will be there themselves. It's a pretty fun event and we'll have information for the trade as well as the consumers. If there are certain things they are interested in they can go and seek those out. A lot of people are discovering the wines of the Walla Walla area and Small says that is because the people are such a close group. SMALL: We just have a lot of people here who are passionate about what they are doing and have come to this place because it's becoming known for the quality wines here and the camaraderie amongst the wine-makers here and everyone helps each other out and I think in general it helps elevate the quality of the wines and I think that's what we're really becoming known for here. For more information on the two events visit wallawallawine.com. That's today's Fruit Grower Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.