Walla Walla Vintners

   

Walla Walla Vintners


Winemaker/owners
Myles and Gordon

Walla Walla Vintners -- bonded in 1995 -- is a limited-production winery dedicated to making handcrafted, premium red wines --Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Merlot -- cellared and aged in American and French oaks. The winemakers are Myles Anderson, and Gordon Venneri.

This duet produced homecrafted wines for many years before making commercial wines. The homecrafted venture permitted them to practice winemaking, take mistakes to the dump, and forge a successful partnership.

Neither partner has given up his day job - this is still a hobby business. Gordon is a CPA and field agent for Knight of Columbus Insurance and Myles is a teaching psychologist at the local community college.

The new winery, designed and built by Alan Jones, is located off Mill Creek Road on 17 acres near the Blue Mountains.

We at Avalon find WWV's wines to be consistently excellent, with rich flavors, nice complexity, and made with a down to earth attitude. If you ever have a chance to talk to Myles and Gordon, you will find a couple of articulate, talented guys with wry senses of humor and possible secret depths of wackiness. They are fascinating to talk to.

From the Winemakers,
Myles and Gordon:

As winemakers we made homecrafted wines for over ten years before we considered making commercial wines. This was all done in our backyard using borrowed, makeshift equipment and for a while a small apple press. Muscle and Phillip Wagner’s wine making books were our greatest assets. Although we lacked experience, we had passion for tasting and creating quality wines and food.
Gordon had visited his family in Calabria in Southern Italy and sampled their homemade wines. He returned from the trip with a desire to make homemade wines. He and Myles began the adventure.

First, we crafted both white and red table wines. The white wines required a lot of work and equipment and were not that impressive. Later, as we gained experience and secured grapes from local growers, we focused on red wines specializing in Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Cabernet Franc.

We experimented with oak chips, used oak barrels, beer kegs, food-grade plastic buckets, plastic apple juice containers, Coca Cola syrup stainless steel containers, and glass Carboys. The yeast and chemicals came from a local drug store that specialized in stocking such items for beer and wine makers.

Eventually, we were able to purchase our first new, French Oak Barrel - a thirty galloner. Wow, what a difference quality oak made on the Cabernet Sauvignon. We were hooked! We raised the monthly ante, and bought more and larger oak barrels. We loved experimenting with wine and oak. We learned the most from our failures - over oaking wine, sour barrels, barrels with mold, unsanitized conditions, too much sulfur, over using sulfites, not using enough, etc.

Our wine improved. We made around 200 gallons of finished wine a year for home consumption and for friends. During the early days, our friends politely took the wines we gave them. Some tasted bad and some blew up in wine racks. However, they stuck with us, and as our wines got better they began to look forward to the holidays when we gave wine as gifts. They also encouraged us to consider making commercial wines.

In January, 1995, we decided to take a chance and become a bonded winery. Alan Jones, a former partner, discovered a 17 acre parcel of land for sale on Mill Creek Road near the Blue Mountains. Alan designed the winery facility and we were off and running. We made 675 cases the first year, 820 cases the second, and now we are producing 1800 cases a year. The goal is to remain small and focus on making premium, world-class wines for customers who seek out quality wines from small producers.

 

 

 


$24.25 - Case price
(any 12 or more bottles)

Price: $26.95

Qty.

Prior vintage notes:

"...The nose reminds us of the perfume you smell while torching the sugar crust for a Cr?me Br?l?e. The midpalate oozes with the flavor of toffee in a Heath Bar and has a linge
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$22.91 - Case price
(any 12 or more bottles)

Price: $25.45

Qty.

"a dark and smoky wine with tight scents of cassis, raspberry and pomegranate. Suggestions of mushroom, tobacco and lead pencil waft through the finish, and this has enough concentration to sp

...read more

Walla Walla Vintners Cabernet Sauvignon Sagemoor 05

$36.86 - Case price (any 12 or more bottles)

Price: $40.95

"Baby Leonetti" says Seattle Times' Paul Gregutt: "built upon fruit from 30-plus-year-old vines. It's a classic Bordeaux blend, showing cassis, berry and cherry fruits dotted wit
...read more >>


 


$33.75 - Case price
(any 12 or more bottles)

Price: $37.50

Qty.

"Baby Leonetti"

says Seattle Times' Paul Gregutt: The Cabernet Sauvignon is blended with "modest proportions of merlot, cab franc, carmen?re, malbec and petit verdot. Round a

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$26.05 - Case price
(any 12 or more bottles)

Price: $28.95

Qty.

a Columbia Valley blend of eight varietals from as many vineyards. Here, bright red fruits mingle with light spice and sweet tannins. It's an all-purpose bottle of fruit-driven red, ready for near-te
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$25.65 - Case price
(any 12 or more bottles)

Price: $28.50

Qty.

Prior vintage notes

"a dark and smoky wine with tight scents of cassis, raspberry and pomegranate. Suggestions of mushroom, tobacco and lead pencil waft through the finish, and this has enough

...read more

Walla Walla Vintners Cordon Grove Vyd Cuvee 03

$25.16 - Case price (any 12 or more bottles)

Price: $27.95

This vineyard designated blend is a "knock out" with 53% Merlot and 42% Cabernet Franc with a splash of Pepper Bridge Malbec. The Cordon Grove Vineyard is an "affair of the heart" for the Gary Grove F
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Walla Walla Vintners Walla Walla Cuvee 02

$25.16 - Case price (any 12 or more bottles)

Price: $27.95

This lush blend of Walla Walla Valley terroirs contains 35% Cabernet Sauvignon from Seven Hills and Windrow Vineyards, 35% Merlot from Seven Hills, Dwelley Jones and Spring Valley Vineyards, and 30% C
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Walla Walla Vintners Bello Rosso 05

$35.96 - Case price (any 12 or more bottles)

Price: $39.95

LIMITED" -- Baby Leonetti" says Seattle Times Paul Gregutt: the winery's "version of a super-Tuscan. Once again, half is old-vine Sagemoor cabernet sauvignon, half is sangiovese.
...read more >>