The Who and What of Walla Wine in Washington
Whether it's watching Italian films or simply that I Love Lucy episode where she comically crushes grapes, a lot of people have wondered what it would be like to work in and around wine. What does it take? Is the wine world filled with snobby jerks in top hats and monocles?
Kiss Me, I'm Cooking turned to Robyn Metcalfe, a Tasting Room Attendant at Walla Faces in Washington state. Walla Faces is not only a vineyard and winery, it is also a boutique hotel filled with art in the breathtaking Walla Walla valley. Metcalfe also reassured us hoity-toity men festooned with monocles and top hats don't exist outside of a Monopoly game. With that assured, we pressed on.
What does a Tasting Room Attendant do?
Mostly I do wine tastings and try to sell as much wine as possible. That means that explain the concept of the winery, talk about the wines, help the people come in understand why we processed the wine in certain ways (e.g. we used concrete to ferment here, stainless steel to ferment here and oak to ferment here and this is why; this wine is fined and this one is not because XYZ) and what that means for them when they are drinking the wine. And then, of course, I try to convince them that they should take home a couple bottles or a half case or a case.
In addition, there's a related part of the job that I don't do quite as much and that isn't relevant to all wineries: service during live music. We have live music events Wednesday through Sunday. During that time, the Tasting Room Attendant is basically just pouring glasses of wine or opening bottles and ringing people up.
How did you get this job?
I applied for the marketing position originally based on prior marketing experience. When hours in the tasting room opened up, the owners asked if I wanted to give it a try. What sort of marketing goes into promoting a winery?
The answer to this question depends a little bit on the size of the winery. Walla Faces is really, really small, so we don't do as much as the larger wineries. We have a monthly newsletter and also a weekly email that goes out to the locals about our events for the week. Since we are also a boutique hotel with rooms overlooking the vineyard, we encourage our hotel guests to come down to the tasting room and taste the wine. I write blog posts at www.wallafaces.com/blog and update Facebook. We don't have any huge national campaigns; it's just a lot of legwork.
What sort of wines are coming out of Washington state?
There's something like 700 wineries in Washington state, making us second only to California in wine production, so there is definitely some variety in what people are producing. Rieslings, Chardonnays, Merlots, Cab Sauvs and Syrahs are probably the big 5 of Washington wine. Cab Franc might belong on that list as well. The Walla Walla valley is particularly well known for its reds, however. Eastern Washington is hot and dry, which works really well for these varietals. You don't need a ton of water to grow wine, and dry weather only concentrates the flavor. In addition, we have about two hours more sun every single day of the growing season than California. We're getting great wine of all stripes out here. What is your favorite wine that your winery produces?
My personal favorite is our Riesling. It's an off-dry, German-style Riesling that was partially fermented in concrete, giving it some great minerality. The concrete breathes the same way that oak breathes, but it doesn't add an oak-y flavor to the wine, so you are left with some great pear and apricot flavors. We also have a Cab Blend, two Cab Sauvs, a Syrah and an ice wine. What do you find is the most common misconception about wine in general, and also Pacific Coast wines specifically?
I think the most important thing is that people outside of the Pacific Northwest know that we are here. Washington state is the only US state to have closed its state tourism office and is the only state that allocates zero money to getting tourists from other states to visit us. Walla Walla is a super fun little city. We have tons of wineries, AMAZING food (both Sunset magazine and Best of the Road have put us in their list of best small towns for food), and an active live music scene.
Not to mention: everything is really inexpensive here. Napa is a lovely place, but not everyone wants to pay over $150 for a bottle of wine. Walla Walla wine is damn good and much more reasonably priced. The majority of our tourists are from the West Coast, but I think more east-coaster, midwesterners and southerners would be out here if they knew what we had to offer!
To see more about Walla Wine or order it for yourself, check out its website.