My Top 5 Walla Walla Wines

So, as some readers may know, I work at a winery in Walla Walla. Because of this professional affiliation, I spend a lot of time with wine. Talking about it, reading about it, thinking about it, and drinking it. When you work with wine, a good number of your friends are likely to be into wine too, which is the case with me. I don't want to fake being an expert- I'm just a well informed consumer. Here's my Top 5 favourite wines made in Walla Walla. I'm limiting it to current vintages. I ask our readers and contributers to respond with their own lists.

In no particular order:

---Spring Valley 2004 "Mule Skinner" Merlot

This is a delicious, one hundred percent Merlot bottling from the highly respected Spring Valley estate vineyard. Rich in Merlot fruitiness, this wine can put a hard sit on a man after a bottle or two. The only thing that will get you up is the promise of more delicious Mule Skinner, or if none is left, the promise of an able mule to skin.

---Waterbrook 2005 Viognier

I'm not as partial to white wines as I am to Red, but when I reach for a White, this one is an easy pick. Pure Viognier goodness presents fresh floral and pear aromas with a smooth finish and confidence boost. I like pairing this wine with brine-aged Greek feta, poultry, and seduction.

---Reininger 2003 Carmenére

What the hell is Carmenere, one may ask. It was described to me by a friend working for Reininger as the "Lost Bordeaux" varietal. Apparently back in the day, a bunch of French monks decided that Carmenere was too delicious for the unwashed masses to imbibe, so they dressed up like Indians and uprooted every Carmenere vine in France and threw them all into the Rhine. Some centuries later, these vines washed up in Nazi Germany and because wine was at that time associated with Jewish holidays (Nazis drink only beer and tears) they were considered contraband and locked up in a bunker with Adolph Hitler. As it turns out, Hitler didn't commit suicide, but actually fled to Argentina, where he planted the Carmenere and produced several excellent bottlings of what he thought was simply a very rich Merlot, until he was killed by a meteor. This meteor brought a lot of attention to Argentina, and in addition to many other interesting things, astronomers discovered the grapes. To make a long story short, during one of his worldly adventure vacations, golden boy of Walla Walla Chuck Reininger was visiting the royal observatory of Denmark, once the home of insane person Tycho Brahe. The grounds contained a small vineyard growing the Carmenere which had been transplanted by Danish astronomers. Chuck bought the vines on sight, wrestled them from the grip of an evil enchanted Weeping Willow, and brought them to Walla Walla where he has been making tasty wine from them ever since.

---Cayuse 2003 "Widowmaker" Cab

This thick, chocolaty Cab Sauv is high in flavor and violence. Drink this until you're sick, and then go shoot a man dead. Owned by an authentic Frenchman, Cayuse produces some of the hardest to find wines in the Walla Walla. Good thing too, because if more of this shit got around, people would be making widows left and right.

---Amavi 2003 Syrah

A 100% Syrah from the Walla Walla Valley, this wine goes best with a rare steak. The rarer the better. I find that splashing Amavi Syrah on a living bovine is usually enough.