Appellation · United States
Walla Walla Valley
Washington’s most celebrated sub-AVA, straddling the Oregon border, with a famous stony sub-district called The Rocks.
Syrah with smoked meat, olive and black pepper; Cabernet Sauvignon with ripe cassis and firm acidity. Full-bodied and structured.
About Walla Walla Valley
Walla Walla straddles the Washington–Oregon state line, which makes for some administrative oddity: several wineries in Washington source their most famous fruit from Oregon.
The Rocks District of Milton-Freewater, granted in 2015, is a former riverbed covered in large basalt cobbles. It is one of very few American AVAs delimited on the basis of a single soil type, and its Syrah has a savoury, meaty, olive-and-bacon character that tasters identify consistently.
The wider valley makes Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot of considerable power.
What the name means
- Legal name
- Walla Walla Valley AVA
- Type
- American Viticultural Area (AVA)
- Set by
- Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB)
- Recognised
- 1984
- Regulates
- Origin only. It sets no rules about varieties, yields, ageing or winemaking.
Only where the grapes were grown, plus the percentage that must come from the named area. An AVA sets no varietal, yield, ageing or winemaking rules whatsoever — the single most commonly misunderstood fact about US wine labels.
Crosses the Washington–Oregon state line. The Rocks District of Milton-Freewater, within it, lies entirely in Oregon.
Grapes
Wines from here
Soil and geology
- Soils
- Wind-deposited loess over gravel; Large basalt cobbles in The Rocks District
- Drainage
- Free-draining
- Water holding
- Low
- Heat retention
- High
What it does to the vine. The Rocks District is a former riverbed of large rounded basalt cobbles with almost no fine soil. The stones store and radiate heat and drain completely, and the Syrah grown on them is consistently distinctive enough that the sub-AVA was granted specifically on the basis of that single soil.
WineHQ describes soil in terms of what it demonstrably does — drainage, heat retention, water supply, rooting depth — and not in terms of flavours it is said to transmit. Vines take up ions, not aromas, and no mechanism has been demonstrated by which a mineral in the ground is tasted in the glass. See soil and drainage.
What to eat, and how to serve it
Derived from this region’s signature styles. Each is listed separately, because a region does not have one serving temperature.
Washington Cabernet Sauvignon
Serve at 16–18°C (cool room temperature).
Try with roast chicken, fillet steak or grilled chicken.
Washington Syrah
Serve at 16–18°C (cool room temperature).
Try with steak au poivre, roast chicken or steak.
Where to go next
Places worth trying if you like this one — neighbours, rivals, and the obvious step across.
- Yakima Valley — Washington’s first AVA and its largest planted area, containing several more specific sub-appellations.
- Red Mountain — Washington’s smallest and hottest AVA — a south-west-facing slope producing the state’s most tannic Cabernet Sauvignon.
- Columbia Valley — The vast, arid AVA covering most of Washington State’s vineyards, east of the Cascade rain shadow.
Approximate centroid: 46.05°, -118.35°. WineHQ stores coordinates only where it has them, and does not estimate boundaries it has not sourced.
Sources
Sources consulted
- American Viticultural Areas (AVAs) — Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB), US Department of the Treasury
- Washington State Wine Commission — Washington State Wine Commission