Rotie Cellars

I’m a big fan of the Winepeeps wine blog, because it lends a critical palate to the Northwest wine scene. So I took notice when Winepeeps co-blogger Kori Vorhees made the following comment about a new Walla Walla wine, after she attended the packed 2009 Rhône Rangers soiree in Seattle: “Our most exciting discovery was the 2007 Rôtie Cellars ‘Northern’ Red Blend. It is a bold wine, yet exhibits remarkable finesse at the same time. I was blown away by its purity of fruit.” Knowing Kori’s discerning palate, I made a mental note to check out this new upstart when in Walla Walla.

However, I had one little obstacle. Rôtie Cellars lacked a tasting room. Thus, as I raced around visiting and drinking my way through all the wineries that appear in this book, I thought Rôtie Cellars would be destined for the book’s appendix, at best. Au contraire! On my final visit to Walla Walla, I discovered Rôtie Cellars’ new tasting room, located on the second floor of the red brick building across from Starbucks. The freshly painted tasting room had just opened, and lucky for me, owner/winemaker Sean Boyd was among the staff pouring for their “soft opening.”

The affable, 6-foot-plus Sean poured a sample of his super-crisp southern Rhône white blend of roussanne and viognier. As I daydreamed of pairing this wine with pasta salad, Sean spoke of his days as a geologist, when he was deep into oil- and gas-exploration endeavors. The work was exciting, but the constant travel took him away from his wife, Annie, and their baby daughter, Bridget. Even as I savored the lingering notes of the white blend, it was clear to me that Sean is a family man to the core. But leaving a lucrative career and starting up a winery…now that takes guts.

Next up for the sampling were his two reds — a northern Rhône blend of syrah fermented together with viognier, which, by the way, has notes of floral and bacon (no kidding) reminiscent of the famed Côte-Rôtie in the northern Rhône; and a southern-Rhône-blend version featuring a backbone of grenache and smaller amounts of syrah and Mourvèdre. The southern blend, with its lighter, fruit-forward taste, provided an answer to that ever-troubling question: What to pair with chicken à la Provençal? I left that day with a fine case of Rhône rage, having chanced upon Walla Walla’s most exciting new winery.