Sapolil Cellars

Blame it on Sapolil Cellars.

It used to be that downtown Walla Walla was deadsville: quiet, serene, little nightlife. Then in 2007, along came a little winery with a funny name that opened its tasting room doors on Main Street. Perhaps the first clue that things would never be the same was the winery’s installation of a grand piano, along with plenty of tables and chairs at which patrons could sit and enjoy wine while listening to someone tickle the ivories. Since then, on most Friday and Saturday nights, many a visitor to downtown Walla Walla find themselves swaying to the music emanating from Sapolil Cellars.

Owner and winemaker Bill Scherwin, didn’t have to venture far to come up with a name for his winery; the production winery is located on Sapolil Road about 10 miles east of Walla Walla. Sapolil was a Native American who served alongside Dr. Dorsey Syng Baker during the 1870s construction of the Walla Walla & Columbia River Railroad, from Wallula, on the Columbia River, to Walla Walla. One of its many railway stations, used for loading wheat and other merchandise, bore the name Sapolil Station to honor Sapolil.

Sapolil Cellars is truly a family-run business. While Bill is instrumental in making the wine, his wife, Linda Scherwin, manages the tasting room/piano bar. Marketing and other duties fall on the experienced shoulders of their daughter Abigail Scherwin, and she’s done a remarkable job. In a competitive wine market like Walla Walla, creating an identity that fuses full-bodied red wines with the sounds of Philly KingB & The Stingers, Dr. Mark Brown, Papa Loves Mambo, and the like was pure genius.

Sapolil Cellars’ red blend “Gandy Dancer” features Jeffrey’s artwork on the label. While I stuck my nose into a freshly poured glass of this New World blend, Abigail explained to me that “gandy dancer” is a slang term for a worker who maintained the railroad tracks, an expression that originated in the late 1800s. Moving together in a rhythmic dance, gandy dancers used a “gandy tool” to move displaced track back into place to prevent train derailment. It occurred to me that the gandy-dancer sounds of the past might jive nicely with the rhythmic blues and jazzy notes pulsating from Sapolil Cellars. Find out for yourself by sampling some great syrah and getting into the beat.