Waters Winery

When I first visited Waters Winery’s tasting room in 2006, a sign on the door greeted visitors with “Sold Out — See You Next Vintage.” The space was a postage-stamp-size room at the Train Depot building in downtown Walla Walla. Even though founder Jason Huntley and winemaker Jamie Brown were producing fewer than 1,000 cases of wine, I figured that these native Walla Wallans must have been doing something right.

Fast-forward to a few years later and now their tasting room has morphed into a beautiful state-of-the-art winemaking and tasting facility south of town on J.B. George Road. To say that Waters Winery has arrived is an understatement. As I snapped pictures from the hillside above the winery portion of the contemporary-style complex, it hit me that I was witnessing Jason’s evolving strategy. In 2006, I got a glimpse of the newborn winery. Now, in 2010, I see a winery in its adolescent period. And I feel confident that a visit in 2014 will reveal the next stage — a maturing winery with estate vineyards at full production and an even larger community of loyal fans.

At the heart of Waters Winery’s collection of wines is syrah. However, you won’t find a blend of syrah from various vineyards in the Columbia Valley. Rather, you’ll discover vineyard-designated syrah from Leonetti Cellar’s Loess Vineyard, Pepper Bridge Vineyard, or the winery’s own estate vineyard, Forgotten Hills. Why is this? I suspect it’s because syrah is such a terroir expressive grape it allows Waters Winery to showcase a multitude of flavor profiles. This characteristic also permits winemaker Jamie Brown to create different styles of syrah, such as that made by fermenting the syrah with a small percentage of viognier, as it’s done in the northern Rhône.

As I studied the calligraphy on the Waters label, wondering how the hell anyone could write so beautifully, the pourer reminded me that Waters Winery is behind the production of two other brands. In a brilliant move, Jason teamed with Gramercy Cellars’ Greg Harrington to create their exclusive 100-case 21 Grams cabernet sauvignon as well as wallet-friendly Substance wines. With its periodic-table theme, Substance would allow me to easily “tweet” 140 characters of praise — if I had time to tweet. Waters wines, 21 Grams, and Substance are all reminders that the Washington wine scene is forever evolving. I could particularly appreciate this progress on this latest visit, with nary a “sold out” sign in sight.

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  Order the book!

  Waters Winery was featured in WineTrails of Walla Walla as part of the Walla Walla WineTrail South on page 430!

• 

  Order the book!

  Waters Winery was featured in WineTrails of Washington as part of the Walla Walla WineTrail South on page 430!