My husband and I recently made our annual spring trek to the standout wine region of Walla Walla, Washington. In the past few years we’ve ventured there and found the wineries made substantial adjustments to their tasting rooms and events to keep their patrons safe in the COVID era. During this visit we found several of our old favorites had returned to pre-pandemic celebrations while also keeping some of the best innovations and changes that came out of the past two years. It seems they’ve learned that, like my husband and me, many of their patrons prefer to sit down at a table for a relaxed tasting rather than elbow their way up to a crowded bar for a quick pour while struggling to hear what the host had to say about the wine.

Past visits to The Walls introduced us to some excellent wines but a fairly bare-bones tasting room, little more than a dark,  concrete-floored foyer to the production facility, with a few tables and chairs and the tasting bar. This time we could see that, as with many wineries throughout the world, the downtime the pandemic shutdown provided gave The Walls management time to spruce up and extend their tasting facility. Several seating arrangements, from long tables to cozy chairs at tables for two, were scattered about a bright space splashed with art.  On one side stretched a glassed-in wine library, while the other led to a large outdoor terrace broken into separate “rooms” with group seating on sofas   and tables set up for couples. Bridging the tasting area with the barrel-stacked production room was a boardroom for private tastings.    Now the winery can host many people at once but in a more spacious, welcoming environment. Oh, and the wine is as good as ever!

We always greatly anticipated visiting Leonetti Cellar each spring, when they would open up their lovely campus to their wine club members for an exclusive wine pickup and tasting party. One of the valley’s oldest wineries, Leonetti makes incredibly rich, complex, highly valued red wines, with the current release of the Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon typically freely poured at the Spring Release event. That has been on pause for three years, so we joyfully drove down the long drive, looking forward to seeing old friends and sampling the wine on the beautiful grounds. We arrived late in the afternoon, when the earlier crowds had dissipated and a chilly breeze drove most visitors inside the production buildings. Little had changed in terms of the layout of the event, with no distancing requirements in place. Happily, the traditional offering of pulled pork sliders and grilled asparagus was available, too.  The best surprise came when we learned not only were  the Cab and the Merlot being poured, but also (for the first time ever, that we knew) the Reserve was, as well. What a wonderful “Welcome back!” gift! You can be sure we savored our glasses of this treat.

Corliss Estates provided our last tasting event of the weekend, and though the wines were, as always, smooth, well-balanced and rich, we actually hoped that the winery would have kept some aspects of its COVID-adjusted tastings. For the past year and a half, guests made reservations to taste and were seated at tables in the historic, high-ceilinged building adorned with art and antiques. Plates of charcuterie and small bites, complementing the wine samplings arrayed before us with tastings notes, made for an elegant, unhurried experience. This spring saw a return to the style of earlier events, with crowds of people milling about the space, visiting four separate wine stations for tastes while servers cruised the room with hors d’oeuvre trays. While I enjoyed the energy of the event, I hadn’t missed juggling my wine glass while trying to nibble my food and fruitlessly scanning the room for an open high-top table. While it allowed for hosting a large number of people and made the best use of the space, this event clarified for me that there were some positive lessons learned over the past few years.

— Patty Vanikiotis, associate editor/copy editor