On a recent weekend trip to Portland, Oregon, my husband and I attended an annual event that brings more than 50 Walla Walla wineries to the city for a great winetasting party. Walla Walla Wine on Tour has been making the rounds of Pacific Northwest cities for at least 15 years, giving the producers of Walla Walla Valley Wine a chance to bring their wines directly to their admirers at events in Portland, Boise, Spokane and Seattle. It provides the wineries a great opportunity to broaden exposure to their fabulous wines, and it gives consumers the chance to try a plethora of offerings from that great American viticultural area without having to make the trek to the far southeastern corner of Washington state.

We first attended one of these tastings more than a decade ago, when ticket prices were around $25 per person. This year’s entrance fee was a much pricier $100 each, but we were ready to treat ourselves. I was curious to see whether the very rainy, cold weather and the fee might keep the crowd to a modest size. However, the skies cleared shortly before the event started at 4 p.m. on a February Sunday afternoon, and the space quickly filled with enthusiastic oenophiles.

We gathered at The Redd on Salmon Street (if you know anything about the life cycle of salmon, you’ll get the reference),  30,000 square feet of event space located in southeast Portland (across the Willamette River from the downtown core) in the Central Eastside Industrial District. Housed in the former 1918 Hesse-Ersted Ironworks building, The Redd has been repurposed not only as an event space but also as a working hub for the regional food industry, providing a platform for innovative ideas and a home for local food entrepreneurs. Completed in 2018, it even featured in Top Chef: Portland in 2021.

It’s a really cool space, with the main hall soaring nearly three stories, with large clerestory windows admitting plenty of natural light and revealing the exposed beams and supports. Towards one end towers an immense drill press or stamping machine, able to exert 900 tons of pressure to bend and shape metal. As an element of the previous occupant’s business (Custom Stamping), the new tenants decided it made an interesting focal point for the space. (And besides, they determined the $20,000 it would take to remove it could be better spent elsewhere!) It looms like some prehistoric creature and does add to the industrial vibe.

The wineries’ representatives stood behind tables ranged down the long outer walls of the hall, arranged alphabetically so that one could easily locate each. We received a program listing the participants and the wines they were pouring (most offered three or four each),  a handy pen on a lanyard for taking notes, and a large wine glass. Servers passed trays of hors d’oeuvres (not just cheese and crackers, these included truffle mac ‘n’ cheese, crostini with goat cheese, savory meatballs, and fried tofu on skewers . . . something for every palate), and more nibbles were laid out on tables down the center of the room. There were a few seating arrangements at either end of the space as well as some tall tables, but for the most part people chose to stand and wander from one winery to another, sampling as they went.

Of course, there is no way one could taste all the wines on offer here, so we took a few minutes to plot our game plan before diving in. Though Walla Walla is best known for its luscious, powerful red wines, there were offerings of whites (Viognier, Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Sémillion, Riesling), rosés and even a few sparklers as well. We started there and then moved on to the reds, passing from the lighter varietals to the heartier ones. We alternated between some new-to-us wineries and our long-time favorites, such as Isenhower Cellars, where we caught up with owner and winemaker Brett Isenhower as we sipped. Most offered vintages from 2020 through 2024, but we were delighted to try some much older wines, such as a 2010 Syrah and 2010 Cab Sauv from Dusted Valley . . . still full of fruit and delicious.

We really enjoyed this event, especially chatting with other guests and learning what they had tasted and liked and offering our suggestions of certain pours to try as well. As you might imagine, it was quite a convivial crowd, and we ended up staying the entire two and a half hours of the event. It certainly proved to be a Benjamin well spent!

— Patty Vanikiotis, associate editor/copy editor