Greetings from windy Walla Walla, Washington, where my husband and I and four of our good friends are enjoying Fall Release Weekend in this charming small city in the far southeastern corner of the state. Harry and I have been coming here for more than a decade, starting when we were living and working in Central Washington. The region produces exceptional red wines (at least on a par with those more well-known California vintages and at a much more reasonable price) and boasts 120 wineries and 2,800 acres of vineyards.

The town itself charms with 19th-century brick buildings in its core, a private liberal arts college and leafy neighborhoods with Craftsman-style homes, all surrounded by the rolling hills and wheat fields of the Palouse and framed by the Blue and Wallowa mountains. We drove into the valley around 5 p.m. on Thursday evening on the tail of a passing rain storm and were treated to the most glorious sunset, with layered ribbons of clouds turning gold, then orange and finally crimson as the sun descended. The light caught on the bleached hills and in the autumn-hued trees, giving us a breathtakingly beautiful start to our weekend.

Yesterday we awoke to a fresh-washed landscape, sunny skies and 65 blustery degrees as a warm front washed through. It made for comfortable wine touring as we visited old friends at Rulo, Isenhower and Tertulia. We also made our obligatory lunch stop at Andrae’s Kitchen (gourmet eats at a Cenex station on the west side of town . . . check out an earlier blog for an explanation of that story!) before stopping in at Gramercy Cellars to check out its offerings.

We ended the day with another fine meal at Whitehouse-Crawford, offering fabulous food housed in another of the town’s fine old brick edifaces, this one a former furniture factory. (Read more about this building and restaurant here.) We brought our own magnum of an Oregon Pinot Noir (a varietal Walla Walla doesn’t grow) — though the restaurant has a very extensive regional wine list. We started with an appetizer of crispy fried Walla Walla (sweet) onions, a perfect light start.   A few in our party ordered the seasonal Honey Nut Squash Soup: very flavorful and laced with a pomegranate molasses and sprinkled with seasoned pumpkin seeds.   I opted for the fall apple salad, a delightfully crunchy mix of apples, radicchio and fennel mixed with maple pecans and Oregon blue cheese and tossed with a cider vinaigrette.   Our entrée choices ranged from Painted Hills beef tenderloin to roasted sea scallops,    Japanese-style fried chicken, and spice-braised lamb shank.   The menu really reflected the flavors and bounty of the season and left us all full and happy.

We’re off to another round of tastings today, hoping to discover a few new favorites and affirming our old ones.

Cheers!

— Patty Vanikiotis, associate editor/copy editor