Two Nines and 130 Wines
Walla Walla’s stunning new course creates a perfect pairing for oenophiles and golfers.
“Surprise, surprise” reads the marketing pitch for this distinctive, vibrant community once best known for its silly name and sweet onions. But I am surprised when I tee it up at Wine Valley Golf Club, where the greens roll about as well as any I’ve played and the vistas stretch 70 miles from the snow-capped Blue Mountains to the fertile vineyards dotting this scenic region in southeastern Washington.
And where else can a visitor wander into a downtown wine room on a rainy day and find herself shooting the bull for two hours with a father-daughter winemaking team?
Sure, some might call Walla Walla a poor man’s Napa Valley. But others see it differently. “It’s Napa Valley 30 years ago,” said Abigail Schwerin, who with her father Bill struck gold with their first wine, a 2003 Syrah that scored 91 points on Wine Spectator’s list. “But we are a destination,” Bill adds. “Napa is on your way to somewhere. We’re not on your way anywhere. The people come because of the wine.”
Ten years ago, the Schwerins say, there was only one high-end restaurant, and it was 20 miles away in Dayton, Wash. Though the first winery was established in 1977, the number has virtually doubled the past few years to more than 130. And while the population has remained steady at about 30,000, and there are still more wheat farmers in the county than wineries, Walla Walla’s downtown is now dotted with art galleries, bookstores, café’s and tasting rooms. There’s live music year-round, and festivals galore, with a Spring Release weekend gala in May, Holiday Barrel Tasting in early December, and of course, a Sweet Onion Festival each July.
Now, with a new 18-hole championship course designed by Oregonian Dan Hixson, there is even more reason to visit. “When I first started coming here, I was just dumbstruck by the stark beauty, with views not obscured by trees,” Hixson says, showing off the 7,360-yard, links-style layout that opened this spring on the 236-acre site. “I live in Portland and it’s very pretty, with views of Mount Hood and down into the river valley. But you don’t have the open vistas look you do here.” Hixson took full advantage of the expansive, rolling site, with undulating greens and dramatic bunker faces that boast plenty of vertical cleavage thanks to the porous loess soil deposited by the ancient Missoula floods.
“We tried to build a big, rolling, tumbling type golf course because the scale was such that on a lot of holes you didn’t want to build a little bump here and there,” explains Hixson. “Our property had a lot of big, heaving, rolling bumps of five, six, seven feet and those dictated how big the greens would be and how big the bunkers would be.” Some of those bunkers appear on holes four and five—a pair of par-fours that draw a great deal of attention because of their dramatic contrast. The fourth, a delicate, 390-yard par four, is reachable when it plays downwind, while the fifth stretches almost 100 yards longer and bares its fangs when playing into the wind. The par-five seventh also turns heads because of a large punchbowl green that leaves first timers anxious to re-putt.
The finishing holes offer some of the most stunning vistas. The elevated tee on the par-four seventeenth features an uphill second shot, with views of the Blue Mountains. On No. 18, not only can one take in much of the course, but the Walla Walla vineyards as well. “To me it’s the perfect fi nish of a course called Wine Valley,” says Hixson, whose first course, Bandon Crossing in Bandon, Ore., was named one of Golf Magazine’s Top 10 Courses You Can Play in 2007.
Because of the natural terrain, Hixson only moved around 100,000 cubic yards of dirt, but about 80 percent of that was for the driving range, and berms around the maintenance building and ponds.
So far the response has been positive, with low-handicappers discovering it’s a good test from the back tees, while those who aren’t hard-core golfers pleased at not having to negotiate major obstacles or carries. Developers also found the right marriage on fees, with prices reasonable at $30-$75 a round.
In addition, the master land plan laid out by Colorado’s Redstone International will include up to 273 home sites, with construction expected to start in 2010.
While that development takes root, there seems to be nothing stopping the exponential growth of wineries. In addition to award-winning Syrahs, the fertile valley has produced some righteous cab-merlot blends, as well as a number of delightful chardonnays and Semillons.
In addition to the wineries, Walla Walla boasts more than 30 galleries and art studios, along with 14 sculptures and five murals within walking distance of one another. Old-growth maples shade Victorian homes along the side streets. The Fort Walla Walla Museum, Whitman Mission and Kirkman House Museum transport visitors back to the 1800s. And I’ll bet you didn’t know the Walla Walla Symphony, which performs under the direction of Yaacov Bergmann at Cordiner Hall on the Whitman College campus, is the longest continuously operating symphony west of the Mississippi.
Contemporary music fans might also know the town from The Offspring hit, “Walla Walla,” a cautionary tale about the area’s historic hoosegow. Located on the outskirts of town, the correctional facility does nothing to detract from Walla Walla’s small-town charm.
The city recently earned the Great American Main Street Award and was named one of 12 Distinctive Destinations by the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Sunset magazine named Walla Walla the Best Main Street in the West and Best Wine Destination of the Year in 2005.
It’s hard to argue, especially when one turns the corner onto Main. The smell of caramel corn fi lls the air, even though Bright’s Candies, established in 1934, is yards away. Pretty sweet for a place on the way to nowhere.
