Walla Walla, Washington becoming tourist destination

Wine industry transforms town best known for prison

WALLA WALLA, Wash. (AP) — Walla Walla used to be best known for sweet onions and as home of the state penitentiary, where death row inmates once were hanged.

But the remote town along the Washington-Oregon border has reinvented itself in the past two decades into a centre of premium wines and wine tourism.

In the process, Walla Walla’s once boarded-up downtown and quiet social scene have been transformed.

Dozens of wineries and tasting rooms, along with restaurants, bars and boutiques, have sprung up.

New hotels are opening to house the thousands of wine aficionados who flock here each year.

“If the wine wasn’t as high quality, you wouldn’t have this,” said Nick Velluzzi, a Walla Walla Community College professor who studies the wine industry. “The linchpin is high quality wine. You can have great restaurants, but if you have flawed wine, it doesn’t matter.”

Walla Walla had no wineries until the late 1970s. Now there are 120 in the area, and that number is expected to rise. Many are less than 10 years old.

Despite being 435 kilometres from the glitter and wealth of the Seattle area, Walla Walla regularly draws the sort of visitors who will drop $500 for a case of wine, residents said.

The vibe in this town of 32,000 isn’t as upscale as California’s Napa Valley, but it’s still pretty posh by eastern Washington standards.

A night at the rehabbed Marcus Whitman Hotel cost more than $150 midweek. Dinner at Saffron, a Mediterranean restaurant, can run about $150 for a couple, including a bottle of the local vintage.

The town has about 1,000 hotel rooms, but many people also rent out homes. Spending on hotels in Walla Walla nearly doubled between 2004 and 2014, a report found.

The upscale targeting is deliberate.

Walla Walla is not looking for busloads of tourists or wild bachelorette parties, said Muriel Kenyon, whose family owns the Otis Kenyon winery.

“It’s a higher-end buyer that is inclined to travel all this way,” said Kenyon, who is also president of the Walla Walla Valley Wine Alliance, a local promotion group.