Be careful Walla Walla, there’s a brand new sheriff on the town. Woodinville stalwart Guardian Cellars is opening a tasting room within the valley.
“It is at all times been sort of a need to have one thing [in Walla Walla] if simply the precise spot got here up,” says Guardian founder and winemaker Jerry Reiner, who works by day as a police officer. “It was simply ready and ready and ready and, fortuitously, lastly the planets aligned, and it fell into our lap.”
The brand new tasting room will probably be situated at 202 East Essential Road, throughout the road from Walla Walla Bread Firm. Lengthy-time followers of Guardian, which was based in 2004, can anticipate to see themes acquainted to the vineyard’s current areas.
“It’ll sort of keep within the Guardian theme of some blacks, whites, blues, and silver,” Reiner says. “We’ll have the sorts of cool fashionable furnishings that we like, and really wealthy really feel behind it.” At current, nevertheless, the area continues to be a piece in progress.
“With the present state of affairs and getting provides and every part, we won’t do precisely what we need to the place but,” Reiner says.
The tasting room may have a gentle opening on Friday Could sixth, the start of Spring Launch Weekend. No reservations will probably be required for opening weekend, however they’ll start to be accepted Monday, Could ninth. Tastings will probably be supplied Thursday by means of Monday, and can at the moment be indoors-only because the vineyard applies for a allow for outside seating.
This will probably be Guardian’s third tasting room and its largest area at 2100 sq. ft, with 1700 of that devoted to the tasting space. The vineyard will proceed to keep up its Woodinville and Maltby tasting rooms. Manufacturing will stay on the Maltby website.
Guardian is the fourth Woodinville vineyard to open a tasting room in Walla Walla Valley. Mark Ryan Vineyard opened a tasting room there in 2012. The vineyard opened a second tasting room, The Annex, in 2020. Mark Ryan’s manufacturing additionally now takes place within the valley, although it maintains a powerful Woodinville presence with a number of tasting rooms. Barons Vineyard relocated its manufacturing to the valley in 2016 and opened a tasting room 2017. Lastly Patterson Cellars introduced earlier this yr that it was opening a tasting room in Walla Walla and likewise transferring manufacturing to the valley.
Picture courtesy of Guardian Cellars.
