Walla Walla: Holocene Wines and Dining In

This is the final post in a series about our recent trip to Walla Walla over a long weekend to celebrate Ann's 60th birthday. It covers our last acts in Walla Walla, a Monday afternoon tasting at Holocene Wines in Milton-Freewater and our subsequent quiet dinner cum tête-à-tête of cheese and salami on the grounds of our inn.

Dimitri has been a member of Force Majeure for some time and is a regular buyer of their wines. As such, he was invited to a DC-area Force Majeure event where he met Carrie Alexander, wife of FM winemaker Todd Alexander. When we visited FM earlier in the weekend, Dimitri had brought along a bottle of wine as a gift for Carrie, but alas, she was not in town. He left it for her.

At some later point in the weekend they ended up connecting, resulting in Carrie kindly inviting us to come taste at the soon-to-open Holocene tasting room in old Milton-Freewater on Monday afternoon. Holocene is Todd and Carrie's personal project which focuses on Willamette Valley Pinots and Chards. It's no secret that I am retired from the Willamette wine business and that those wines are my favorites. Ann and I were eagerly anticipating our tasting.

We arrived to a nearly deserted downtown Milton-Freewater about ten minutes ahead of Dimitri and the gang. The address that we put into the GPS brought us to a beautiful old brick bank building bearing no number or signage in a cute old downtown that seems on the bleeding edge of gentrification. I imagine that this will be a very different and much more bustling area in the next five years as smaller operations are priced out of the expensive Walla Walla downtown.

Undeterred by the lack of signage, Ann and I went into the stately old building that is clearly undergoing renovation. Carrie came out of the back where she was working and greeted us, apologizing for the renovation mess and letting us know that we would be the first group to taste in what is soon to be the new Holocene tasting room. I think I speak for Ann when I say that I was floored by the beauty of the old building which is going to make a great statement about the Holocene project when it opens.

Carrie gave us quite the eclectic tasting of Todd's wines. In addition to making wine for Force Majeure and his own Holocene label, he also makes the wines for the cult-favorite Red Mountain label WeatherEye, many of whose wines are bottled in flare-sided Calvados bottles. I just know from experience getting my labels placed correctly on flare-sided Port bottles that these labels were a good bit of a challenge for the bottling truck operator.

WeatherEye Whites in Calvados Bottles

Skin Contact Color

Force Majeure Grenache

Twin 2021 Holocene Pinots

After we purchased some Pinot (the 2021 Apocrypha from Antiquum Farm grapes), we said goodbye to Carrie and wished her great luck with the new Holocene project. Outside on the sidewalk, we all said goodbye to each other. Ann and I would be heading back to Bend in the morning and on Wednesday Dimitri and the group would be heading back to Spokane for their flight back to DC.

After going hard all weekend, Ann and I wanted a quiet evening alone to decompress and have some one on one time for each other. Rather than try to find a restaurant open on a Monday night, a night on which most good restaurants are dark, I suggested that we stop at the Walla Walla Grocery Outlet on the way back into town, to buy a little cheese and salame to eat outside under the canopy of our inn. Ann was super enthusiastic and that is exactly what we did.

Relaxing Quietly with a Bottle of Holocene Pinot Noir
Great Wine in Crappy Plastic Glasses

View of The Wesley from the Patio

We sat outside until it was pitch dark, probably earlier than usual because of the mounting clouds, and until we were chilly enough, despite the gorgeous Holocene Pinot, to retire to our room and pack our stuff for departing in the morning. We went to bed exhausted from a long weekend of go-go-go, but also happy with our experience in meeting new friends and discovering Walla Walla for the first time.