Walla Walla Valley 2020: Vintage review and top wines

QUICK LINK Washington State 2020: full vintage report and top-scoring wines

The Walla Walla Valley is a cooler growing region than Washington State AVAs that lie further west. The region, which sits in the far southeastern corner of the state and extends into the northeastern corner of Oregon, sees lower temperatures and much more rain than Washington’s desert AVAs, with 28cm of annual rainfall.

In 2020 many producers were fortunate in escaping undue impact from the wildfires. As one side-effect of the smoke was a slowing of ripening (as it obscured the sunlight), many wines show real elegance and a savoury edge.

Scroll down for the top-scoring Walla Walla Valley 2020 wines tasted

‘We narrowly escaped the threat of wildfires, so the 2020 vintage in Walla Walla was fantastic for us,’ said Doubleback winemaker Josh McDaniels. ‘We saw a combination of above-average temperatures and slightly below-average yields. The wines are concentrated, rich and some of the best we’ve made.’

‘There is a distinctive freshness and length to the tannin structure of 2020 wines,’ said Valdemar Estates winemaker Devyani Isabel Gupta. ‘We prefer to harvest with more fruit freshness and tension in our wines, and 2020 brought this tension in spades.

‘Initially, the 2020 growing season seemed like it would come in early and fast,’ she added. ‘In 2020, when the smoke moved in around the middle of September, the lack of sun exposure led to cooler temperatures. And the poor air quality delayed us receiving fruit for about two weeks.’

Gupta continued: ‘During this time, it was certainly stressful, as the impacts of the smoke were unknown. We had harvested almost all our Yakima Valley and Red Mountain fruit, but our Walla Walla Valley sites were still hanging. In Walla Walla Valley, specifically, air movement from the Blue Mountain range seemed to improve our air quality relative to Yakima Valley and areas near the Okanagan National Forest.’

Walla Walla Valley 2020: The top-performing producers

• Doubleback
• Valdemar Estates
• Leonetti Cellar
• Figgins Family
  

‘Our biggest success was to be able to produce most of our core wines without smoke issues,’ explained Jesús Martínez Bujanda, owner and CEO of Valdemar Estates. ‘We were very careful to separate every lot to avoid any cross-contamination, and we were able to get rid of any fruit we had doubt about. So we are very happy about the 2020 wines we are releasing.’

Gupta agreed: ‘We were fortunate with our Walla Walla Cabernet Sauvignon sites harvested after the smoke events. Phenolic-marker testing showed a minimal-to-no risk of smoke taint. Plus, the additional ‘hang time’ was also on our side, as the two-week delay preserved acidity and freshness while flavours and tannins developed.’

That luck did not extend everywhere, however. ‘We did have Grenache and Petit Verdot sites from the Columbia Basin that were not as fortunate and were declassified and then later destroyed,’ she admitted.

Walla Walla Valley 2020: The top wines tasted

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