Walla Walla wineries: a place for exciting reds

Last summer, local winemaker David "Merf" Merfeld, of Northstar Winery threw a party at his home here in the southeastern quadrant of Washington state. It's fair to say that close to half of the town's young winemakers were crowded into Merfeld's kitchen and onto his patio that night, uncorking just-bottled Syrahs, pouring newly completed blends into each other's glasses, eagerly seeking opinions from their fellows, sniffing and swirling and spitting into sinks and buckets and nosing around for a taste of something else.

By Patrick Comiskey

October 22, 2008