HOGSWINE

Last year I came out of college with a Bachelor’s in the highly useful-to-winemaking field of …history.

I spent 3 long months looking for work before I found an ad in the local paper by Dusted Valley Vintners seeking help for 2007 crush. During my interview, which took place outside, bright sunlight shone into my eyes as I tried to avoid moving too much, lest I start sweating. Chad Johnson, wine-maker and co-owner, donned aviators while chatting about the restaurant business, his appreciation for great wine, and his desire that nothing get screwed up during crush, all while I squintily listened in his general direction. He gave me the job, which would require helping on all aspects of the wine-making process; getting the grapes in, processed, and ready for barreling. I began looking forward to two months of some pretty hard work and what I thought would be a great learning experience. Now, I don’t really consider myself a hands-on kind of guy. I have soft hands and when I work with tools I usually end up using them on myself, much to my painful dismay.

However unprepared I felt, I could easily have been worse off. Between Jesse Hilderbrand (assistant wine-maker) and I, I was the one who knew where the dump was located. Chad amusedly remarked, “Of all people, Jeff is the one who knows where the dump is?” After 12 hour days, seven days a week, with co-partner and brother-in-law Corey Braunel, and Chad, who was running on what seemed to be an infinite supply of Rock Star energy drinks, Clif Bars, and some sort of morning stretching exercise (don’t ask), we began to function much less as strangers.

The work we did in September was easy. A typical day involved sorting fruit, punching down grapes with a giant steel masher in bins the size of minivans, and endless squeegeeing of a floor that was eternally wet. By October I had avoided the loss of any limbs. We routinely spent 10-14 hours a day in a giant converted warehouse owned by Bergevin Lane and shared amongst Dusted Valley, Ash Hollow, and Lodmell Cellars.

Chad and Corey are enjoyable to be around. This can be attested to by any of the people who have come into contact with them, whether through their tasting room, Stained Tooth Society, or just general business. I truly can’t think of any other workplace where drinking a beer in the middle of a hard day, heading to the bar after 14 hours of endless tasks, or laughing at some damn funny jokes is ordinary.

Yet as silly as we may have been at Dusted Valley, both Chad and Corey are very serious about what kind of product they bottle and endorse. I can’t speak of the actual process of making final blend decisions, but when it came time to taste through the varietals in primary fermentation there was a tension so thick you could cut it with…no, I hate clichés. Suffice to say, both wine-makers put a lot of effort into making tasty, complex beverages.

While producers like Leonetti Cellars, Cayuse, and Woodward Canyon get their often-deserved praise nationally and among cult followers, it is the wineries like Dusted Valley Vintners that really epitomize what Walla Walla is and why it has earned the reputation for world-class wines. Wine shouldn’t be placed on a platform unreachable by those with a desire to enjoy it while enduring the cringe-worthy romanticism and snobbery so common these days.

Walla Walla is relevant because of the numerous wine-makers in the valley that have a dose of healthy pride in what they do. The relative absence of money-driven producers and corporate conglomerates is what helps this place stay so down to earth. Dusted Valley Vintners is one of many great and unique examples of why what we have here in Walla Walla is so unsurprisingly special.