A couple of weeks ago, Lynn and I had friends from Seattle, Kim and George Suyama, who were once neighbors of ours, stay with us. They are also mutual friends with Sean Boyd, owner-winemaker of Rôtie Cellars in Walla Walla. Sean invited the four of us to visit the Boyd family's vineyard in the newly-approved Rocks District of Milton Freewater American Viticultural Area.

We met up at the corner of highway 11 and Sunnyside Road in Oregon. From there, we drove west on Sunnyside, past Cayuse Vineyards (Christophe Baron's properties that put "The Rocks" on the viticultural map). A quarter of a mile further, we came to the Rôtie Estate Vineyard. There, we saw vines, comprising seven acres, five planted to Syrah, two to Viognier. They are now in their fourth leaf which means the first crop will be harvested this fall. The terrain - "terroir" - consisted of cobblestones ranging from three to six inches in diameter strewn all over the level yet well drained soil, on what was once the ancient riverbed of the Walla Walla River before it changed to its present course about 10,000 years ago. This is in a truly distinctive terroir.

The long range plan for the vineyard site is the planting of an additional eight acres and a state of the art winery. Production at the site is projected for about eight years from now, so what we saw is the first phase of the project.

After our walk about, we decided to drive across the Valley floor and up the north facing slope to the Cadaretta "Glass House." There, we could see a sweeping vista of the South Valley floor over Cadaretta's vineyards, surrounded by other premier vineyards, L'Ecole's Ferguson and Doubleback's. Here, at this wind-blown elevation, the soil consists of a thin layer of loess overlaying basalt, where the vines have to grown roots deep through the rock fissures.. It was a marvellous view, encompassing what will be a great future for the Walla Walla Valley. Then we drove gingerly down the gravel road to the valley below. Many thanks to Sean for taking us on this striking excursion.

On our way back, we stopped at Tero Estates where we were greeted by Jan and Doug Roskelley who treated us to two upcoming Fall releases, a delicious 2013 "ST" Cabernet-Sangiovese blend and an awesome 2011 Estate Nebbiolo, which showed classic aromas of roses and tar. Thanks, Jan and Doug!

See the June issue of the Review of Washington Wines for Rôtie Cellars' 2013 reds. For pictures, see the Review of Washington Wines on Facebook.