The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

When I moved to Walla Walla just over two years ago, I knew little of wine. Family and friends assured me that would change. "Next thing you know, you'll have a cellar going," they said. Sure.

At the time, I had an art major's experience with the everyday chardonnays and merlots that accompany gallery openings, most of which can be described as brassy and abrasive.

Beyond that, I once tasted what I still consider to be the greatest wine ever, a 2000 Leonetti merlot aged fifteen years. Perfectly smooth from bouquet to tongue, to finish. At no point was there not rich, smoothness. It was so good, it was like drinking water.

What I've learned since is that good wine is fleeting. Or, another way, you can't have your wine and drink it, too. All too often these days I find a great tasting wine, only to lose track of where it came from. To have tasted and to remember fondly, but never to sample again is part of the romance of wine, I suppose.

In Seattle, I loved visiting Bevmo and liquor stores, finding a great many options. In Walla Walla, my favorite place to stumble upon good, random wines is Grocery Outlet.

Having been gifted a good sum of bottles in the past few years, some of the vineyards are starting to sound familiar. And, indeed, I've found myself in possession of a small collection. Certainly not a cellar's worth, but a certain cabinet is growing crowded.

I'm no expert, not even expert-adjacent, but I do have a sense of what's palatable. In general, I don't buy wine for collecting, I buy it for drinking. I figure if it's yummy enough for drinking (heartily), then it's also worth collecting.

Imagine my surprise when my neighbor shared this bottle of Quarantine wine with me. Eyebrows arched, jawed askew, the whole thing! He works at Nocking Point and upon hearing that I enjoy a good pinot noir, kindly passed it over the fence. This same wine had just been mentioned in the Times on April 23, and admittedly I was curious about this Mila Kunis-Ashton Kutcher wine.

When I say 'curious about' I mean skeptical of. I've seen That 70s Show. They drank beer.

The novelty of the celebrities involved and the intentionally blank label meant I naturally wanted to add this wine to my collection. But anytime I'd take the trash out, or check the mail and see my neighbor, he asked what I thought of it.

Alright, let's open it up. Let it breathe. A small pour. Swirl it 'round the glass to check the legs.

What I'm checking for I don't know, but they seem okay.

After it breathes, you breathe it. The bouquet is big and bright and bold, which is a bit contradictory to the sensation as it crosses the palate. It's wonderfully smooth, effortlessly drinkable and worth collecting.

Rather than drawing on my label, I opted to create a "noir drip art" motif that is indicative of the grapevine's roots. Before I knew it, Quarantine was another empty bottle, another great memory. Cheers, Nocking Point!

The wine, a 2018 pinot noir from Oregon, is being sold by Nocking Point Wines at two bottles for $50. As stated on the Nocking Point website, 100 percent of the profits of the sale will support COVID-19 response charities: America's Food Fund, Direct Relief, The Frontline Responders Fund, and Give Directly.

The offer can be found here: https://nockingpointwines.com.