A five-generation Spanish winemaking family has built and

launched a 22,000-square-foot production facility and tasting room restaurant

in Walla Walla.

Valdemar Estates’s wine production and barrel storage

take up the ground floor level, and upstairs there’s a 2,000-square-foot

tasting room, with an additional 2,000 square feet of patio featuring a

waterfall, reflecting pool and a panoramic view of the Blue Mountains.

The winery, which opened the last weekend in April, is at

3808 Rolling Hills Lane in Walla Walla, next door to Amavi Cellars and Revelry

Winery on the south side of town.

The $12 million project included the land, construction

and machinery. The land was offered to Valdemar Estates by Norm McKibben, who

founded Pepper Bridge Winery and also owns Amavi Cellars.

The Valdemar family has been making wine in Rioja in

Northern Spain since 1889 and opened in Walla Walla to make the next five

generations of wine, with grapes grown in two estate vineyards – one in The

Rocks District of Milton-Freewater and the other in the North Fork, which is a

higher elevation vineyard, about an hour away.

Valdemar Estates’ restaurant showcases traditional dishes

from Rioja – “tapas,” or small plates to share with the table, and “pinchos,”

or a little tastes, and these include charcuterie boards with cured meats, such

as jamon and chorizo, manchego cheese, olives and even a flight of olive oil –

all shipped from Spain.

The dishes have been specifically designed and curated to

pair with the Valdemar Estate wines from its sister winery in Spain, Bodegas

Valdemar, as well as the first release of Washington wine: three syrahs, made

by winemaker Marie Eve Gilla.

The winery has connections to the Tri-City area. It does

business with the grape growers and vineyard managers of Red Mountain. It

offers three syrahs on its wine list, two of which are made with grapes from

Tri-City’s adjacent vineyards: Red Mountain Vineyard and Klipsun Vineyard.

Valdemar also buys grapes from Corliss Estates’ Red Mountain vineyard and

Dubrul Vineyard in Yakima.

Valdemar Estates will host winemaker dinners, corporate

events and small celebrations to add to its roster of events that are open to

the general public, as well as a smaller slate of more exclusive events,

tailored to wine club members.

Chervenell Construction Co. of Kennewick was the general

contractor.

Joe Chauncey of Boxwood in Seattle was the architect.

Valdemar Estates is open daily from 11

a.m. to 6:30 p.m. More information at valdemarestates.com; 509-956-4926.