And it's really fun to say

I got an email out of the blue last week: Hey, I heard you're a wine writer. Wanna come to a wine dinner?

Was that a rhetorical question?

The really out-of-the-blue part, however, was the featured wine: Walla Walla wine, which is really really fun to say. In fact, I wanna wanna go somewhere with that, but I'm sure I'm the only one who would be amused.

Anyway, this dinner was a particularly effective one in my case, because I knew nothing about Walla Walla wines. Not even where the Walla Walla appellation is, exactly. I could describe for you the vineyards of Brazil, or the major parts of Spain, even offer a fair summation of the wineries on the west coast of Michigan. I could drive you anywhere in Chicago. But where, oh where, was Walla Walla?

As it turns out, about four hours southeast of Seattle, draped across lower Washington and upper Oregon. Increasingly most wineries are in Washington, and most vineyards are in Oregon. Though they've been growing grapes in the region since the 1850s, there wasn't much to see there about 10 years ago, I'm told. Today there are three universities primarily to train the enologists, the viticulturalists and all those hospitality management students who run the restaurants and bed and breakfasts that have sprung up. An AVA since 1984, it's only been a destination recently.

I wish it were mine. Kim, sales manager at L'Ecole, described a utopia of bike paths, quaint stores, great food, amazing scenery, earthy people and really good wine in abundance. I tried subtly to quiz her about job opportunities. Of course, I'm still waiting for Benziger in Sonoma to ring me up and ask me to raise their lambs and vegetables and prune their vines and pour in their tasting room.

I was entirely charmed by the description of the region, and I just might feel the same about the wines. One in particular, a NxNW Cabernet, had a green pepper note that I liked. It hit me in the Rhone-Franc-barnyard-basement funk place I like so well. But tasting was a bit confusing--the servers had a habit of pouring out of order, compounding the fact that the names of the wines were strung together on one line on the menu. I was never quite sure which was which--que Syrah is this, and this, and this? After passed appetizers, four big courses and about 20 wines, it all starts to run together.

A good reason to go visit, no?

My particular pleasure at this dinner--and in my work in general--was meeting the collective bunch. The winemaker Jean-Francois from Pepper Bridge, the ebullient Kim, saucy Heather from NxNW, our fabulous host Jenn, and a few foodie celebs, including Tom MacDonald of the Bluebird and Webster Wine Bar, and our chef, Randy Zweiban. It was a treat to sample the best of his elegant new restaurant, Province, and to absorb and take part in the really delicious conversation all around.

I may say that I'm in it for the wine and the food. But I don't think even drinking some great Paso with a box of Vosges truffles would do it for me if I were alone in my apartment. I'm in it for the people and places equally, if not more. The people are generally intelligent, outgoing and totally in love with what they're doing. So I really really wanna wanna wander Walla Walla. Kim invited me. She said you should come too. I have a map now...