WALLA WALLA — Stepping through the doors of DW Distilling in Walla Walla, visitors are instantly transported back in time.
Situated in the Airport District, the operation sits on the grounds of a former airfield from the World War II era. The tasting room exudes a nostalgic ambiance, adorned with an array of memorabilia from the past. The tasting room walls are covered with newspaper clippings, photographs, and posters, each telling a story of bygone days.
Soft melodies of swing music grace the air, completing the immersive experience.
Inside, the museum documents experiences of men and women who served at the Walla Walla Air Base, and a bar displays a collection of brandy bottles. The air is infused with the aromas of fruit, oak, and the distinct sharpness that accompanies the process of brandy distillation occurring just next door.
The remnants of the past add to a brandy tasting experience carefully curated by brandy makers Craig Wollam and Keith Dahlgren. DW Distilling recently was voted by USA TODAY 10Best Readers’ Choice in the Craft Brandy category.
Wollam started coming to the Walla Walla area to taste the wines in the early 2000s. He was also involved in Seattle theater productions such as the Seattle Shakespeare Company’s Wooden O that would come to Walla Walla.
“Walla Walla has great food, great wine and great people,” Wollam said. “I wanted to move here but also make a living, which would be hard in the area through teaching theater. I thought about what everyone else does, which is open a winery, but I couldn’t do that because there are already a ton of them and they’re all great. I thought I didn’t have anything to add to that conversation.”
He said he also knew he wanted to go into distilling spirits after he took a family trip to Scotland and the U.K. when he was 11 years old.
Wollam along with his business partner, Dahlgren, decided to pursue their dreams of becoming distillers in 2014 when they opened DW Distilling.
Good stuff in, great stuff out
The origin of the name “brandy” can be traced to the Dutch term brandewijn, which translates to “burned wine.” Brandy is an alcoholic beverage produced through distillation of fermented fruit juice, pulp, or pomace, which refers to the leftover material from grape or other fruit after wine production.
Brandy is not wine, yet wine is the most important ingredient. Brandies can also be made from apples, apricots, peaches and other fruits.
“Washington state has arguably some of the best fruit in the world,” Wollam said. “You add that it also has some of the best wine in the world, literally here in Walla Walla, and that there is such a great community where everyone likes working together, made it the perfect place to make brandy.”
DW Distilling partners with area vineyards, whose wine sometimes doesn’t quite meet the standards of the winemakers, which makes it a perfect place to take the wine and make it something new.
Wollam said while how brandy is made differs from one distiller to another, there are four main steps to make the spirit. First the fruit must be fermented into wine by introducing yeast to mashed fruit, which converts the natural sugars to alcohol.
Then the wine is distilled into a strong concentrated alcohol. DW Distilling use handmade copper pots for this process. Copper pots are used because wine contains sulfur, and copper filters it out.
Brandy is typically distilled twice, but because Wollam uses what he said is “the good stuff” it only has to be distilled once.
“We wanted to start with something beautiful, and only single distill it so you could still taste the wine when it was done aging” he said.
The brandy is then aged in American Oak barrels for 14 months, or however long the spirit needs to get to the perfect taste and alcohol by volume, or ABV. The wooden barrels give the brandy an amber color as it ages.
The final step is to blend several barrels with water to reach the desired taste and bottling strength, or alcohol content. Most brandies are bottled at 40% ABV, which is equivalent to 80 proof.
DW Distilling does things a little bit differently though. Every bottle of DW brandy starts with a quality wine made in the Walla Walla Valley. The wines are already barrel-aged and more-or-less bottle-ready, so wine is only distilled once. From there, the spirit goes into a barrel to age until it’s ready to bottle.
The company has three products: a Barracks Blend made with many different wines; a Vintner’s Select crafted with one Walla Walla winemaker’s vintage only; and a Reserve, which is a Vintner’s Select aged an additional five years.
Wollam said he thinks making local brandy with local wines is what lead to the distillery to be voted No. 1 as USA TODAY 10Best Readers’ Choice 2023 in the Best Craft Brandy category.
A panel of experts nominated their top picks for craft brandy across the United States, then readers voted for their favorites. Readers can vote once per category per day. Amber Love Bond, a Miami-based food, beverage and travel writer, as well as Dave Stamboulis, a travel writer and photographer based in Bangkok, were listed as the experts along with the 10Best Editors.
DW Distilling was up against a number of other brandy distillers spanning the country, from New Mexico to Kentucky.
Wollam said the announcement of their winning first place was surprising and humbling.
“It was amazing that someone knew about us,” Wollam said. “I know we do a good job, and I know our product is high quality, but it is so nice to have recognition. When you work hard at something, and you have a good idea, and you start in a great place that that puts good stuff in a bottle, you can do a lot.”
