Reininger Winery

We stopped by on our way into Walla Walla yesterday on a whim not knowing much about this specific winery. The tasting room was beautiful and it was pretty quiet, as it was Wednesday afternoon. We tried several different wines (Carmenere, Merlot, Sangiovese, Rose, Chardonnay) all fantastic. What drew us in was the enthusiasm and knowledge of Dorian, one of the assistant wine makers. He took us on a tour and we did a barrel tasting which was fantastic. All 3 of us ended up joining the club because of Dorian. I would highly recommend stopping into Reininger!

Passing through Walla Walla on a road trip, we stopped by Reininger on the suggestion from a few friends, and also because it was one of the only ones open after 5pm during weekdays.
The guy behind the wine bar (Dorian) was friendly/​outgoing, and very knowledgeable about wine. The wine was great, but he also helped create a nice, friendly environment for those standing at the bar. We asked to taste a few of the wines again once we decided we were going to purchase something, and Dorian was more than willing.
Both my wife and I loved the Carmenere that they offered. The most unique wine we had ever tasted. There was a small group of us left after the tasting room officially closed, and he offered to do some sample barrel tasting with him. It was so cool, and an unexpected surprise! Very nice.
Overall, great wine, and even better service. Great outdoor seating when it is nice outside. Highly recommend stopping by on your wine tasting adventures in Walla Walla.

Incredible service and a great tasting! Thanks to Chuck for hosting, and to Dorian for all of your information and knowledge. They have a beautiful tasting room and grounds, check out all of the old family photos for the backstory for Helix. Never disappointed with Reninger Winery.

Excellent wine, service, and stories in a beautiful building. Great first stop on the way into town.

If you’ve ever been to the mountaintop — any mountaintop — you’ll get about half of what makes Reininger Winery such a Walla Walla stand-​out. But if you’ve ever attempted to reach a craggy 3,000 meter or higher summit — or even contemplated seriously that prospect and then decided otherwise — then you’ll get just about ALL of what makes their wines so special, world-​class even. Wine-​making wasn’t Charles («Chuck») Reininger’s first career choice; in the end, however, it may turn out to be his best one. And that’s how it often is with second acts (Robert Parker being a case in point). We take our experiences from previous professions and adapt them to changing circumstances. The knowledge gained doesn’t get lost; it simply gets translated into something new, something unexpected, and something atypically special.
Reininger was not just a climber in a past life, but a high-​elevation mountain guide. This means that he actually enjoyed sharing the limited summit space with others and made sure that they felt safe and secure doing it. He was likely used to people with rudimentary mountaineering experience and didn’t mind teaching them to appreciate the finer aspects of the sport. And if an expert climber happened to sign on too, to share in Chuck’s special mountain knowledge of Rainier’s routes and risk zones, then that’d be fine, too. All are welcome.
What’s that got to do with vino?
How will this help me to decide if I should visit their sleek and elegant, family-​friendly tasting room?
Summits are meant to be visited, for the views but also for the experience of something rare and special. You can’t climb a snow-​capped stratovolcano every day, after all. It’s expensive, it’s highly technical, and parts of it are a serious grind. One tires of pooping in blue bags each morning. But the moments of rising up to the sky and then sinking back down — humans acting out their primal fantasies of flight — these are always worth waiting for.
I guess that’s what my first impressions were of Reininger wines, the Walla Walla vintages and the Washington state ones bottled under the Helix label (Helix is just down the road, in Oregon, on the way to Pendleton. There’s a story behind the label, but I’ll let Chuck tell you that one because it’s better that way).
The wines are worth waiting for. They aren’t everyday $ 12 sippers. They have curves and faces and peaks and valleys — depth, complexity, expressiveness. Some of them — the WWV Syrahs, Cabs, and Reserve Chardonnay, the Stllwater Creek Viognier and Sémillon, are summit-​worthy efforts, if you have the time and patience for the wines to reach their apex. That might mean a few months, or 8 – 10 years. There are easier wines, too, the rolling foothill sort that you can enjoy sooner (and no less well), but if you’re looking for a big mountain wine to bag, you’ll find them here, at least until they sell out.
On a recent December visit, I was most taken by the aromatic and rich Rhone varietals that had only just been released a few months earlier: a 2013 Stillwater Creek Vineyard Viognier and a 2012 WWV Syrah (Seven Hills and Pepper Bridge Vineyards). The other 6 wines I tasted ($ 5 fee, waived with bottle purchase) were equally good and expressive of their grape type and wine-​making style (the 2011 WWV Merlot, for example). But my heart lay with those Rhones, which had the flavor profiles I desire in an «ultra-​premium» wine (this is an actual term used in the beverage business, for wines $ 20 and above per 750 ml bottle).
The ’13 Viognier ($ 30 range) was sun-​kissed stone fruit in a glass, very clean and light-​tasting but also pleasantly unctuous at the same time. It will sit in a Santa Cruz Mountain cellar (which doubles as a laundry room and wood shed, so don’t get the wrong impression) until a redwood foggy summer’s day, at which time I’ll open it to smell and taste the Columbia Valley at its most fragrant and fine, and it will be like being back in eastern Washington in afternoon sunshine.
The ’12 Syrah (mid $ 40 range) was so many things at once that it approached sensory overload, but there was earth, spice, and flowers in bloom, all wrapped up in a tightly-​wound package that will open fully only with age — a precocious rugrat of a child who will one day climb Annapurna. I’ll cellar this one longer-​term next to my Ridges, Fogartys, and Tablas Creeks and the Kermit Lynch northern Rhone selections. It will fit right in.
Napa, Sonoma, Paso, Mendo. Grenache, Syrah, Mourvedre, Counoise. Willamette and Umpqua valleys. Walla Walla wines and winemakers and new Washington state AVAs. Wherever one looks, there are tastes and experiences to be had. Enjoy them all, but make a stop at Reininger part of that larger equation. As Maurice Herzog might well have said (he was French, after all), there are other wines in the lives of men. $ 45 Buck Chucks are among them.

We came here based on previous purchases of their wine in the Seattle area. Expecting good things, we were a little disappointed in the visit and the wine. Attentive service but we had six people and we were treated individually instead of as a group. We were comparing our tasting notes and we frequently had to calibrate which wine we were discussing.
The wines were good, just not as good as we had the year before. We did purchase the Syrah but that was it. I still think this is a find as we have had several wines of theirs that were really good. I will be back to hopefully have a better overall experience.

Hannah in the tasting room was awesome! She gave me a super cool wine wheel that made my day!
The wine is a bit pricy, that’s the only criticism (compare to some in town).

Excellent affordable wines. Very friendly service, the young woman pouring was delightful. Their member wine shipments can be picked up in Portland, which makes me very happy. I’ll likely be joining. I quite enjoyed every wine I tasted – and I can be picky!

This Winery is First Class!!!
The Wine is the best around and the Staff is Very Friendly & accommodating. I have traveled all the way from Temecula Ca.
We have been part of their wine club for a long time and they are great deal with. You order your Wine and it shows up at your door step Quick! Make sure you go by on your visit to Walla Walla!!!

Thank you, Izzy! My husband and I enjoyed the history Izzy shared with us and tasted some delicious reds in the process. Definitely a must go to destination.

Had a great time here!

Reininger is truly a tale of two wines. They have been around since 1997 and were bonded as the 10^th winery in Walla Walla Valley. They have two distinctly different labels, Reininger which is made using only Walla Walla valley fruit, and Helix which is made using greater Columbia Valley grapes. The tasting room is beautiful and spacious, the tasting fee is only $ 5, and we tasted 6 different wines. Our server was friendly and knowledgeable. I liked everything we tasted, except for the Chardonnay, which was flavorless. My favorite out of them all was the Helix SoRho, I actually bought a bottle to take back with me, it is one of the most unique and interesting reds I have had in awhile. It had an interesting sparkling light sensation to it with a well balanced mix of spice and fruit.

In early October 2013 we stopped in with another couple, per another winery’s recommendation, and are we glad we did! The tasting room is very pretty, but not overly done. Sally, our server, was very nice and quite knowledgeable. She served us an unoaked chardonnay, a Semillon, a Merlot, a southern Rhone style blend, a Reininger Syrah, a Malbec, a Super Tuscan style blend [fabulous] and a Helix Syrah [wonderful]. All 8 of the wines were very good. We bought a case of wine and both couples joined the Wine Club. Can’t wait to start receiving their wines on a regular basis.
Dick Wilson, Cincinnati

Ultra friendly staff in the tasting room. They were knowledgable about their wines and poured healthy tasting portions. We got a bonus tour of the crush out back, which gave a cool behind the scenes look at the wine making process.

Enjoyed stopping here. Better than I remember. Friendly, helpful staff. Good Cabernet. Worth stopping.

So often wines do not hold up to a home tasting, after a winery or tasting room sip and buy. Helix Pomatia is a rare exception. I sit here with a glass, enjoying every sip of this juicy wine. It goes perfectly with our meal of grilled pork chop, beat and fennel salad, and potatoes with garlic. Yum.
The winery is very clean and feels comfortable. It is easy to access from I 12 or the old highway. It is a refreshing change from the commercial l’ecole 41. The place feels very family driven. They offered a very young lady fruit roll ups and juice while her folks sipped. How cool is that? It reminded me of the welshed grape juice my sister and I got from Christian Brothers in Napa when my parents tasted.
We have a few more bottles that we purchased to try here at home. I can’t wait.

I went to two wineries prior to this that were quite bad and wasn’t even sure I wanted to taste any more wine? Thank goodness for Reininger! The reds here had lots of big bold flavors, and were jammy and had a great finish. The whites were clean and crisp and also had a great finish. I hope I find more wineries like this one here!
The facility is really nice with a really grand tasting room. The local winery cat was a plus.

Izzy Rocks! Nice place, great conversation and very personable. Izzy really seemed to know her wines and could answer pointed questions about the wines. She was fun and made the experience very enjoyable. We had packed our lunch so sat outside on the grass with wine in hand and had a great time.

Quality wine and service. Izzy was very knowledgeable for a 21 yo. Good times.

One of my absolute favorite wineries in the Walla Walla Valley. The setting is georgeous! The new tasting room is divine, with a counter made of what must be more than a ton of shaped and polished dark basalt. And the short wall beneath the basalt counter is decorated with woven grape vines; It’s stunning. Now the wine… Nothing against the Reininger wines, I just have a fondness for the winery’s Helix lable. Red wine lovers will love the 2008 Aspersa, a white wine that’s not too sweet. Helix’s blended Pomatia is crazy good, as is its Merlot, which was graded 91 points. I could go on and on about Helix, but just head out on Hwy 12 and try it for yourself!