A visit to Reininger Winery, Walla Walla

Reininger Winery

Reininger Winery, located in rural Walla Walla, Washington is an award-winning winery that is truly a family affair as siblings and spouses are involved.

The winery, located west of Walla Walla on Old Highway 12, was started in 1997 by Chuck Reininger, a former mountain-climbing guide from Puget Sound, and his wife Tracy. Reininger was familiar with Walla Walla and its wineries, as he used to help with the crush at Waterbrook, another Walla Walla winery. Plus Tracy Tucker was from Walla Walla, so a few years later it was natural that her brothers and their wives, Jay and Cyndi Tucker, and Kelly and Anne Tucker joined the operation. Terry and Ronnie Tucker have since joined the operation.

Reininger’s First Winery Located at Historic Airport

Like many fledgling Walla Walla wineries, Reininger’s first winery was located in the industrial complex at the Walla Walla Regional Airport. The airport served as an Army Air Corps training airfield during World War II. The buildings that housed the Army air base are still in use today by restaurants, aviation businesses and more than 20 wineries.

An old Army entertainment center served as the winery’s first home from 1997 to 2003 when it moved to its present location which involved renovating two old potato sheds into  a winery, complete with tasting room.

Reininger Winery Adds Second Label

In 2004, Reininger added another label, Helix. While Reininger label wines are made from grapes grown in the Walla Walla Valley, Helix uses grapes grown in vineyards located in the larger Columbia Valley. The name of this label also links back to Tucker family history, since their grandparents had a farm in Helix, Oregon, which is near Pendleton.

Just as the parent label does, Helix’s line up of wines is heavy on reds, such as Merlot, Syrah and Cabernet Sauvignon. Both Reininger and Helix bottlings are limited to a few hundred cases of each wine. Bottlings range from 303 cases of the 2009 Helix Rose to 805 cases of the 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon.

Reininger Wines Win Numerous Awards

Chuck Reininger says on his website his goal is to create premium red wines, and the awards his wines have won prove he’s achieved his goal. The 2007 Reininger Cabernet Sauvignon Walla Walla Valley was a gold medal winner at the 2011 San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition which lays claim to being the largest competition of American wines. The 2011 competition involved more than 5,000 wines created by wineries in 23 states. Syrah under both labels have won accolades from Wine Spectator magazine.

More evidence of the popularity of Reininger and Helix wines is shown through the winery’s wine club: it’s full up, but wine aficionados can ask to be wait-listed for an opening. A note on the winery’s website explains, “We have reached the tipping point where we can no longer assure new members consistent access to our most popular wines unless we limit and control the size of our wine club.”

Reininger Winery Located in Rural Walla Walla

Reininger is located at 5858 West Old Highway 12 just west of Walla Walla.  The tasting room is open daily.

Whitman Mission

When I was growing up, my favorite book was a fictionalized biography of Narcissa Whitman. Other girls my age were reading about the Bobsey Twins or Nancy Drew, but I stuck to Narcissa Whitman. Over the years, she has remained the woman I most admire, the woman I would most like to spend an hour or two talking with.


Concrete blocks outline the site of the
Whitman Mission.



Why Narcissa Whitman? Well, why not! There is much to admire about her: her courage, her spirit of adventure which led her to become the first white woman to cross the Oregon Trail in 1836. Some may say she jumped at the chance to marry Marcus Whitman to save herself from a life of lonely spinsterhood. I prefer to think differently. Had she known the tragedy which would befall her when she reached what is now Washington, I think a life of lonely spinsterhood would have seemed pretty darned good.

I feel close to Narcissa Whitman whenever I visit the site of the mission the couple established just west of Walla Walla. Nothing remains of the mission today which is now a National Historic Site, though concrete blocks in the grass outline the shape of the main mission building which was also the couple's home. There is an aura of serenity about the site; there is no hint of the tragic massacre which took place there on November 29, 1847, when the Whitmans and several of their adopted Sager children were killed by Indians upset because a white man's disease -- measles --  had decimated the tribe.

A couple of hundred yards away, up the hill beyond the visitor center, lies the Great Grave, where everyone killed that day is buried. Farther up the hill is a monument overlooking the mission grounds, including remnants of the Oregon Trail which passed by.  The visitor center is small, but has quality exhibits about life at the mission during that time. The mission is open almost every day at 328 Whitman Mission Road, which is a turn off Old Highway 12 onto Swegle Road.

Over the years, thinking about what Narcissa Whitman would have done has given me courage to face my own frontiers, such as up and moving to Alaska or China on a whim. Both times the thought of the unknown scared me out of my wits. I asked myself what would Narcissa have done. She would have gone without a backward glance. So I calmed myself down and went, too.

What woman do you most admire?