2014 Cayuse Release Party

I was wondering if there are specific hotels where people stay for the release party. I’m thinking of going this year…but don’t want to wind up in the hinterlands. Who’s gone in the past? What are some restaurants to get reservations for? And where do most people stay? Thanks…

The Marcus Whitman Hotel is easily the largest in Walla Walla, nicely maintained, and is just a short walk from the Cayuse tasting room.
MrBigJ

The cayuse release event is at the winery, not the tasting room- no nearby hotels that I am aware. The whitman is the obvious choice though. many of the nicest places (i.e Abeja) run a lottery and are well booked by now. Your choices may well be down to the best western by this point in the season, as I understand things book early- it’s not just cayuse weekend- lots of other wineries time for the same weekend.

I booked 2 rooms at the holiday inn a month and half ago and every reasonable hotel (best western, holiday inn etc) are all fully booked at that point already.
If you’re Platinum with Priority Club you can call the Holiday Inn and they guarantee you a room but otherwise you will need to probably stay outside of Walla Walla or look for a Airbnb type room

We have a rezzie @ Marcus Whitman and will have a car Kirk. Would prefer to use Uber that Saturday but can’t imagine that is working in W2 yet.

Saturday plan is Cayuse, SoH, Reynvaan & Rasa.

Wow, sounds like a crowded weekend for Walla Walla! Really excited that Gramercy is doing a release event in Seattle this year.

We will be at Marcus for Sat. nite. Making a quick run this year , going to “The Masters” early Monday morning.

Nice Mike, let’s be sure we have a glass. Our Saturday dinner routine has been dive bar for beers + burgers after all the wine.

We are at the Hampton Inn. Still had rooms the beginning of this week.

What weekend is it this year?

4th, 5th of april

Try a VRBO. We stayed at one in October that was a 15 minute walk from downtown and it was fantastic. And roomier than a hotel.

I booked a few days ago at the Holiday Inn Express. Cayuse, Reynvaan and Sleight of Hand on the itinerary here.

Tom

We are going to Cayuse for the first time, picking up a friends allocation who is out of the country. We were able to book a room for two nights at the Whitman a couple weeks ago. We were also able to make reservations at Safron and Whitehouse Crawford for dinner.

For those that have been before on this weekend, do any of the other wineries do anything out of the ordinary on this weekend? Also, is it less crowded at Cayuse on Friday than Satrurday? We haven’t been to Walla Walla in seven years and I see a lot more wineries have downtown locations. In addition to picking up the Cayuse allocation we plan on tasting at Rasa, K, and Buty. Any other favorites?

Thanks

Looks like I’ll try to plan this out for 2015. Everything decent seems booked. How far ahead do they anounce this?

They’ve been talking about the release party being this weekend as far back as October. It’s almost always the 1st weekend in April, so you can use that to your advantage for next year.

I’d recommend hitting Kerloo and Maison Bleue downtown (they are next door to each other on 2nd). After Buty, drive 10 min out Mill Creek Road to aMaurice Cellars (Walla Walla Vintners is next door). I’d also try to hit Gramercy Cellars which is just off downtown.

Here’s a general primer for those who don’t visit Walla Walla frequently:

Cayuse weekend is always the first weekend of April. Cayuse doesn’t send out an email with the actual dates until Feb/Mar, and by then most everything is booked. Just about every other winery in the Walla Walla region has something going on as well, since this is one of the busiest weekends, especially since there are a lot of actual wine buyers, and not just wine tourists (tasters, tour buses, etc).

Other big weekends are Spring Release (first weekend of May), Fall Release (first weekend of Nov, this use to be Cayuse weekend), and Holiday Barrel (first weekend of Dec). Wineries are usually releasing new wines during Cayuse or Spring Release and then again during Fall Release.

For visiting Cayuse specifically, Friday is definitely less busy than Saturday. If you go on Saturday, the earlier the better, as it does get pretty busy.

Less than a week away! We will be at Cayuse on Friday - probably earlier than later - anyone else?

Here is our plan:

Fri:
Cayuse (plan to be there at open)
Reynvaan
DoubleBack
PepperBridge
Sleight of Hand

Sat:
Gramercy
Maison Bleue
Kerloo
Rotie
Anywhere else the day takes us…