One of the better stories in Walla Walla is how Steve Brooks quit his job at CNN and moved his family to become a winemaker. "I missed spending time with my wife and two daughters, then ages 2 and 7. In the back of my head, I knew I had to find something else to do. I didn't want to stay there for another 20 years and be grumpy and unhappy." So he quit his high-paying job, sold the family home, packed the kids into their Volvo wagon, and headed to the Pacific Northwest to start anew in a town where they knew nary a soul. Brooks enrolled in the local community college's Center for Enology and Viticulutre for the hands-on study of every stage of winemaking, from planting the vines to harvesting, fermenting, and bottling. He worked as an apprentice to top-drawer winemakers in the region.
Finally, in 2005, he began to make his own wine, buying grapes from established Washington state vineyards. "I couldn't afford to buy land and still can't," he says. "That's a gigantic investment. It's not like growing carrots." Instead, Brooks finds the best fruit to buy and determines when the grapes are ready to be picked. Vineyard laborers harvest the grapes, and Brooks hauls them back to a leased building outfitted with top-of-the-line equipment to work his magic.