A brief history
Elegante' Cellars is located at 839 "C" St. at the Walla Walla Regional Airport where you can find well-established wineries as well as start-ups. Elegante' Cellars, owned, managed and operated by Doug Simmons, is one of the finest wineries at the airport.
Doug Simmons, a retired, chemistry teacher, is our winemaker. He received a Certificate of Viticulture and an AA Degree in Enology and Viticulture from Walla Walla Community College. Doug helped WWCC in producing their 2004 and 2005 wines and then assisted the Huse family at Five Star Cellars in 2006, where, with the assistance of the Huse family, he also started making his own wine.
With the experience of working in the WWCC facility, Doug designed his own winery, supervised its construction and opened its doors in September 2007. The focus at Elegante' Cellars is in low production, high quality, and handcrafted wines. Doug personally selects the vineyards and grapes that are used in Elegante' wines. His Merlot grapes are sourced from the Seven Hills vineyard, while his Cabernet Sauvignon, Malbec, Tempranillo and Syrah grapes are from Les Collines vineyard which is located in the foothills of the Blue Mountains, southwest of Walla Walla. His Gewurztraminer comes from Celilo Vineyards' 32 year old vines in the Columbia Gorge.
Elegante' Cellars currently has available its 2008 Merlot, 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon, 2009 Sangiovese, 2007 Malbec, 2009 Syrah and 2007 Gewurztraminer. Elegante' also offers an interesting and special Strawberry wine, which is semi-dry and has about 1% residual sugar. It is fermented from pure Klicker strawberries (an old, old family farm in the Walla Walla Valley).
