Anytime is a good time to visit Walla Walla’s Airport District, but for the second year in a row, Craig Wollam and Keith Dahlgren, owners of DW Distilling, the district’s craft brandy distillery, intend to pull out all the stops during one of the area’s busiest—harvest. The distillers will host the second annual Harvest Festival on Saturday, October 19th from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., at their tasting room and surrounding grounds.
“We like to create events at the airport to bring people out to the airport,” Dahlgren says.
“There really is so much to do out there.”
Harvest time—the period from August through October when the valley is bustling with agricultural activity, from the harvest of wine grapes and wheat to apples and onions—is a great time to get in on the action.
This year’s harvest festival is free and open to the public. Wollam emphasizes it is family-friendly, and will feature face-painting, live music, a wine barrel maze, lawn games, balloon art, crafts, a tractor display from Walla Walla Community College, and more.
For the adults, there will be pop-up retailers to browse and a tasting garden of the district’s wineries and breweries for a taste of the Airport. Food trucks and spirits tastings will be available as well
While the Airport District might be a little off the beaten path (it’s actually only four miles and an easy bike ride from downtown), the area has a fascinating history and enough tasting and touring activities to satisfy leisurely itineraries to action-packed agendas. From coffee to beer, wine to spirits, and some surprises to find along the way, there’s a lot going on at the Airport.
Note the alphanumeric streets (the distillery sits at the corner of 4th and B) and grid-like layout of the area: order was a matter of practicality in the early days of the airfield. In 1942, the site was commandeered by the government to serve as a strategic west coast center in preparation for World War II. It was developed rapidly over three months to house and train some 8,600 military personnel for the war effort. The cost at the time was $7.2 million, about $280 million in today’s dollars.
When the site was “surplused”—considered no longer needed—in 1947, the city and county of Walla Walla took over. “This was the very first time there was a county municipal partnership in something like this,” says Wollam, who has become a sort of unofficial historian for the area since opening the distillery in 2014.
Wollam was so fascinated by all the history that was uncovered as he and Dahlgren developed their tasting room—formerly the administrative barracks for a bomb wing—that the distillers designed an aviation-themed World War II museum at the distillery to commemorate the area’s role in the global conflict.
Maps, memorabilia, uniforms, and other artifacts make up the exhibit, offering a valuable lesson in history and a can’t-miss display that’s easily perused over a craft brandy cocktail (offered Thursday nights from 4 to 8 p.m.) or flight of the distillery’s fine brandies.
Wollam and Dahlgren’s foray into brandy distilling is equally noteworthy—the two men met in Seattle as active members of the city’s theater scene, designing sets, directing, and acting in productions around the region and state. Through Wollam’s love and knowledge of cognac and scotch, and Dahlgren’s familiarity with Walla Walla—the dramatic arts major graduated from Whitman, where he also met his wife—a business idea was born.
“Why aren’t there [more] brandy distilleries in Washington state? It has arguably the most famous fruit in the entire world,” Wollam says, noting Walla Walla’s specific role in premium grape growing.
In their 10th anniversary year, Dahlgren and Wollam both say people are still surprised to learn that there is a brandy distillery at the airport—even one that in 2023 was voted number 1 of all craft brandy distilleries in the nation, in USA Today’s 10 Best Readers’ Choice Awards.
“We’ve been trying to get people to come out,” Dahlgren says, who is still approached by individuals who ask him, “Oh, how long have you been here?”
“We’ve always been located here in the Airport District,” Wollam says. Harvest Festival is the perfect opportunity to experience the distillery, and all that the district has to offer. In fact, you may find yourself at the end of the day telling others, for once, that you had a really good time at the airport.