During an early-June visit to Walla Walla for the magnificent Vintage Walla Walla, we discovered a local delicacy: Klicker strawberries. Explains Hank, a.k.a. “Bear” Ullman, executive chef at The Marc in the Marcus Whitman Hotel, “It’s a small local farm that’s been around forever, and because they aren’t shipping them to the ends of earth we get very ripe, very flavorful fruit that actually tastes like a strawberry. It’s a neat place. They do pumpkins in the fall and Christmas trees and such, family run, cute as hell. Lots of people on my crew worked as pickers when they were kids.”

We enjoyed diving into Chef Bear’s Klicker Strawberry Shortcake during a luncheon in the Millcreek/Upland Vineyard, one of the Valley’s flagship grape-growing areas (and where Leonetti Cellar sources most of its grapes). Said winemaker Myles Anderson, co-owner of and winemaker at Walla Walla Vintners, “You are sitting next to one of the best vineyards in the world.”

That may be, but on this particular “June-uary” day, the temperatures were so low and the arctic wind so driving, wine glasses blew off the table and the red wine was “naturally chilled.” Warm blankets were de rigueur. Not to mention that the grapes were a full two weeks behind schedule. Global warming in Walla Walla? Not this spring.