Don't let her looks deceive you - this is one tough yeast geek.

There's a river running through Ashley Trout's veins and, apparently, it is made of wine. Her golden good looks, petite stature and laid back demeanor mask the fierce devotion of a woman who truly lives, loves and breathes her craft. After recovering from a devastating rock climbing fall, Ashley began working two harvests a year - one in Mendoza, Argentina, the other in Walla Walla - and now creates highly sought after wines for her label Flying Trout, as well as for Tero Estates, where she is the assisting winemaker (and which recently racked up an impressive number of Double Golds at the Seattle Wine Awards). Get out your rods, people, you're going to want to hook yourselves some Flying Trout before you miss the boat.

What's behind the name Flying Trout?

Flying Trout's actually a really easy name: my last name is Trout - I was born with it that way - and since 2005 I've been flying between Argentina and Walla Walla, working in both hemispheres doing wine.

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No grumps here

You know how people in love always have that "glow"? Like they're privy to some special, salacious secret that's just too luscious to let anyone else in on? Well, winemaker Tom Glase has that glow - and will let you in on his secret. This is a guy with a quick smile and big love for life: his family, his craft and his community. As one of Walla Walla's more experienced winemakers, Tom has put in time at some of the state's top shops - including L'Ecole 41 and Corliss Estates - and has honed his craft into a larger than life-style the common man would envy. The highly-rated wines he produces from the twin barns of Balboa and Beresan Wineries are testament to his drive to create exceptional wine - and enjoy every minute of it.

You're originally from Bainbridge Island - how'd you end up in Walla Walla?

Let's see, Bainbridge, Seattle, Bellingham, Seattle, Longview, Seattle, Longview, Seattle, Pullman, Seattle, Walla Walla. But I stayed in the state - 45 years of Washington! Been here in Walla Walla 17 years now.

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Get his food in yer belly!

Chris Ainsworth is the Susan Lucci of the James Beard award. OK, maybe not to the same extent, but you get the drift. Nominated for Best Chef Northwest the past four years running, this amiable frisbee-golfing fanatic, along with his sassy wife Island, has taken Washington wine-country cuisine by storm. Their wildly popular Saffron Mediterranean Kitchen serves up dreamy, exotic fare that surprises the palate and delights the belly, while its next-door cousin Pho Sho cures cravings for hearty pho in a land distinctly lacking in Asian flavor.

SW: When you opened Saffron, did you have any idea you'd soon be opening another restaurant, Pho Sho, right next door?

Ainsworth: I had no idea at all. If you would have asked me two months after I had opened Saffron if I'd ever even consider opening a pho restaurant, I would have told you you were crazy. And then four months later, we opened a pho restaurant right next door.

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Wine lovers: Keep an eye on this guy

The whooping crane is well-known for its signature "ker-loo!" call, but likely better known for being one of the most endangered birds in North America. This is a somewhat similar situation to the Cranes of Kerloo Cellars, who are creating wines you are in danger of not getting your hands on if you're not quick enough. Winemaker Ryan Crane and his wife Renee gave up a good life in Seattle to live the winemaking dream -- and if the number of "sold out" wines on Kerloo Cellars' roster is any indication, it appears they've made that dream come true.

How did Kerloo come to be?

Well, we're originally from Seattle -- Renee and I met at the University of Washington in the spring of 1999, in English 478, to be exact -- and we moved here in July 2006 with the aspiration to start a winery. Renee and I both came from sales backgrounds -- I sold beer and wine with Columbia Distributing for quite a few years -- and one year we were just like, "Maybe we should move to Walla Walla and start a winery?" So we sold our house in Seattle and made the trip out here. We had no jobs, and Renee bought a house I hadn't even seen. I enrolled at the wine program at Walla Walla Community College . . . and that's how the journey began. I worked my first crush job at Forgeron Cellars with Marie-Eve and Cameron, and then I was very fortunate to get hired on with Justin and Liz of Va Piano for the 2007 harvest. I actually left about seven months ago, just because Kerloo has really taken off.

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If you had to get lost in the woods with someone, you'd probably want it to be this guy. He could save you AND bring wine!

Spending an afternoon at Fjellene (Fyell-lay-nuh) Cellars is a mini-vacation in wine heaven. Tucked amid Walla Walla's Southside winery district and swaddled by a 10-acre estate vineyard, this young winery is bright, small, and - from the early reviews - quickly becoming mighty. Focused on small lot wines produced with detailed attention to sustainability, winemaker Matthew Erlandson aims to showcase the flavors and terroir of Washington fruit. And this is a guy who knows his terroir, having spent a good chunk of his life guiding adventurers up the mountains and down the rivers of the world. Budget your time wisely when visiting Fjellene Cellars. The view, and the wine, can easily drive you to distraction.

I hear you like mountains. What's the mountain on your logo?
Yeah. I was an outdoor guide and outdoor educator for about 15 years, climbing mountains and guiding river and backcountry trips - always something having to do with the mountains or what the mountains produce at certain times of the year. The mountain on the bottle is Ishinca. It's down the Cordillera Blanca in Peru and it's the mountain that is nearest and dearest to my heart. It's just kind of a special place. It was one of the first real international expeditions I went on and it's just an amazing place. I love that area of the world. As much as I've travelled, I haven't travelled anywhere more than Central and South America. I just love it down there - I love the people, I love the culture. We call it the "poor man's Himalaya". It's an inexpensive place to go and have fun. It's easy to get to and once you get there it's super affordable - going to Northern China isn't. Or so I've heard. I've never climbed in the Himalaya because it's just ridiculously expensive.

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Daredevil

Reggie Mace has chops. Yes, on his face. But also the kind of chops Evel Knievel had - the kind that drives someone to take something that's been out there forever and turn it into something new and exciting and different. Mace earned those chops first as an artist and musician, and now with his wine labels The Mortal Vintner and Mace Mead Works. So, just what the heck is this peach of a guy doing making a little-known libation in a tiny Washington town anyway? Read on...

I know absolutely nothing about mead. There I said it. What's the story?
Well, I started making beer in my kitchen in college. I had one of those dozen or so "How to Make Beer" books and there was a chapter at the end on how to make mead. So I started reading through it and resonating with all of the random ancient literature classes I took in college and all the mythology that I always loved as a kid, whether it was Greek or Norse or whatever. All that history popped out at me so I thought, "I'll give it a shot!" I'd never tasted mead before so I didn't really know what I was doing, but I made some. It didn't turn out very well.

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Claire and Jim - doing it no way but their own.

Just 20 miles from Walla Walla, buoyed amid the waving wheat of the Palouse, sits tiny Waitsburg, WA. With a population hovering around 2,000, Waitsburg is but a speck on Washington's map - that is, unless you like booze. In that case, Waitsburg is a big, red star on the map of Washington mixology thanks to Jimgermanbar. Owned and operated by Jim German and Claire Johnston, this small, lovingly-crafted bar has been called one of Washington's - if not the nation's - best. It is best known as a showcase for German's extensive knowledge of the art of the cocktail (German is featured as Wine Enthusiast Magazine's "Mixologist of the Month" in its current issue) but quick on his heels is the work of his wife, Claire, who bangs out made-to-order small plates and creative seasonal dishes from a kitchen with just one burner and a small convection oven. Not to rest on these laurels alone, German and Johnston - both accomplished artists - also run the town's only fine art gallery. Jimgermanbar makes the trip to Waitsburg worth the effort. Stop in and prepare to stay a while. Like most, you'll never want to leave this little slice of Heaven.

O.K. Why Waitsburg?
Jim: Well, we moved out to Walla Walla when Jamie Guerin offered me a nice job at Whitehouse-Crawford restaurant. We weren't here a month and on a Sunday drive came out here and found these two buildings for sale. And it's the buildings - it had nothing to do with anything else. Walla Walla is fantastic and we were looking at buying a house there but then we saw these buildings and we as artists had been kind of fixing up building for years - Claire in Los Angeles and myself in Seattle in various neighborhoods and it was just like - really beautiful and so that was it - the love of the buildings.

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Who wouldn't want this guy's job?

As the resident winemaker at Long Shadows Vintners, Gilles Nicault nimbly curates a unique collection of Washington wines: the concept being to bring the best winemakers in the world to Washington to make the best wine with Washington grapes. This assignment may be a lofty one but Nicault wears it with capable ease. This is a man who obviously takes great joy from life and the making of wine. His enthusiasm is infectious and it shows in the quality of his own label, Chester-Kidder, as well as those of his partner winemakers - celebrated personalities ranging from Australia's John Duval to Germany's Armin Diel.

When you came to the U.S. what was the hardest thing about that transition?
Besides speaking English? It was probably not eating French bread and cheese for a while! I mean, it was in 1994 and I arrived directly to Yakima. And in 1994 in Yakima there was not much French bread or cheese.

But I loved it right away. That's why I signed up for one year and am still here after 18 years. I just love the Northwest. The people are amazing, I think, but the same time all the wildlife you know - the salmon and all the incredible fishes everywhere, then you go on land and you see like coyote every day! And deer and all those incredible eagles and moose and everything...it is just so rich in nature and the nature itself is so diverse. It has the ocean, the big mountains and then Eastern Washington - which so much warmer, so desert-like...and, with rattlesnakes! It's an incredible place in the world.

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Foosball and First Crush anyone?

Spencer Sievers is equal parts daredevil, eternal optimist, and mad genius. Not one to turn away from sudden inspiration, Sievers started making wine on a whim, turning his Portland apartment - likely to the chagrin of his roommate, Adam - into a wine production facility. When not commuting between Walla Walla and his other home of Lawrence, Kansas, Sievers is serving up lush, untraditional single varietal wines at El Corazon's popular downtown Walla Walla tasting room.

You made a really popular wine that's now sold out called "Tiger's Blood" but the name is not what it seems, right?
Yeah, it's named after my son, Tiger. Who is not named after the golfer. Just after the animal. I get asked that a lot but I'm not a golfer so it doesn't really make sense. He helps me sometimes with blending. If I can explain to him the science part of it - the different pH's and acidity and tannins, then he really likes that part. But I think he's also incredibly bored by it - I mean, he is eight.

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Eric Dunham's kindness and unassuming manner are almost as legendary as his award-winning wines. If you were sitting next to this guy at a bar, you'd have no idea he was one of Washington's most accomplished winemakers - not to mention a talented artist and cook to boot. One might consider him kind of like a boy next door - only if the boy next door had way more skills than Jagger.

Do you have any "most memorable" events that have happened at your winery?
There was one dinner where two people actually got married. This guy had proposed to this woman three different times! One of which he had a special room at the Vatican set aside to propose to her in - and she said no. Another one was visiting this Greek Island and he proposed to her at this big monument - and she said no. Well, apparently she finally says yes at Dunham that night. Kyle MacLachlan was there, everyone's having a great time, and we're just like - we're going to have a wedding! There was someone at another table who had just been ordained at the Church of Life online, so Jordan at the winery made a bouquet from flowers on the table, and the lady had Kyle MacLachlan walk her down the aisle.

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