Boo Walker
After tasting some Hedges wine in South Carolina, Boo Walker caught the wine bug and eventually headed to Red Mountain. He had grown up in Spartanburg, studying music composition in college with an emphasis on the banjo. His studies led him to play for years with the Biscuit Boys—a group dedicated to “punchgrass”, or bluegrass emphasizing drive and beat. Hand problems turned him from banjo picking to day trading on Wall Street, before he finally went west to pursue his dream of helping to “grow” wine. The mutual support and collaboration here in WA wine country really attracted him, and so he settled on Red Mountain where the Hedges family adopted him as one of their own.
Although he was a bad reader in school, Boo discovered page turners in college, and from then on had a nagging desire to create some of his own. During his travels as global marketer for Hedges, he’s found plenty of time to write. Boo has completed four novels, Red Mountain being his most recent one. It’s a real page turner for sure, capturing many key themes about our Red Mountain AVA, including European feel, old world wine making techniques, wine growing as opposed to wine making, infusion of outsiders and wealth, possible tension between newcomers growing vines and age-old residents, need for tourist amenities, passion for eating and cheffing, and feminine touch needed in winemaking. Learn about these themes and more from reading the novel and listening to this interview.
Listen to the Interview: