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yo, mama, now comes chateau time!
Yesterday’s New York Times carried an article that caught my roving eye. It was headlined “Marketing Wine as a Respite From Women’s Many Roles”. link hereAccording to this piece, Chateau Ste. Michelle...
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washington wine may have a future!
A friend visiting us in Waitsburg recently passed along a yellowed copy of an article titled “Washington Wine” that ran in the Seattle Times magazine on Sunday, May 18, 1969. Author Richard Sawyer...
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hey wine guy – what wine goes with this goofy menu?
I get letters... well, actually, e-mails. A lot of e-mails. Some offer criticism, some commentary, some suggestions. Most ask questions, as readers see me not only as a guide or critic, but also more...
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calling all sinners! don’t forget to vote.
Right on the heels of last November’s Washington state ballot initiative to kick the Liquor Board out of retail (among other things) comes one to legalize the sale of marijuana.This is a wine blog, and...
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charles smith’s hidden wine
One of the most interesting tastings of the year is when I work through the full lineup of wines from K Vintners and Charles Smith. There are always surprises tucked away, and this year was no...
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are your wines better off today than they were four years ago?
Since we are all, for better or worse, mired in the muck of the sprint up to the November elections, I will take a cue from the political mavens and ask one of the pressing questions of the day.Are...
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ellanelle 2009 cabernet sauvignon
It goes without saying that the wine industry attracts a great number of bright, creative, talented, hard-working people, from all walks of life. But beyond that, there are some who just stand out as...
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an experiment - which is best - zinfandel young, old, or in-between?
A weekend with good friends provided the opportunity to do some deep level research on that thought-provoking question. A visiting couple from Seattle were in town to celebrate their wedding...
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when, where and how should you submit your wines for review?
I began writing a weekly wine column in 1987, and I’ve had one in print somewhere ever since. About 12 years ago I was invited to join the tasting panel at Wine Enthusiast, and given the Pacific...
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fire on the mountain
For the past week, evenings here in Walla Walla have seen red skies and technicolor sunsets. Then yesterday morning, residents awoke to find ash falling, like the second coming of Mount St. Helens....
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no girls (from cayuse)
This weekend I had the chance to taste through some fascinating, under-the-radar releases from Cayuse, vigneron Christophe Baron’s biodynamic Walla Walla winery. The two pictured here, released under...
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should we fret about brett?
I don’t like brett. There, I’ve said it. No ifs, ands, or (horse) butts about it. I don’t like brett. For me, there isn’t good brett. It’s not, God forbid, “terroir.” It’s not character or nuance or...
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overachieving wines in underperforming categories
If you’ve been writing and reviewing wines as long as I have, certain personal prejudices (let’s be kind and call them conclusions) are inevitable. One such group I call the “underperforming...
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should wine reviewers criticize pricing or just wines?
Let me set this up with a couple of true stories. In the spring of 2007, I received samples of four wines from a new producer in eastern Washington. Neither the winery nor the estate vineyards were...
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it’s just bidness
I’ve come to conclude that I’m a naive dreamer when it comes to wine. Perhaps I’ve just read too many press releases trumpeting “passion”, and heard too many stories about people who sacrificed...
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wine enthusiast top 100 best buys for 2012
‘Tis the Top 100 season, and the first of the Wine Enthusiast end-of-year wrap-ups is just out. The November issue cover story is the Top 100 Best Buys, an ever-popular category with particularly...
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to air is human, to forgive? – dat's da wine!
In yesterday’s Wine Adviser column in the Sunday Seattle Times, I took to task a number of wine-related accessories, most particularly the wine aerators. I wrote: “Another category of gadgets that seem...
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a tuscan super in price
Being time-challenged this morning, I turn to Wikipedia for a cogent synopsis of the history of Super Tuscan wines:“Super Tuscans are an unofficial category of Tuscan wines, not recognized within the...
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are you, like the british, terrified of sommeliers?
An article in Drinks Business online reports that “the huge majority of Britons are filled with fear when it comes to ordering wine in a restaurant.” Apparently choosing a bottle of plonk is more...
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top dozen best buys from the northwest
A short while ago Wine Enthusiast magazine published the annual Top 100 Best Buys list (I blogged about it on October 5th). I was especially pleased to see that 16 wines from Washington, Oregon and...
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