Friday Find, October 28

Each Friday we highlight a wine from the Northwest that we think is a real "find." By find we might mean that it's a steal, as all of these wines we'll feature weekly are under $20. We might also mean "Hey, you really need to go find this" and it might be a wine that we feel not enough people know about. In any case, with the weekend pending we're hoping to help you "find" a wine to kickoff the weekend right. We'll tell you a little bit about the wine and try to help you track it down here in the Northwest. There are terms like "white wine weather" and "red wine weather" just like there are terms like "boat shoes" or "dancin' shoes" these are erroneous...

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Treveri Cellars: Crafting Tradition in Yakima

Downtown Yakima's newest and perhaps most exciting new wine development got its start in the ancient city of Trier in Germany's Mosel Valley. Juergen Grieb began his winemaking education in his home country of Germany with degrees in winemaking and sparkling wine. While he earned his degrees, Jurgen worked at two German stalwarts; Kartheuserhof in Ruwer (just outside of Trier) and Duhr Sektkellerei, a sparkling wine producer in Trier. At Kartheuserhof, where they have an excellent reputation for their Riesling, he worked under the tutelage of the winemaker Breiling and owner Christoph Tyrell. After earning his degrees, Juergen became...

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NorthWest Wine Blogger Spotlight: LuchaVino

Wine is supposed to be fun and what makes it so fascinating is the variance you'll see in one varietal, Merlot for example, from year to year, and AVA to AVA.  Unfortunately wine blogs are not quite as varied.  Many of them read like this:  "I like this wine, it's got leather on it.  Here's a picture of the bottle.  I give it an excellent."  That's an over simplification of course, but not by a whole lot.  Fortunately there are still those out there who are doing things a bit differently.  My buddy Lucha Vino is one of them.  His take on wine, usually Washington is an homage to the great Mexican...

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Friday Find October 21

Each Friday we highlight a wine from the Northwest that we think is a real "find." By find we might mean that it's a steal, as all of these wines we'll feature weekly are under $20. We might also mean "Hey, you really need to go find this" and it might be a wine that we feel not enough people know about. In any case, with the weekend pending we're hoping to help you "find" a wine to kickoff the weekend right. We'll tell you a little bit about the wine and try to help you track it down here in the Northwest. This wine is ridiculous.  I'm serious.  I paid $8.99 for this wine.  The BookMark WA1 NV, or Non-Vintage is Bookwalter's...

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Would You Like Some Doom with Your Pinot Noir?

From our PDX Insider, Jenny Mosbacher We're nearing the end of the third week in October and the majority of vineyards throughout the Willamette Valley remain largely unpicked-- which means that the mood among winemakers is about as bipolar as the autumn weather.  In the past several weeks that have seemed to bring nothing but gray clouds overhead, murmurs of a troubled harvest swelled like rain-soaked Pinot grapes and talk of doomsday again surfaced, with Internet-posted proclamations of 2011 being the "worst vintage since 1984," an infamous washout of a vintage of relentless rain that even an extra helping of C&H couldn't...

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Angel Vine: From Pinot Noir to Zinfandel

A few Oregon wineries and winemakers source fruit from many of the warm sites in Washington State. While many of them made their way to the Willamette Valley for their love of Pinot Noir, their enological tastes and interest often expand to varietals that are not possible to properly grow in the Valley. That is the story of winemaker Edward Fus and his label Angel Vine. Ed's educational background is in horticulture; when he started exploring wines seriously in the late 80s the idea of having his own vineyard naturally appealed to him. Through his wine exploration, Ed honed in on three varietals that he really enjoyed, Pinot Noir, Riesling...

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Friday Find, October 14

Each Friday we highlight a wine from the Northwest that we think is a real "find." By find we might mean that it's a steal, as all of these wines we'll feature weekly are under $20. We might also mean "Hey, you really need to go find this" and it might be a wine that we feel not enough people know about. In any case, with the weekend pending we're hoping to help you "find" a wine to kickoff the weekend right. We'll tell you a little bit about the wine and try to help you track it down here in the Northwest. This week's Friday Find found me actually.  I was contacted by the folks at Ash Hollow about the release of their...

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It's Just a Little Crush... on Maryhill Winery

Maryhill Winery is in Washington, just off of Route 14 along the Columbia River Gorge. Owners Craig and Vicki Leuthold left corporate careers to pursue their interest in the wine industry, and opened the Maryhill doors in May 2001. Since then Maryhill Winery has earned over 800 awards across their 17-varietal production and in 2009 was named the Washington Winery of the Year by Wine Press Northwest. This past weekend I had the opportunity to spend some time with the amazing Maryhill Winery staff as they began their 2011 harvest season. If you haven’t yet made it out to the collection of wineries dotting the Columbia River...

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Friday Find October 7

This week's Friday Find is coming from Tiffany Stevens an experienced Northwest wine aficionado. Each Friday we highlight a wine from the Northwest that we think is a real "find." By find we might mean that it's a steal, as all of these wines we'll feature weekly are under $20. We might also mean "Hey, you really need to go find this" and it might be a wine that we feel not enough people know about. In any case, with the weekend pending we're hoping to help you "find" a wine to kickoff the weekend right. We'll tell you a little bit about the wine and try to help you track it down here in the Northwest. With this week's Friday Find,...

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The Salud Auction; Cuvees for a Worthy Cause

Many will tell you that a good wine has complexity and depth that make it compelling. As we spend time with the wine, it unwinds an array of aromatics and flavors. The complexity that we find may come from a variety of complicated factors. It comes from the kind of growing season we had: a wet spring, warm summer, degree days; weather is complicated. It comes from the ripeness, structure and sugars during harvest; the fruit itself can be complicated. It comes from the selection of yeasts, fermentation, blending, or barrel selection; making wine is complicated. There are a lot of complicated factors that result in this complex beverage....

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P.Y.T. - Young Winemakers of Oregon on the scene!

{Saturday, September 24th} On a perfect 76-degree summer Saturday night (the last, I’m pretty sure), friends and I headed to Corkscrew, a wine bar in Portland’s trendy Sellwood neighborhood, to see what three up and coming winemakers have in store for us at the Young Winemakers of Oregon Tour event, organized by Christine Collier. Corkscrew is a quaint space with a great selection of wine and food to pair. The intimate venue quickly filled with wine loving Portlanders, there to see what the future of Northwest wines may hold… Fausse Piste, Jesse Skiles First up: Jesse Skiles of Fausse Piste, the minimalist....

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