Making the wine is the easy. Distributing is -- that's the difficult part

For the serious oenophile, nothing compares to a cellar at home

You know, the one in California

Washington now ranks as a world player in the wine industry

The Long Shadows consortium brings world-class winemakers to Walla Walla

Riesling returns to reclaim the white wine throne

February is the month of amour, and one of the most romantic of indulgences is an overnight stay amid beautiful scenery at a destination winery.

Doug McCrea must have smiled when he learned that Wine Spectator Magazine, the bible of the global wine industry, recently named a southern Rhone wine blend as its Wine of the Year for 2007. After all, McCrea has quietly...

Many people are turned off by sweet wines, especially drinkers of dry red wines. Sweet wines are so intense and sugary, Australians refer to them as "stickies" - pertinent because they literally coat your mouth with sweetness and...

If Tony Bennett is the sweetest guy in show business, and James Brown was the hardest-working, Bob Betz, winemaker-owner of Betz Family Winery in Woodinville, is the Bennett and Brown of the Washington state wine industry, with a...

Ideal weather and an explosion of talent are leading to a good year for Washington wine.The state's grape harvest is in full swing this month, with a flurry of trucks gently transporting plastic bins filled to the brim with inky...

From forced labor to labor of love

TRADITION MEETS HIGH TECH

If you marry tradition and age-old methods for winemaking with cutting-edge technology in the vineyards and in the winery, the result is the newest addition to the wine scene in Woodinville - Novelty...

Riesling lovers have much to smile about these days. The once-lackluster varietal is now having a renaissance of sorts and shining brighter than ever before.

The grape has had an illustrious career dating to the 1400s, but a...

MUSIC ON AND OFF THE VINE

As children of the 1960s, Dean and Verdie Morrison are countercultural by nature. But with their Morrison Lane Winery in Walla Walla, they have extended their challenge-thestatus- quo attitudes to...

A VALUE WINE GAINS NEW RESPECT

For 25 years, Hogue Cellars has been comfortable in the value wines niche market, making pretty good wines under the $10 and $20 price points. If Hogue wasn't the first winery to come to mind, it...

After 11 years of winemaking, Col Solare has remade itself as a brand-new winery, complete with a new state-of-the-art facility on Red Mountain, a recent 90-point wine release and a renewed sense of purpose.

The winery is now...

"AND THE WINNER IS?"

I honestly don't know where to stand when it comes to wine competitions, and I am not alone - wineries struggle with whether to enter their wines in blind tastings, magazine and newspaper awards, wine...

WASHINGTON WINES are getting a reputation for offering good value. Of the 44 "Great Values of 2006" (priced at $15 and below) wines from around the world listed in the January issue of Wine Spectator, four are from...

WITH AN average of two new wineries opening every month in Washington, it isn't easy for consumers to keep up. Granted, not every new winery hits the ball out of the park on the first bottling. But after working a couple of...

BLIND TASTING wine can level the playing field, especially for lesser known wineries struggling to get a little publicity in a crowded field. If you don't know the brand, the winemaker or the winery, the only thing left to judge...

LIKE THE actor who has toiled for 20 years to become an overnight success, the Washington state wine industry is finally taking its bows, emerging as a world-class leader of premium and value wines and growing like crazy,...

With Valentine's Day just around the corner, couples are searching for an expression of affection that shows thoughtfulness and sets the mood for a romantic evening. Many of you will buy your mate a box of chocolates, flowers and...

Few people have seen, up close, the ravages of war and what it can do to the land and everything that grows on it - or doesn't grow. But Doug Tunnell, owner and winemaker for Brick House Vineyards in Newberg, Ore., experienced...

Champagne. The word connotes celebrations, weddings, New Year's Eve parties. But the bubbly most of us know is inexpensive sparkling wine (such as Cold Duck), often tasted at weddings after the "I do's" are said. It's often...

Wine By Christina Kelly

Justin Wylie is a bit like the tortoise in the fable - he moves slowly and methodically, but in the end wins the race, or, as with his new Walla Walla winery, wins the appreciation of wine enthusiasts everywhere.

Wylie is the...