Let’s get right to the bottom line: What to Drink with What You Eat by Andrew Dornenburg and Karen Page is a great book. It is not an easy reading bedside book; but it is a superb reference work, the most comprehensive and useful book of its type that we’ve ever found. LaGayle, our food […]

This week’s Wine Word of the Week is clone. Official definition from Jancis Robinson’s The Oxford Companion to Wine: Clone in a viticultural context is a single vine or a population of vines all derived by vegetative propagation from cuttings or buds from a single ‘mother vine’ by deliberate clonal selection. Layman’s terms from Kori: […]

Our host for the October edition of Wine Blogging Wednesday, the blogosphere’s monthly virtual wine tasting event, is Dale Cruse of Drinks Are On Me. He selected A Grape By Any Other Name as this month’s theme and issued a semantic challenge to “taste wines labeled with their lesser-known varietal synonyms.” He also offered, “Extra […]

It’s time for another food and wine pairing challenge. As you have probably noticed, the Wine Peeps like spicy foods, so this time the menu called for a Creole/Cajun dish. As I planned the meal, I decided to prepare Shrimp Creole which I served with white rice and bayou coleslaw. If I do say so […]

The harvest began early in Washington State this year, and first indications are that it’s going to be another stellar vintage. The state of Washington has had an uninterrupted string of outstanding vintages for this entire decade, highlighted so far by 2005 and the 2007’s just now being released. According to a recent news release […]

This week’s Wine Word of the Week is blind tasting. Official definition from Jancis Robinson’s The Oxford Companion to Wine: A blind tasting is one whose purpose is that the taster assesses and possibly identifies unknown wines as closely as possible. Layman’s terms from Kori: A blind tasting means that the bottles are covered by […]

Recently, we had what turned out to be an Australian Shiraz blends showdown in one of our double blind private tasting dinners pitting the 2006 Penfolds Koonunga Hill Shiraz Cabernet against the 2006 Mollydooker Two Left Feet. The Mollydooker is a very good wine but the Penfolds Koonunga Hill is excellent. At $8 and with […]

For years, I’ve had friends tell me that they can’t find the great Washington State wines that I tell them about where they live. So with the help of Wine-Searcher.com and a lot of legwork, I’ve set out on a mission to prove them wrong. This is the second in a series of posts to […]

Am I the only person who contemplates all sorts of esoteric thoughts when sipping a good glass of wine? I doubt that I am. Not too long ago, after using my handy corkscrew to open a good bottle of wine, I got to thinking, “Which came first, the cork or the corkscrew?” Now I realize […]

This week’s Wine Word of the Week is horizontal tasting. Official definition from Jancis Robinson’s The Oxford Companion to Wine: A horizontal tasting is one in which a number of different wines of the same vintage are compared. Layman’s terms from Kori: A horizontal tasting is one in which you taste different wines of the […]