Wine Peeps is an independent wine blog dedicated to helping you get the most bang for your buck in wine. We do this through blind tastings of wine from around the world and calculations of 
Wine Peeps: Leading the Coverage of Washington State Wines (continued)
By John ~ November 20th, 2009.
Last Friday, I shared with you my analysis of our Wine Peeps coverage of Washington State wines as compared to the three major print publications. To recap: According to statistics cited by Sean Sullivan on his Washington Wine Report and a tally of our reviews on this blog, we at Wine Peeps review more Washington wines than any of the three leading subscription publications. And it appears that our scoring is a little tougher, maybe more realistic would be a better choice of words, than any of those three publications. As of last Friday, we had reviewed 789 Washington wines this year, and 226 of those 789 wines we reviewed garnered 4 stars or better (28.4%) out of 5 stars. More importantly, at least to us, 155 of the 789 Washington wines [19.7%] we reviewed have a Quality Rating >=4 stars (out of 5) and a QPR >=4 bangs for your buck (out of 5).
As promised, below is a list of the 70 Washington wineries, out of a total of 227 different wineries, that produced those 155 wines we have reviewed so far this year that met the criteria of having a Quality Rating >=4 stars (out of 5) and a QPR >=4 bangs for your buck (out of 5). If the winery had multiple high Quality and high QPR wines, they are listed in bold.
These are our “go-to†Washington wineries for 2009:
Adams Bench
à Maurice
Barnard Griffin
Barrister
Basel
Benson
Bergevin Lane
Betz
Boudreaux
Cedergreen
Chandler Reach
Chateau Rollat
Chateau Ste. Michelle
Chatter Creek
Columbia
Columbia Crest
Côte Bonneville
Couvillion
Darby
Doyenne (DeLille)
Dunham
Dusted Valley
Elegante
Fall Line
Feather (Long Shadows)
Fielding Hills
Five Star Cellars
Forgeron
Four Lakes
Gilbert
Gorman
Grand Rêve
Grande Ronde
Hard Row to Hoe
Januik
Jones of Washington
Kalamar
Kana
Kontos
K Vintners
Lone Canary
Mark Ryan
Mercer Estates
Mountain Dome
Nefarious
O*S Wines
Parejas
Pomum
Quilceda Creek
Rio Vista
Rock Meadow
Rotie
Sandhill
Saviah
Sequel (Long Shadows)
Sleight of Hand
Stephenson
Stevens
Syncline
Tasawik
Townshend
Tsillan
Va Piano
Walla Walla Vintners
Watermill*
Whitestone
William Church
Willow Crest
Windy Point
Woodward Canyon
*technically an Oregon winery but located in the Walla Walla Valley
Filed under: American Wine, Washington State Wine, Wine Magazines
Great to see 3 Spokane wines on your bold list (Barrister, Lone Canary, and Mountain Dome) Keep the great reviews coming!
We’ve had several great visits to Spokane, and plan to do more. It’s definitely a wine area on the rise.
Actually there are four Spokane area wineries in bold. Don’t forget Townshend.
Thanks for the shout out to Hard Row to Hoe and for your visit to Lake Chelan earlier this year. You should be commended for making the effort to get to ALL the wineries in the AVA when you were here. Thanks for being so thorough in your work and your reviews.
Judy,
Thanks for your nice comments. We do try to be as thorough as possible. Hope to see you on our next trip to Chelan.
Thanks for including us in the “go to” list and visiting over the weekend. We’re working hard to make great wines. When people like @garyvee talk about the rise of regional influential reviewers you are most definitely on the list.
Leslie,
The Schumachers are great volunteer ambassadors for your winery. Thank them for us for being so hospitable, especially not knowing that we were the Wine Peeps until the end of our visit.