“Crafting world-class wines that capture the essence of Sonoma County” –Tom Klein, owner of Rodney Strong Vineyards Tom Klein, owner of Rodney Strong Vineyards, truly believes that Sonoma County, California, has the capacity to grow grapes and produce wines that compare in quality to anywhere in the world. Spurred by this belief, he has embarked […]

Saviah Cellars is a family-owned winery located south of downtown Walla Walla, Washington, near the Oregon state line in the Walla Walla Valley AVA. Owner/winemaker Richard Funk and his wife Anita, both natives of Montana, moved to Walla Walla in 1991. Rich became acquainted with a number of the area wineries while working as an […]

This month’s edition of Wine Blogging Wednesday marks the fourth anniversary of the blogosphere’s monthly virtual wine tasting event. Our host is none other than the founder of WBW himself, Lenn Thompson of LENNDEVOURS. In celebration, he has asked us to go back to our wine drinking roots and revisit a wine from our past, […]

We recently spent a long weekend in the Columbia Valley visiting a number of wineries, some we had visited years ago and others we had not previously visited. The Columbia Valley, established in 1984, is Washington State’s largest AVA (American Viticultural Area). Six other AVAs are located within the borders of the Columbia Valley AVA, […]

In a blind tasting of six excellent Washington State Syrahs, we tasted what we rated as a “Wow!” wine, the first Washington Syrah we’ve ever given a 5-star (out of 5) Quality Rating, the 2005 Fielding Hills Syrah. We had heard good things about Fielding Hills but had never tasted one of their wines until […]

Watermill Winery is located in Milton-Freewater, Oregon, in the heart of the Walla Walla Valley AVA just 10 miles from downtown Walla Walla, Washington. Watermill Winery was founded in 2006 by the Brown family, a third generation apple-growing family and the owners of Blue Mountain Cider. Before launching their own winery, grapes grown by the […]

Three of Washington State’s largest and most opulent winery facilities are located in Woodinville, a suburb of Seattle. Chateau Ste. Michelle, Columbia Winery, and Novelty Hill/Januik make excellent stops on anyone’s wine tasting adventure. In addition to the “Big Three,” Woodinville is also home to a number of small, garagiste wineries. But instead of being […]

It all began on April 8th of this year; a road trip through 23 states covering 12,360 miles. Since then, I’ve posted 16 times from the road as we visited almost too many wineries to count in search of that next great bottle. Obviously, I hope that you have read all of my posts from […]

At the conclusion of our recent visit to Red Willow Vineyard, our hosts Mike and Jonathan Sauer treated us to a sample tasting of four Syrahs made with grapes from Red Willow Vineyard: a 1991 Columbia Winery Red Willow Vineyard Syrah, a 2003 Columbia Winery Red Willow Vineyard Syrah, a 2005 Columbia Winery Red Willow […]

Even though Mom (LaGayle) and Dad (John) were recently in Walla Walla as a part of their two month cross-country road trip (see Dad’s previous Walla Walla posts: Day 1 and Day 2), all of us Wine Peeps recently spent a weekend in the Walla Walla Valley visiting some wineries that Mom and Dad missed […]