Recently, we had what turned out to be a South Africa Merlot versus Washington Merlot showdown in one of our double blind private tasting dinners featuring the 2005 Meerlust Merlot from South Africa and the 2004 Fielding Hills Merlot from Washington State. For a more complete description of how we set up these private tastings, […]

Since we live in Washington State and often drink wines from Washington State, we want to make sure that we continue to hone our knowledge of the entire world of wine and maintain well-rounded palates in order to make us even more objective when we evaluate wines from Washington State. Therefore, we are thoroughly enjoying […]

Betz Family Winery, located in Woodinville, Washington, was founded by winemaker Bob Betz and his wife Cathy. They have grown steadily since their inception, from producing 150 cases of their first vintage in 1997 to currently producing around 3,500 cases, which is the level they plan to maintain. Betz Family Winery remains a small family […]

Pacific Rim Winery, located in West Richland, Washington, is almost exclusively a Riesling producer. The first Pacific Rim Riesling was produced in 1992 as a brand within Bonny Doon Vineyard in Santa Cruz, California, and used grapes from California, Washington, and Germany. In 2007, owner Randall Grahm decided to downsize Bonny Doon and spun off […]

Would you like a quick suggestion for a good wine to drink tonight (or this weekend) that won’t break your budget and is widely available? Many of our readers have said this is something they would like, so here is this week’s selection, the 2007 Owen Roe Sharecropper’s Cabernet Sauvignon from the Columbia Valley of […]

Washington State Cabernet Sauvignons are among the best in the world, and they are much better values (higher QPR) than most Cabs in other wines regions of the world. Last Friday evening, we tasted six Cabernet Sauvignons from Washington State in our monthly wine tasting dinner. It was another fabulous evening of good wines, the […]

Years ago when I was teaching school in Houston and needed to get an evening meal ready after work, one of my standby meals to prepare was beef stroganoff. My version has evolved over the years to be a quick and easy recipe and seems to get quicker and easier as the years go by. […]

Would you like a quick suggestion for a good wine to drink tonight (or this weekend) that won’t break your budget and is widely available? Many of our readers have said this is something they would like, so here is this week’s selection, the 2007 Columbia Crest H3 Merlot from the Horse Heaven Hills of […]

Cave B Estate Winery is a destination winery resort located on 900 foot cliffs above the Columbia River in Quincy, Washington. Founded in 2001 by Vincent and Carol Bryan, Cave B Estate Winery sits in the heart of the Bryan’s SageCliffe Resort which also includes The Cave B Inn at SageCliffe, The Spa at SageCliffe, […]

Would you like a quick suggestion for a good wine to drink tonight (or this weekend) that won’t break your budget and is widely available? Many of our readers have said this is something they would like, so here is this week’s selection, the 2007 Boomtown Syrah from the Columbia Valley of Washington State. Our […]