The Columbia Crest Walter Clore Private Reserve, a Bordeaux-style blend, is the premier wine of Washington State’s largest winery. Former Columbia Crest winemaker extraordinaire, Doug Gore, started their Reserve Red program with the 1997 vintage, which became designated as Walter Clore Private Reserve with the 1999 vintage to recognize the pioneer who did the unexpected […]

Wine Blogging Wednesday, the blogosphere’s monthly virtual wine tasting event, is now in its fifth year. Our host this month for WBW #61 is none other than the founder of Wine Blogging Wednesday himself, Lenn Thompson of Lenndevours: The New York Cork Report. Lenn selected At the Source as the theme with the following conditions, […]

Dusted Valley Vintners, located in Walla Walla, Washington, was founded in 2003 by brothers-in-law Chad Johnson and Corey Braunel who are co-owners and co-winemakers. Both Chad and Corey are originally from Wisconsin and are proud cheese-heads. In fact, they bring a bit of Wisconsin to Dusted Valley by using barrels made from Wisconsin oak to […]

As regular Wine Peeps readers know, we recently spent a long weekend in the Okanagan Valley of British Columbia, Canada, relaxing, visiting family friends, and of course, wine tasting. Kori wrote a nice post recapping our weekend and sharing our thoughts and ratings of the wines that we tasted. LaGayle and I stayed over an […]

Over the past two years, we have devoted a number of posts to great value bargain wines. You can buy great value wines for under $20 (some under $10) Great Value Wines Super Bargain Wines for Tough Times Super Bargain Wines in the $10 to $25 Range Since our last post on this topic, we’ve […]

If you are a fan of Shiraz or Syrah and have not tried Dutschke St. Jakobi from the Barossa Valley of Australia, you are missing out. We stumbled upon Dutschke when we were visiting Australia in 2005. One night when we were out to dinner at a restaurant in Adelaide, we ordered a bottle of […]

We recently spent a long weekend in the Okanagan Valley of British Columbia, Canada, relaxing, visiting family friends, and of course, wine tasting. The Okanagan Valley is Canada’s most well-known wine region. Located about 100 miles east of Vancouver, B.C., it is about a six hour drive from Seattle. The Okanagan Valley stretches over 100 […]

Our day in Napa Valley during the recent Wine Bloggers Conference was worth the price of the conference admission alone. It was the perfect mix of education, tastings, and fun. We started the day at The Culinary Institute of America where we enjoyed two keynote addresses focusing on the future of blogging, social media, and […]

Recently, we had what turned out to be a Washington Merlot showdown in one of our double blind private tasting dinners pitting the 2005 Whitestone Merlot Lake Roosevelt Shores Vineyard against the 2003 Sandhill Merlot. We all thought that both wines were excellent, but three out of the four of us gave a slight edge […]

This past weekend, Dad (John), Colby, and I spent three jam-packed days in Sonoma and Napa County, California, for the second annual North American Wine Bloggers Conference. We were joined by over 275 fellow wine bloggers, wine industry participants, and media members for tastings, keynote addresses, breakout sessions, vineyard walks, and winery visits. Unfortunately, the […]