One family tradition that has emerged in recent years is to make Bananas Foster, which just happens to be my favorite dessert, after our Christmas Eve dinner. Mom (LaGayle) decided to shake things up a bit this year, and we enjoyed a different Christmas Eve meal than we normally do. However, not wanting to forego […]

In 2005, we took the trip of a lifetime to Australia. We fell in love with the country, the people, and the wine. We especially enjoyed the time we spent in Sydney and in the Barossa Valley. While we were there, we visited Penfolds and really liked their entire lineup of wines. However, we did […]

Earlier this year, we featured Washington Syrah from the 2005 vintage in one of our monthly wine tasting dinners. As I’ve mentioned previously, many consider the 2005 vintage to be one of the best in the history of Washington State. And I personally believe that the 2007 vintage may ultimately be considered the best ever […]

For those of you who are not familiar with a vertical tasting, it is not a tasting at which you are standing up (although I suppose that you could). A vertical tasting is one in which you taste different vintages of the same wine from the same winery. You may remember that we fell in […]

Last month, I posted on Super Bargain Wines for Tough Times, which by our definition are wines with a price less than or equal to $10, of excellent quality (4-star quality or higher), and its price is less than or equal to one-half of wines of the same varietal and the same quality level (5 […]

Fielding Hills Winery is a small, family-owned winery located in Wenatchee, Washington. Owner/winemaker Mike Wade and his wife Karen are longtime apple and cherry growers who have turned a middle portion of their orchard near Mattawa into a vineyard. Their Riverbend Vineyard, planted in 1998, is in the warm Wahluke Slope AVA. Strictly red wine […]

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 […]

The March edition of Wine Blogging Wednesday is being hosted by Joel of Wine Life Today who selected Comfort Wines as our theme. He simply called for us to unwind and relax with a favorite bottle of wine. “Wine makes daily living easier, less hurried, with fewer tensions and more tolerance.” –Benjamin Franklin Since we […]

This year’s Open That Bottle Night was last Saturday, February 23. Open That Bottle Night, created by Wall Street Journal wine columnists Dorothy Gaiter and John Brecher, is the one night a year that we are all encouraged to get out that bottle of wine that is so special that no special occasion seems special […]