Columbia Crest, located in Paterson, Washington, has been one of our favorite sources of value wines for many years. Last year, Juan Munoz Oca took over as head winemaker from Ray Einberger. Einberger had been at the helm since 2002 when he took the reins from Doug Gore who had been the winemaker since Columbia [...]

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 2009 Chateau Ste. Michelle Cabernet Sauvignon from the Columbia Valley of [...]

General Tso’s Chicken is one of the Wine Peeps favorite dishes, and we especially enjoy it prepared extra spicy. An added consideration in planning and preparing our challenging wine pairing meal this time is that John has been diagnosed with a gluten allergy, so I prepared the dish gluten free and was pleasantly surprised with [...]

Oregon ranks third in the number of wineries and fourth in wine production in the United States. In its relatively short 40-year history, the Oregon wine industry has evolved into a world-class wine region. Today, Oregon boasts over 400 wineries and 16 AVA’s (American Viticultural Areas). With those AVA’s found in both warm and cool [...]

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 2009 Rodney Strong Knotty Vines Zinfandel from Northern Sonoma in California. [...]

Washington Syrah compares favorably with the best in the world. Washington Syrah generally falls somewhere in between the jammy Shiraz of Australia and the more austere Syrah of the northern Rhone. It generally has good acidity and tannins. The common denominators of our favorite Syrahs from Washington have been deep, dark purple color and luscious [...]

Lance Baer founded Baer Winery in 2000. After he passed away in 2007, his sister Lisa and father Les took over the winery and have continued Lance’s legacy. Today, Lisa Baer is the face of the winery. With the help of consulting winemaker Erica Orr, Lisa strives to make wines that would meet her brother’s [...]

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 2008 Columbia Crest Grand Estates Amitage Red Blend from the Columbia [...]

To kick off Oregon Wine Month, the Oregon Wine Board hosted a large-scale tasting event in Portland called Unwine’d, Celebrate Oregon Wine on Sunday. The concept was similar to Seattle’s annual Taste Washington event. The inaugural event featured 100 wineries pouring their wines and 14 restaurants serving small bites. With approximately 450 wineries now open [...]

DenHoed Wine Estates, founded in 2006, is a joint venture between grape growing brothers Bill and Andy Den Hoed and Washington wine pioneer Allen Shoup. DenHoed produces two red wines, both made exclusively with fruit from Wallula Vineyard in the Horse Heaven Hills. Wallula Vineyard is located high above the Columbia River south of Kennewick, [...]