On Friday evening, we hosted our 100th wine tasting dinner. Early on in our wine journey when we found what we thought was a good wine while visiting a winery, we would buy a case and take it home. Too often the wine did not taste nearly as good at home as it had in [...]

Friday was the official first day of fall. However, it was more beautiful and sunny here in Seattle than most days this summer. It was a perfect night to gather with friends to enjoy a fabulous meal and good wines for one of our monthly wine tasting dinners. This month’s dinner featured Washington Viognier, a [...]

Summer has finally arrived in Seattle. When the sun is shining, we tend to turn our attention to white wines. Last Friday, we hosted our 98th wine tasting dinner and featured Washington Chardonnay. While we have had tasting dinners that featured Washington Chardonnay in the past, we realized that we had been remiss in having [...]

This month’s wine tasting dinner featured six rosé wines from Washington State. It was another fabulous evening of good wine, the company of wonderful friends, and LaGayle’s (Mom’s) excellent food. The wines paired extremely well with our dinner of vichyssoise, crab Louie salad, grilled prawns, grilled vegetables, rice pilaf, and peach and strawberry salad for [...]

This month’s wine tasting dinner featured red blends from the 2007 vintage from Washington State. It was another fabulous evening of great wines, the company of wonderful friends, and LaGayle’s (Mom’s) excellent food. All six wines paired extremely well with our dinner of tomato basil soup, arugula peach salad, grilled steaks, sautéed mushrooms, cilantro lime [...]

Washington State Cabernet Sauvignons are among the best in the world, and they are much better values (higher QPR) than most Cabs in other wine regions of the world. Last Friday evening, we tasted six Cabernet Sauvignons from the 2007 vintage from Washington State in our monthly wine tasting dinner. It was another fabulous evening [...]

For those of you who are not familiar with a vertical tasting, it is a tasting in which you taste different vintages of the same wine from the same winery. We were first “wow”-ed by Fielding Hills in the summer of 2008. Since then, we have visited the winery, tasted all of their new releases, [...]

Malbec was originally one of the six varieties used in red Bordeaux blends along with Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot, and occasionally Carmenère. Today, it is only used sparingly in Bordeaux but has really come into its own as a stand-alone varietal in Argentina. In my opinion, Washington State is producing some excellent [...]

Cabernet Franc is generally thought of as the quiet little brother of Cabernet Sauvignon. Some people even refer to it as the “other” Cabernet. However, Cabernet Franc is actually one of the genealogical parents of Cabernet Sauvignon. Originating in Bordeaux, France, Cabernet Sauvignon is a cross between Cabernet Franc and Sauvignon Blanc. Well-known as a [...]

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 [...]