Rued Vineyards, located in the Dry Creek Valley in Sonoma County, California, is a small production family winery. The Rued family’s grape growing history extends back six generations to a great grandfather who immigrated to the United States from Switzerland to work the vineyards in the Napa Valley. Subsequent generations have tended vineyards as well […]

Carmenere, a red varietal originally found in the Bordeaux region of France, disappeared from European vineyards almost completely in the mid-19th century. Today, Carmenere is known as Chile’s signature grape, having been discovered in that country in 1994 among vines that were previously thought to be Merlot. It is a deeply colored red grape that […]

If Miles had tasted either of these Washington Merlots, he never would have made his ridiculous comment about the varietal in the movie, Sideways. Washington State, in general, makes outstanding Merlot. Washington Merlot is known for its sweet cherry flavors and complex aromas and is generally higher in acidity than California Merlot. Recently, we had […]

Last week, Dad (John) and I attended the Cabernet Classic sponsored by Seattle Uncorked at the Shilshole Bay Beach Club here in Seattle. It was a fundraiser for CoCA, the Center on Contemporary Art, and featured Cabernets and Cabernet-based blends. We tasted 46 wines from 23 different Washington State wineries. It was a great opportunity […]

Recently, we had what turned out to be an Italian reds showdown in one of our double blind private tasting dinners pitting the 2005 Pasetti Montepulciano d’Abruzzo against the 2003 Villa Artimino Riserva Villa Medicea. For a more complete description of how we set up these private tastings, please refer to How We Taste. Before […]

Through the years, we’ve had the pleasure of tasting a number of Long Shadows wines. We’ve visited their production facility in Walla Walla, Washington, attended a winemaker’s dinner with Allen Shoup and John Duval, and had their wines in our monthly wine tasting dinners as well as private dinners. However, last month, we had an […]

Col Solare, located on Red Mountain in Washington State, is a partnership between Marchesi Antinori of Italy and Chateau Ste. Michelle of Washington State. The idea for this project began back in 1992 when Marchese Piero Antinori visited Washington State’s Columbia Valley. The goal was, and still is, to produce one Cabernet Sauvignon-based wine each […]

Recently, we had the opportunity to taste some of the current releases from three outstanding Washington wineries, Fielding Hills Winery in Wenatchee, Nefarious Cellars in Lake Chelan, and Saviah Cellars in Walla Walla. While all nine of the wines are very good, we were especially impressed by the 2007 Fielding Hills Cabernet Sauvignon and the […]

Our monthly wine tasting dinners are really the foundation upon which Wine Peeps was built. We have been getting together each month with friends to taste and evaluate wines throughout a four-course meal for years. Last Friday’s dinner featuring Washington Malbec was our 75th wine tasting dinner. To mark this milestone of sorts, we decided […]

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, […]