Chateau Ste. Michelle is Washington State’s founding winery with its roots dating back to the repeal of Prohibition. In 1976, Ste. Michelle built a French-style chateau in Woodinville, just northeast of Seattle. While all of Chateau Ste. Michelle’s vineyards are located on the east side of the Cascade Mountains, all of their white wines are […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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, […]

Maison Bleue, founded by owner/winemaker Jon Martinez in 2008, is located in Prosser, Washington. Martinez changed careers to venture into winemaking, giving up a successful dental practice. He has become a bona fide winemaking star and his Maison Bleue wines have been the buzz of the Washington wine industry the past couple of years. Maison […]

Owner/winemaker Charlie Hoppes founded Fidelitas in 2000. Located in Benton City, Washington, in the Red Mountain AVA, Fidelitas gets its name from Charlie’s father-in-law, Dan Fidelis O’Neill. While working for Boeing in the early 1980’s, Charlie was bitten by the wine bug and began experimenting with home winemaking kits. Encouraged by his wife Terri and […]

The Wine Peeps enjoy Taco Tuesday each week. It is a fun time to get together, the meal is an easy one to prepare, and we enjoy the blend of the spicy flavors in the food. Our menu generally consists of beef tacos, refried beans, Mexican rice, and hot salsa. We usually enjoy margaritas on […]