Wine Peeps is an independent wine blog dedicated to helping you get the most bang for your buck in wine. We do this through blind tastings of wine from around the world and calculations of 
Taste Washington: April 4-5 in Seattle
By Kori ~ March 9th, 2009
These are exciting times for the Washington wine industry. On February 20th, Snipes Mountain was officially established as Washington’s 10th AVA (American Viticultural Area). Washington State recently licensed its 600th winery, with the total now at 602. And as I’ve said numerous times before, Washington wines are perfectly positioned to thrive in our current economy. Washington State is producing outstanding wines that deliver the most bang for your buck.
If you love Washington wine, want to learn more about Washington wine, or are just looking for something fun to do on the weekend, the upcoming Taste Washington in Seattle is just the event for you. Hosted by the Washington Wine Commission, Taste Washington is the ultimate carnival for wine and food lovers. Of the 602 wineries in the state, over 220 of them are expected to be on hand pouring their wines at the Grand Tasting on Sunday, April 5th, at the Qwest Field Event Center. In addition, over 60 of the best Seattle-area restaurants will be serving small bites. And to round out the carnival-like atmosphere, there will also be fun and games benefitting charity, cooking demonstrations, author talks, and much, much more. The Grand Tasting begins with a two-hour VIP wine event from 2-4pm, followed by four hours of general tasting from 4-8pm.
If a smaller, more intimate gathering is more your speed or you want to further your knowledge of wine and Washington wine in particular, Education Day on Saturday, April 4th, might be of interest to you. Held at the Bell Harbor International Conference Center, a total of ten seminars will be offered on a variety of topics. These seminars afford attendees the opportunity to taste, discuss, meet, and learn from some of the biggest names in the Washington wine industry as well as a few notable guests from outside of Washington State.
During the past year here at Wine Peeps, we have visited and featured some of the best vineyards in Washington State. With that in mind, I was especially excited to see the “Common Grounds†seminars on the schedule. One will focus on Klipsun Vineyard on Red Mountain, and the other will feature Champoux Vineyard in the Horse Heaven Hills. A few other seminars that sound very interesting are “Party Like It’s 1999!†(a look at five WA Cabs from the 1999 vintage), “The Other Cabernet†(explore Cabernet Franc, an emerging varietal in WA), and “Which One’s Washington?!†(a blind tasting challenge).
We’ll be there both days and hope that those of you who live in the greater Seattle area will plan to attend as well. For more information or to purchase tickets, visit the Taste Washington website.
Filed under: American Wine, Washington State Wine, Wine Activities/Events
On our next South African wine adventure, we headed out to Franschhoek to visit wineries that we were unable to visit earlier in our trip when I was ill. Franschhoek, a village settled more than 300 years ago by the French Huguenots, is a picturesque town full of art and antique shops and galleries, coffee shops and restaurants, a broad spectrum of hotels and B&B’s, and surrounded by wine farms.
After leaving Stony Brook, we had a late lunch outside on the patio at the French-themed restaurant at Cape Chamonix vineyards which has a beautiful view. After lunch we drove back to Cape Town where we were spending the weekend with LaGayle’s cousin and her husband, Brenda and Conner Bishop. For dinner, the Bishops took us to the 
This week’s Wine Word of the Week is bouquet.
March is Washington Wine Month. Wanting to get a head start on celebrating the fabulous wines that Washington State produces, we decided to feature Washington Cabernet Sauvignon in our 
While we had tasted all six of these wines before, we had not previously put them up against each other in a blind tasting. Regular Wine Peeps readers know that we have long been fans of Columbia Crest. As the largest producer in the state, Columbia Crest continues to pump out great wines at great prices. Well-known for their Grand Estates and Two Vines lines, it is their Reserve line that puts them in the league with the premiere producers in the state. With that said, I must admit that I was a bit surprised when we pulled off the sacks and discovered that the 2005 Columbia Crest Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon was the consensus favorite. It just goes to show that you can’t judge a book by its cover…or a wine by its label. The Columbia Crest Reserve was followed closely by the 2006 Stephenson and the 2004 Dunham “Xâ€. And, in turn, those top three were followed closely by the 2005 Watermill, the 2005 Fielding Hills, and the 2005 Boudreaux.
After breakfast we headed out for our first wine farm stop of the day at 
The next stop was 
Our fifth and final stop of the day was 
This year marks the 10th anniversary of Open That Bottle Night. 
This week’s Wine Word of the Week is estate bottled.
A few years ago I read Don and Petie Kladstrup’s fascinating book, Wine and War, the story of how France’s winegrowers protected and preserved their wine industry from Nazi plunder during World War II. So, when Dr. Debs of 
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On our first day in Stellenbosch, our first wine farm stop was at 
The next stop was at 
