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 
Book Review: The Wine Project—Washington State’s Winemaking History
By John ~ August 17th, 2009
As a student of history as well as Washington wine, it was probably inevitable that I eventually found a copy of this book, The Wine Project—Washington State’s Winemaking History by Ronald Irvine with Walter J. Clore. Ronald Irvine founded Pike and Western Wine Shop in Seattle in 1975. In 1991, he sold his ownership and began working at Vashon Winery, where he is now owner/winemaker. Dr. Walter Clore is generally recognized as the “father†of Washington’s wine industry. This book is basically a compilation of notes and observations that Ron Irvine made as a result of a series of trips he and Dr. Clore took through Washington wine country between 1992 and 1996, reliving its history and visiting with some of its pioneers.
Because this book was published in 1997 and is no longer in distribution, it was not that easy to find. Thankfully, I was able to locate a couple of copies, autographed by the authors, through Amazon. It was definitely worth the search. Until reading this book, I thought that the wine industry in Washington started in the 1950’s and 60’s with Associated Vintners (now Columbia Winery) and American Wine Growers (now Chateau Ste. Michelle). But I found out from this book that the first known planting of grapevines in what is today Washington State was at Fort Vancouver in 1825, and the first Washington winery was founded in 1874 by John Galler of East Wenatchee.
I was fascinated as Ron Irvine described how the Washington wine industry was profoundly and irreversibly changed by four almost simultaneous developments during the 1950’s and 1960’s:
- The state legislature passed what was known as the California Wine Bill that paved the way for varietal wines.
- The sheer competitive drive of American Wine Growers and its refusal to be outdone by California or any Washington upstart.
- The remarkable home winemaker group that started Associated Vintners and produced the state’s first premium wines.
- The Wine Project, led by Dr. Clore with important contributions by Vere Brummund, George Carter, and Chas Nagel, that linked winemakers with grape growers through the extraordinary research efforts at the Prosser Research and Extension Center.
I was shocked to read that by 1973 there were effectively only two active wineries left in the state, American Wine Growers and Associated Vintners. Everyone else was out of business or close to being out of business. In fact, it wasn’t until 1986 that the Washington wine industry out-produced its previous best year of 1947. And if AWG visionary Wally Opdycke hadn’t been able to attract venture capital from U.S. Tobacco, we certainly would not have the wine industry we have in Washington State today. Fortunately, U.S. Tobacco had deep pockets and was willing to let Opdycke implement his visionary business plan. As they say, the rest is history.
The remainder of the book describes the tremendous growth of the Washington wine industry since 1973 and the stories of some of the most prominent growers, winemakers, and wineries since then. I really enjoyed reading about the contributions of people like Mike Wallace, Bill Preston, Rob Griffin, Fred Artz, Mike Sauer, Tom Hedges, David Lake, Mike Hogue, Alec Bayless, Mike Januik, Charlie Hoppes, Doug Gore, Rick Small, Gary Figgins, Alex Golitzin, Allen Shoup, and many, many others too numerous to mention. It is also very sobering to read the stories of the many growers and winemakers who for one reason or another have fallen by the wayside despite their important contributions to the state’s wine industry, which now numbers over 650 wineries and 350 growers.
If you appreciate Washington State wine, you’ll love this book. I think I’ll go and drink a glass of Columbia Crest Walter Clore Reserve as a toast to the man and to the future.
Filed under: American Wine, Washington State Wine, Wine Books
We recently spent a long weekend in the Okanagan Valley of British Columbia, Canada, relaxing, visiting family friends, and of course, wine tasting. The Okanagan Valley is Canada’s most well-known wine region. Located about 100 miles east of Vancouver, B.C., it is about a six hour drive from Seattle. The Okanagan Valley stretches over 100 kilometers from the United States-Canada border near Osoyoos north to Salmon Arm.
The only downside is that many of the wineries in the Okanagan Valley do not export their wines to the United States. Obviously, you can buy the wine when you visit and bring it home with you (you’ll have to pay some taxes depending on how much you bring back), but you won’t be able to go down the street to your local wine shop and pick up a bottle of your favorite Okanagan Valley wine on a regular basis.
This week’s Wine Word of the Week is sulfur dioxide.
Our host for the August edition of 
Zinfandel pairs well with almost all grilled meats, whether it is real BBQ, hamburgers, or even hot dogs. For most people, Zinfandel is synonymous with California, and California definitely does Zinfandel well. However, as regular Wine Peeps readers know, we are tireless advocates for Washington State wines so we decided to blind taste two Washington Zinfandels, the 2005 Forgeron and the 2006 Columbia Crest Reserve. Zinfandel acreage is limited in Washington right now, but more and more wineries are attempting to produce at least small amounts of Zinfandel. Both of these wines show the potential for Zinfandel in the state. All four of us enjoyed both wines, but we thought the Forgeron was excellent. Zinfandels can often be high in alcohol but neither of these wines seemed particularly hot. They were both fabulous with Mom’s BBQ because they really stood up to the rich food without overpowering it.
Most Wednesday nights for the past two months have been “date night†for LaGayle and me at a local wine bar. We picked a different one each Wednesday and evaluated them in five different categories: first impression, service, wine, food, and value. It was fun; we met some friendly folks, found some good new wines, and plan to continue “date night†indefinitely. I hope some of you will join us in visiting your local wine bars.
In each of the five categories, here’s our favorite wine bar(s):
This week’s Wine Word of the Week is yield.
Last Friday evening was another beautiful, sunny, summer evening here in Seattle. It was the perfect night to gather with friends to enjoy a fabulous meal and good wines for one of our monthly 
From 1st to last in the group consensus rankings:
We started the day at The Culinary Institute of America where we enjoyed two keynote addresses focusing on the future of blogging, social media, and wine writing.
After the keynote addresses, we split up and each bus went to its assigned winery for lunch followed by Napa Green presentations. Napa Green is a voluntary program developed by the Napa Valley Vintners that establishes comprehensive “best practices†in land-use and wine production. Our bus took us to Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars, famous for besting four French Bordeaux in the 1976 Judgment of Paris. Vineyard manager Kirk Grace took us on a vineyard tour and discussed how Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars handles various environmental issues. Come back next Monday for a spotlight on Stag’s Leap including a video of Kirk’s Napa Green presentation.
Our next stop was at Palmaz Vineyards for the vintner discussion panel focused on the topic, “Following in the Family Footstomps: An Industry in Transitionâ€. The panel included Florencia Palmaz of Palmaz Vineyards, Alan Viader of Viader Vineyards, and Taylor Bartolucci of Madonna Estate. Each of them are second generation or later in their family’s winery. Ninety-five percent of Napa Valley wineries are family-owned. While the first generation focused more on getting the wineries established and producing quality wines, this generation is focusing more on marketing and sales by utilizing social media, events, and so forth.
Following the tasting at Quintessa, we boarded the buses again and were taken to different wineries for dinner. Our group enjoyed an amazing dinner at Domaine Chandon including wines from Newton, O’Brien, Louis M. Martini, and Parry. Our dinner menu included sweet white corn soup, roasted beef tenderloin with summer legumes, chanterelle mushrooms and Umbrian black truffle, and was topped off with a Valrhona chocolate pate with summer berries. Each course was paired with one or more wines from the host wineries.
Recently, we had what turned out to be a Washington Merlot showdown in one of our double blind private tasting dinners pitting the 2005 Whitestone Merlot Lake Roosevelt Shores Vineyard against the 2003 Sandhill Merlot. We all thought that both wines were excellent, but three out of the four of us gave a slight edge to the Whitestone. Nevertheless, both wines represent great buys with QPR ratings of 5 bangs for your buck. For a more complete description of how we set up these private tastings, please refer to 
