About

Washington Wine Report is an independent publication focused on bringing Northwest wine to you and bringing you to Northwest wine.

 Our goal is:

· To help you select Northwest wines at a variety of price levels
· To keep you up-to-date about the area’s wineries, vineyards, and individuals
· To help you plan trips to wine country
· To connect you to the larger wine community

Founder and Editor




Washington Wine Report, an on-line publication dedicated to the wines and wineries of the Pacific Northwest. The site is a four time finalist and two time winner (2013, 2014) of the ‘Best Single Subject Blog’ award from the Wine Blog Awards. Sullivan has authored over 150 print articles and 1,700 blog posts on Northwest wine. In addition to his work on Washington Wine Report, Sullivan is a contributing editor to Wine Enthusiast magazine, covering Washington and Idaho.
Sean P. Sullivan is the founder of

Sullivan moved to Washington in 2000 to pursue a love of mountain climbing. Captivated by the area’s exploding wine scene, in 2005 he began writing wine reviews and distributing them via email before founding Washington Wine Report as an on-line site in 2007.

In addition to his work at Washington Wine Report and Wine Enthusiast, Sullivan contributes regularly to Seattle Metropolitan, Washington Tasting Room, and the Washington State Wine Touring Guide (see a complete list of publications here). He resides in Seattle, Washington.

All posts written by Sullivan unless otherwise indicated.

Background (from the editor)

I began what is now Washington Wine Report in 2005. It started with a series of .pdf reports based on my travels to Walla Walla and other Washington wine regions (I live in Seattle; see an example from 2009 Walla Walla Spring Release here). I always wrote notes when visiting wineries. A friend who traveled with me on one trip asked me to send my notes as he had not taken any. I typed up and sent him my terse notes. He circulated it to a friend – much to my chagrin – who circulated it to a friend, and the whole thing began.

Given that the reports were being circulated, I started putting an increasing amount of time into them. I wrote the reports both to provide information about wines of interest and to give information to those visiting wine country.

After a while I found using a long-form, pdf-style format limiting. I started this space in June of 2007. Part of my interest in doing so was to provide information about wines I was seeing on the shelves that I did not see published reviews on. Over time, this evolved into providing information about Washington as an emerging wine region.

Ethical Standards and Disclosure

It is my goal with Washington Wine Report to provide readers with unbiased wine reviews. While I attempt to avoid conflicts of interest that might impact my ability to do this, I will include relevant information if circumstances arise where conflicts might be perceived.

Wine Samples
Wines reviewed include purchased samples, samples provided by wineries, and wines tasted at wineries. Reviews of purchased samples and wines tasted at wineries may, or may not, be published due to time constraints. All samples received by wineries – both solicited and unsolicited – are reviewed and are published regardless of the nature of the review. Information stating that the sample was received from a winery is provided in the post and included in the Tasting Note Database. For information on how to submit samples, please contact me at [email protected]. Please note that there is typically a 10-14 week period between submitting samples and the posting of reviews.

Professional Hospitality
I frequently receive industry discounts and press admittance to public, private, and trade tastings. Additionally, when sampling at wineries, I usually have the nominal tasting fees waived. With the exception of tasting fees, if I attend an individual winery event that has an associated cost that is waived, I list this if I review wines from the event. Any other hospitality received beyond that listed above will be explicitly called out in any related article.

Financial Associations
· I am not financially associated with any wine retailer or any winery I review.
· Washington Wine Report does not include any advertising.

Tasting Note Database
In the interests of providing greater transparency about the environment wines are reviewed in, for all wines reviewed after January 1, 2010 I provide in a tasting note database information about the setting in which the wines were sampled. Specifically, I list:

· Whether a wine is reviewed in a public or private setting
· If sampled in a private setting, whether the wine was purchased or provided by as a sample

If you have any questions about the information above, please email me at [email protected].

Page updated December 26 2019. 
Page updated July 14th 2014 to include 2014 Wine Blog Award
Page updated July 10th 2014 to include mention of WBA Finalist
Page updated January 21st 2013 to include sections on Founder and Contributors. 
Page updated February 14th 2013 to include Ryan Messer as a contributor.
Pate updated August 19th 2013 to include 2013 Wine Blog Award.
Page updated May 6th 2014 to update list of publications.
Page updated March 11th 2015 removing Ryan Messer as a contributor. 
Page updated March 21st 2017 updating publication list.