Sean P. Sullivan's Northwest Wine Report

A belated round up of stories on Washington wine from March 15^th to March 21^st. Read previous round-ups here.

From around the world…

The Drinks Business.com writes that Oregon is on the verge of something exciting.


From around the country...

Fox Business.com writes about Starbucks expanding its wine sales.

Forbes writes about wines with an Irish soul with a callout to Two Mountain Winery.

The March Virtual Tasting is tonight! The wine is the Tamarack Cellars 2012 Firehouse Red Red Wine. This wine retails for $18 and is widely available. The tasting will take place tonight (Wednesday March 26th) from 7-8pm Pacific.

What you need to do to participate is:

1. Buy this month’s wine from the winery or a local retailer (see below)

2. Tweet your comments about the wine on Twitter between 7 and 8pm Pacific on the specified date using the hashtag #firehousered. For those on Twitter, follow me @wawinereport.

Join us!

Forget groundhogs; toss the tulips; dodge the opening pitch. The first sign of spring for Washington wine folk is surely Taste Washington, the two-day event that caps a grand Washington Wine Month. Resident Washington Wine Report photographer Richard Duval offers this image captured at one of the many wine soirees he covers all year long. “Nothing says spring quite like an open bottle poised above many glasses waiting to be filled,” he said.

Duval has been a busy photographer of late. You will find his 6.5’ x 26’ mural of a vineyard image at the newly refurbished Columbia Winery tasting room; the Spring issue of Washington Tasting Room Magazine carries his story and photographs of three days in the Wenatchee valley; and he photographed the wines for the recent article in Wine Enthusiast magazine on Washington Rhones I co-authored with Paul Gregutt.

Click on this month's picture for a larger image.

With spring finally upon us, it can only mean one thing – and no it’s not three more months of rain in the Northwest. It’s Taste Washington!

This year’s annual event takes place in Seattle on March 29^th and 30^th. For those who have never attended – and those who have – it’s a great opportunity to taste an enormous selection of Northwest wines in one location. To wit, this year’s event includes 226 wineries and 68 local restaurants.

Well, with months of dreary winter weather behind us and, yes, months of dreary spring weather still in front of us here in the Pacific Northwest, it’s time to celebrate the beginning of spring. And nothing rings in the start of the season quite like the release of the new vintage of róses.

There has been a true róse revolution in the Northwest of late for both winemakers and consumers. On the winemaker side, there was long a focus on saignée-style wines where winemakers bled tanks during fermentation and used juice designated for red wine production (if you are trying to determine if this is the case, alcohol level can often be your guide; look below 14% for wines specifically made for róse). These wines were often more cash flow oriented than a deliberate attempt to make high quality wine. The result was often dark, sweet, higher alcohol, and lower acid wines, sometimes made from grapes that just weren’t a good fit for róse (Note: If the grape hasn’t been used extensively for róse elsewhere in the world, the chances of it working here in the Northwest are probably not high).

A round up of stories on Northwest wine from March 8^th to March 14^th.  Read previous round-ups here.

From around the world…

The Prince George Citizen writes about wines from the Columbia Valley.
       

From around the country...

Wine Enthusiast writes about Ste. Michelle Wine Estates purchasing property in the Eola-Amity Hills (article by yours truly).

Forbes writes about Union Wine Co.

The March issue of Wine Enthusiast has an article on Washington Rhone-style wines I co-authored with Paul Gregutt. Read the article here. The March/April issue of Edible Seattle has another article I authored on Washington Rhone-style wines. See a list of newsstand locations here.

Enjoy!

The March Virtual Tasting wine is the Tamarack Cellars 2012 Firehouse Red Red Wine. This wine retails for $18 and is widely available. The tasting will take place on Wednesday March 26th from 7-8pm Pacific.

What you need to do to participate is:

1. Buy this month’s wine from the winery or a local retailer (see below)

A round-up of stories on Northwest wine from March 1st to 7th 2014. Read previous round-ups here.

From around the world…

Decanter writes about Cabernet Sauvignon becoming Washington’s top grape.

The Prince George Citizen (British Columbia) writes about great wines from the Columbia Valley.


From around the country…

USA Today writes about the 10 best wine destinations with a shout out to Walla Walla.

Wines & Vines writes about Washington’s record harvest.

It’s official. With the release of the 2013 grape production data from the USDA on Monday, Cabernet Sauvignon is now the most produced wine grape variety in Washington. Cabernet leapfrogged up from its long-held position of third behind Chardonnay and Riesling. Those two grapes have for years traded places for the top spot.

42,600 tons of Cabernet Sauvignon were produced in 2013, up a staggering 19% from 2012. Cabernet Sauvignon made up one fifth of Washington’s production in 2013, which set a record of 210,000 tons. Overall production was up by 12% from 2012, with most of this increase due to additional plantings coming on-line.

A round-up of stories on Northwest wine from February 22nd to 28th. Read previous round-ups here.

From around the world…

Manila Standard writes about winery concerts with a shout out to Chateau Ste. Michelle.

Decanter writes about changes at Evening Land Vineyards.

China Post writes about Washington wine.