Sean P. Sullivan's Northwest Wine Report

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

From around the country…

The Sacramento Bee writes about Washington Riesling.

The Independent Record writes about wines for spring with a couple of Washington mentions.

The Sioux Falls Leader writes about white wines for warmer weather with a callout to the A to Z Pinot Gris.

Taste Washington, the nation’s largest single region wine and food event, is coming up March 26^th through 29^th. I’ll be moderating two seminars at the event this year. The first is on Saturday, March 28^th and is titled ‘The Chardonnay Revival’ where we’ll be focusing on the resurgence of this variety in Washington of late (see a seminar description as well as the list of panelists and wines). Meanwhile on Sunday, March 29^th, I’ll be moderating a seminar titled ‘Appellation Spotlight: Red Mountain’ where we’ll discuss this viticultural area’s rise to preeminence (see a seminar description as well as the list of panelists and wines). Ticket information is here. Come say hello! Also, keep an eye out for suggested wineries to visit during the Grand Tasting at Seattle Metropolitan next week. Happy Washington Wine Month!

Growers in Washington are seeing bud break occur in certain varieties. The onset of the growing season looks to be historically early for some, even compared to the warm 2014 vintage.

“Bud break last year started April 5th, so we are certainly two weeks ahead of that,” said Ryan Driver, vineyard manager at Tertulia Cellars in the Walla Walla Valley. Driver has already seen bud break in Grenache at some of his vineyards.

Chris Figgins of Leonetti Cellar and FIGGINS has seen bud break in his Sangiovese at Seven Hills Vineyard. “I remember bud break in March before but certainly not March 15th!” Figgins said.

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

From around the country…

Wines & Vines writes about the Northwest’s early growing season.

The Poughkeepsie Journal writes about the Fox Farm Pinot Gris.

The Washington Times writes about Nevada lawmakers vetting a bill to ease restrictions on wineries.

I want to touch briefly on how to keep up with what I am writing about Northwest wine in addition to what is appearing in this space.

I frequently post information about wines I'm sampling for Wine Enthusiast as well as personal bottles on my Washington Wine Report Facebook page. I encourage you to follow this page if you are not already. Additionally, I also tweet about various goings on at twitter.com/wawinereport. My reviews of Washington (and Idaho) wines as well as feature and other articles appear regularly in Wine Enthusiast magazine. While I encourage you to subscribe to the magazine, these are also all freely available on-line (Note: Wine Enthusiast is currently updating its content management system so things should be easier to find in the near future if all goes well).

Below is the first installment of my Wine Enthusiast reviews to be published to this space. They are reviews for the December 31, 2014 issue of the magazine and encompass the appellations that I was assigned to review prior to my assuming review responsibilities for all of Washington October 1st of last year.

Wines are listed alphabetically by winery. Read additional information on how I review wines here. All of these reviews are freely available on-line at the Wine Enthusiast Buying Guide. There is also a freely available Wine Enthusiast Tasting Guide app.

A round-up of stories on Northwest wine from March 1^st to 7^th 2015. Read previous round-ups here.

From around the country…

D Magazine says to drink Oregon Chardonnay.

Shanken Daily News writes about 14 Hands partnering with the Kentucky Derby to make a limited edition red blend.

The Wall Street Journal writes about the red blend trend.

The March issue of Wine Enthusiast has a feature article I authored on Red Mountain with images from resident photographer Richard Duval (apologies in advance for the six click throughs).

The March-April issue of Vineyard & Winery Management has an article about Antonio Galloni's Vinous (Note: opens .pdf).

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

From around the world…

Business Vancouver writes that the Aquilinis press on in their Washington state wine venture.


From around the country…

Wines & Vines writes about grape growers discussing vintage variation.

Wine Business.com writes about the Oregon Wine Symposium.