Beyond categorization – Christophe Baron’s Bionic Wines
Christophe Baron, Hors Catégorie Vineyard © Andréa Johnson Photography “I've reached the pinnacle of my career in America,” says Christophe Baron. Baron, founder and vigneron at Bionic Wines, which includes Cayuse Vineyards, No Read more...
Interview: How Washington’s Browne Family has defied gravity
In 2003, Browne Family, part of Precept Wines, started out with a mere 100 cases of Cabernet Sauvignon. The label has since grown to more than 125,000 cases annually. Today, while many in the wine Read more...
Amos Rome sets the bar for white wines in Lake Chelan
The promise of Lake Chelan whites, realized From its first modern day vinifera plantings in 1998 – 25 years ago – it’s been clear that the Lake Chelan appellation could be special as a wine Read more...
Last Man Standing: Charles Sleicher of Associated Vintners
In the 1950s, a group of largely University of Washington (UW) professors, led by Lloyd S. Woodburne (1906-1992) – dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, began making wine at home. There would ultimately Read more...
David Rosenthal has made more Washington wine than most winemakers in the state combined
David Rosenthal spent over 20 years working at Chateau Ste. Michelle, Washington’s largest winery, including seven as head white winemaker. Each year, Rosenthal made a staggering 3M cases of wine, more than almost all of Read more...
A look into Washington wine’s past and the promise of Ste. Michelle
Sometimes it is hard to imagine just how far Washington's wine industry has come over the last 50+ years. One bottle I recently had – a 1969 Cabernet Sauvignon from Ste. Michelle Vineyards – provides Read more...
The unassumingly delicious wines of Woodinville’s Esja
“Not every wine has to be big and jammy and bold,” says Esja owner and winemaker Tanya Bjornsson. “I think more and more people are leaning towards picking earlier.” Indeed, Bjornsson and her Esja wines Read more...
Willamette Valley and Columbia Basin winter and spring weather patterns
The following article was written by Michael Fagin. Fagin is an operational meteorologist providing weather forecasts to clients in the Pacific Northwest and providing custom forecast for groups climbing Mt. Everest and other major peaks. Fagin Read more...
An auspicious start for Walla Walla’s Prospice
Prospice Wines’ origin story sounds much like the beginning of a joke. A lawyer and an architect walk into a vineyard. The winery’s website even notes as such. If so, the punchline is that together Read more...
What ChatGPT gets right – and wrong – about Washington wine
The AI is, generally speaking, either largely correct or flat out wrong, with a troubling tendency to bullshit ChatGPT and other artificial intelligence chatbots have dominated the news recently. Last weekend, I asked ChatGPT a Read more...
Which wine closures are sustainable and recyclable (and is that even the right question to ask)?
There are a variety of closure types in the wine industry. The most common closures are natural corks, closures made from ground-up natural corks (such as agglomerated and micro-agglomerated closures), screwcaps, and synthetics. (See explanations Read more...
Through the looking glass at Woodinville’s Sightglass Cellars
Sean Boyd of Sightglass Cellars in Woodinville grew up in the wine industry.Born in Colorado, Boyd spent his early years in San Diego where his father, Gerald D. Boyd, was editor of Wine Spectator in its earliest days when Read more...
