If you know anything about Washington wines, the names Mercer and Hogue should suggest excellence among those in the State’s wine industry. Combine the two and throw in a winemaker with over 20 years of experience and you have all the ingredients for a potentially great new winery. That’s the story behind Mercer Estates, which […]

Over the next several weeks, I’ll be featuring wineries from Washington’s Yakima Valley and Rattlesnake Hills Appellations. Established in 1983, Yakima Valley is Washington’s oldest appellation and home to over 40 wineries, while Rattlesnake Hills, a schism of Yakima Valley, was granted appellation status in 2006 and includes 16 wineries. It’s impossible to pin down […]

During a recent trip to Spokane I paid a visit to Lone Canary Winery, which has always been a favorite of mine. While I was there, I had the good fortune of spending a bit of time with winemaker Mike Scott. Scott is wonderfully outspoken about his wines and has proclaimed that they are “unabashedly […]

Like all other wine producing states, Washington’s grape growing regions are categorized into federally designated areas called American Viticultural Areas (AVAs) or appellations. What is an appellation? Quite simply, it’s an area with unique climatic, soil, and physical features that distinguish it from surrounding areas. The Horse Heaven Hills AVA is one of Washington’s newer […]

I’ve got good news and bad news. The good news: Mount Baker Vineyards has a ton of new releases, and I’m pleased to say that they’re all really nice wines that deserve a try. The bad news is that there are so many new wines, I don’t have enough space to cover all of them […]