Washington Wine of the Week – Selections for Fall, 2025

For the week of November 30, 2025: Everen Wines 2022 Left-Bank Bordeaux Blend – Finessed winemaking, nuanced flavors, and an overall Old World style are the hallmarks of Walla Walla’s Everen Wines. Nothing sums this up better than the 2022 Left-Bank Bordeaux Blend: a base of 70-percent Red Mountain AVA Cabernet Sauvignon that is finished with a splash of Merlot from the same appellation along with a bit of Yakima Valley AVA Cabernet Franc. The dark fruits really shine on this wine, with black currant and black plum at the forefront, followed by notes of graphite, fresh herbs, and bittersweet chocolate on a velvety-soft finish. Contemplative and delicious! (Click on the ‘Heard Through the Grapevine’ Category at right for more information about Everen.)

For the week of November 23, 2025: Wines to Serve with Thanksgiving Dinner – It’s Thanksgiving week! If you’re serving a dinner that includes turkey, bread stuffing, and potatoes and gravy, selecting a wine could not be easier. These traditional foods don’t set a very ‘high bar’ in terms of seasonings and spice levels, so that means you can pair them with a variety of red and white wines. Slightly sweet whites such as Riesling and Gewurztraminer are great for starters, Chardonnay and Viognier should also work well as more full-bodied choices, and even Sauvignon Blanc or a nice, crisp Chenin Blanc or Pinot Gris could easily be on your table. For reds, Pinot Noir is a slam-dunk wine to pair with turkey because of its complementary earthy tones and nice acidity; and a Grenache or Grenache-based blend should also be a great red wine choice. To make this good news even better: Washington produces all of these wines and much more, so there’s no need to even consider looking at the out-of-state wine section to come up with something that’s sure to be an adult beverage crowd-pleaser during this food-centric holiday.

For the week of November 16, 2025: Wines from the 44th Annual Tri-Cities Wine Festival – Still recovering from a Covid-induced, 4-year break, this long-running festival has been picking up momentum since it restarted in 2024. This year, 44 Washington wineries were featured at the event, pouring some awfully good wines in a rainbow of styles that covered all the bases from sweet to dry, lighter bodied to big and tannic, and still to bubbly. Needless to say, there were plenty of smiles from the hundreds of attendees who tasted, noshed, and showed their support for the Washington wine industry.

Some personal favorites: a delicious, fruit-forward 2023 Pinot Noir from Palencia Estate; a stunning, ready-to-drink 2023 Petit Verdot from 4 Whistles Winery; and a slightly creamy, slightly racy 2023 Slyvi Barrel Aged Riesling from Dalset Wines. Other notable wineries included Aviam Cellars, Barragan Vinos, Crowe Wines, Frichette Red Mountain, McKinley Springs, Tirridis Sparkling Wines, Treveri Cellars, UpWest Wine, Van Arnam Vineyards and Whitman Hill Winery.

For the week of November 9, 2025: Neher Family Wines 2023 Principal Blend – The bad news: the 2022 vintage of this wine – which took Double Gold honors at the Pacific Northwest Wine Competition – just sold out. The good news: the follow-up/just-released 2023 vintage has all the makings of matching its predecessor. It’s a Merlot-dominant Bordeaux blend that’s more savory than fruity, with beef jerky, cardamon, coffee grounds, and black olive flavors leading the way. The robust finish, framed with a touch of black currant and big tannins, suggests an easy five to ten year cellar life that promises to make this wine even better. Neher Family Wines is located just across the stateline in Milton-Freewater, Oregon, but because the grapes for this blend were sourced from the Walla Walla Valley AVA, Washington gets to lay at least partial claim to the finished product.

For the week of November 2, 2025: Enodav Wine Co. 2022 Cabernet Sauvignon – If wines could enter a beauty contest, this gorgeous Cabernet would easily be considered a top contender. Perfume-like aromas of purple fruits, violets and baking spices start you off, followed by a core of brambly Marionberry and blackberry fruit. In the final stanza, super-concentrated candied black cherry flavors come through, with a dusting of cocoa powder and black pepper, seamlessly integrated tannins, and a mile-long finish. A stellar effort by relative newcomer David Rodriguez, who founded the winery in 2018 and opened his tasting room in Prosser, Washington in 2024.

For the week of October 26, 2025: Tsillan Cellars 2022 Petit Verdot – Another winner from the Lake Chelan Valley winery, this gem of a wine earned a Double Gold medal and 93 points from the judging panel at this year’s Pacific Northwest Wine Competition. Fruit flavors of ultra-ripe red raspberries, boysenberries, fig, pie cherries, and a hint of ripe plum are perfectly complemented with umami characteristics of charcuterie and tomato leaf. Sturdy tannins and a touch of cracked black pepper come through on the finish, along with a nice streak of acidity that keeps everything in balance. Sourced from the Red Mountain AVA and aged 20 months entirely in French oak barrels, 50% of which were new. 245 cases produced.

For the week of October 19, 2025: Drink Washington State 2021 Carmenere – Eternal Wines’ Brad Binko has another winner with this newly released Carmenere sourced from Washington’s Wahluke Slope AVA. It’s big, brash, and packed with concentrated black olive, espresso, and black currant flavors. The wine was aged for nearly four years in French oak, which naturally comes through on the finish along with plenty of tannic structure and a spritz of white pepper. Give this wine plenty of time to aerate before enjoying with a juicy porterhouse steak. Drink now or hold for another 5 to 10 years.

For the week of October 12, 2025: Airfield Estates 2021 Reserve Merlot –

Marcus Miller and Lori Stevens head the team at Airfield, and they’re flying high with winemaker Travis Maple by crafting some truly remarkable wines. This excellent Merlot earned a Gold Medal at the 2025 Pacific Northwest Wine Competition, and it’s perfect for those who like this varietal a bit on the bold side. Coffee, violets, and plum aromas fill the glass, with loads of purple, jammy fruit flavors balanced by touches of minerality, cedar, and forest floor. The slightly chocolaty finish is complemented with finely integrated tannins and plenty of staying power. Airfield has Washington tasting rooms in Vancouver and Woodinville, along with its flagship location and production facility in Prosser (pictured above).

For the week of October 5, 2025: GLM Wine Co. 2023 The Denier – GLM Winemaker Tom Davis recently released this 100% Malbec, and it may very well be one of his best wines ever. It’s absolutely gorgeous from start to finish, displaying great acidity and purity of fruit, which gives it an overall fresh and vibrant quality. Red and black currant aromas and flavors lead off, with a layer of jammy, blackberry and blueberry fruit, hints of cola and vanilla, and a velvety-soft finish. In a word: delicious! Try it with seared duck breast in a blackberry reduction sauce for a picture-perfect food/wine pairing. Sourced from Angiolina Vineyard in Washington’s Rattlesnake Hills AVA. The winery tasting room is located in the far northwest corner of the state, a stone’s throw from the Canadian border in the town of Blaine, Washington.

For the week of September 28, 2025: Sin Banderas Wines Non-Vintage Port-Style Muscat – Dessert-style wines can easily be polarizing with wine enthusiasts because of their sometimes cloying sugariness. The trick for winemakers is to incorporate the proper levels of fruit, alcohol, and acidity to balance out the potentially overpowering sweetness.

The team at Sin Banderas has done just that, and this stunner of a wine scored 95 points and a Double Gold medal at this year’s Pacific Northwest Wine Competition.

Incredibly layered and complex, one of the judges termed it a “fabulous surprise” while commenting on the array of spices including sage, thyme, nutmeg and allspice. There are also lovely notes of lemon peel, stargazer lily, eucalyptus, and petrol on the nose, and a base of lychee nut and apricot fruit on the palate. The mile-long finish adds to the wine’s character and depth and makes it a crowd-pleasing, savor-to-the-last-drop choice to pair with cheeses and fruit tarts, or for after-dinner sipping on its own.