Although August is almost over, I feel it is part of my job to let you know that this is Celebrate Washington Wine Month.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m not entirely sure how this proclamation came to be. It could have been dreamed up by attention-starved Washington wine drinkers. Or perhaps a coalition of Washington wineries wanted the rest of the world to know that we\u2019re out here. Or, most likely, the Washington Wine Commission decided to get the word out to consumers through wine shops, retail stores and people like me.<\/p>\n
No matter the source, we do indeed have much to celebrate about the wine industry here in Washington.<\/p>\n
I enjoy traveling around the state and visiting wineries and tasting rooms firsthand. One of my catch phrases that I like to pass along to anyone who\u2019s caught the wine bug is, \u201cgo taste wine.\u201d <\/p>\n
My editor has even joked that I should carry a card that says, \u201cHave winery? Will travel.\u201d<\/p>\n
And why not? We\u2019ve got a good thing going on here. With the Cascade Range dividing the state into two very distinct geographical and climatic regions, the scenery on either side is as diverse as the wineries that now cover virtually every corner of the state.<\/p>\n
And yet, I\u2019m amazed at how many \u201cwest side\u201d wine drinkers I\u2019ve spoken with who have never ventured across the mountains. Most of these same people travel no further than the tasting rooms that have congregated around the Seattle\/Woodinville area and consider this to be a trip to the Washington wine country.<\/p>\n
But I think half the fun is going to the source, standing out in the vineyards (the overwhelming majority of which are located in Eastern Washington) and meeting with the winemakers. If you don\u2019t take advantage of this opportunity you\u2019re skipping out on the main course of the wine tasting menu and going straight to dessert.<\/p>\n
Today we\u2019re up to 13 different, federally recognized wine grape growing regions and somewhere in the vicinity of 800 wineries. My best guess is that I\u2019ve been to about 150 wineries so far, and at the rate we\u2019re growing I\u2019ll never come close to seeing them all.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s fine with me. It\u2019s this growth that keeps things vigorous and vibrant. It makes traveling to Washington wineries a new adventure every time one prepares to go on the next getaway. It makes the entire experience as fresh as each new vintage that\u2019s ready to taste.<\/p>\n
Have I gotten you enthused? I hope so. Now, Celebrate Washington. Go taste wine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Although August is almost over, I feel it is part of my job to let you know that this is Celebrate Washington Wine Month. I\u2019m not entirely sure how this proclamation came to be. It could have been dreamed up by attention-starved Washington wine drinkers. Or perhaps a coalition of Washington wineries wanted the rest […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1091","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-from-the-bellingham-herald"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.danthewineguy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1091","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.danthewineguy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.danthewineguy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.danthewineguy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.danthewineguy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1091"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.danthewineguy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1091\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1092,"href":"https:\/\/www.danthewineguy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1091\/revisions\/1092"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.danthewineguy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1091"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.danthewineguy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1091"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.danthewineguy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1091"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}