William Pollard Jr | aka: Wild 4 Washington Wine

Snow yesterday, sleet today, which makes for very treacherous roads in the Columbia Valley. Trapped in our own home, what is a family to do? It's a perfect excuse to raid the wine cellar and enjoy comfort wine with comfort food. Spaghetti with 2008 Airfield Estates Hellcat. For lunch today my wife cooked spaghetti with a robust red meat sauce, garnished with flakes of Parmesan cheese and garlic bread on the side. She also selected the wine, an Airfield Estates 2008 Hellcat. We purchased this bottle at their family owned  Prosser, Washington winery during Spring release weekend in April 2010 . Lunch was most enjoyable. The 2008 Hellcat complimented our comforting meal and left me glowing with contentment. I stuck my head out the front door to snap the photo below and quickly retreated to the warmth of home and another glass of wine. Snowy Pagoda. The 2008 Hellcat is a dark, clean garnet color. I love the nose on this wine: lively aromas of candied dark fruit, resin, tar...

Wine Tasting From the Bus The Yakima Valley Spring Barrel weekend was a huge success this year. I’ve poured at past Spring Barrel weekends, so I truly enjoyed being on the other end this time. My past experience working this event, taught me to avoid the crowds on Saturday. So we went Sunday, avoided the crowds and craziness and just took our time tasting, talking and walking. Here’s the list of wineries we visited over six hours on Sunday, 25 April 2010. Red Mountain: Terra Blanca Winery Prosser Vintners Village: Airfield Estates, Willow Crest Wine Estates, Thurston Wolfe, Gamache Vintners, Milbrandt Vineyards On the other side of Interstate 82 : Alexandria Nicole Cellars, Cowan Vineyards My count indicates we visited eight wineries Saturday. Even so, we did not make it to all the wineries I wanted to see (sorry Hightower Cellars, Tasawik Vineyards, Olsen Estates, Mercer Estates and Kestrel Vintners, among others). As it was, eight wineries is ambitious for anyone – fortun...