William Pollard Jr | aka: Wild 4 Washington Wine

"Green are my grapes" - desktop wallpaper, one of many. I'm sharing some of my personal, mostly Washington, wine photos - click on the Wallpaper Tab above. I have cropped and re-sized the images to make them suitable for use as wallpaper  on most computers. Wallpaper image size is 1667 x 800. WARNING : These photos may cause hunger and thirst or an uncontrollable urge to visit Washington Wine Country. Cheers!

On impulse last week, I bought a small grape vine. A seedless Suffolk red table grape, not wine grape this time. Now that it's planted, what do I do next? After some Internet searching, I found a great resource for growing grapes yourself. The Oregon State University Extension site has much of the information needed to grow grapes at home. Topics include: Grape plant growth, Selecting a site, Soil, Selecting a cultivar, Planting stock and propagation, Establishing your planting, Care of established plantings, Pruning and training, Harvest and dealing with Pests. The included diagrams are a huge help in explaining how to properly train and prune your vines. Check it out. Link to web page  - This information is also available as a .PDF file:  Link to PDF file . If you have planted, or are thinking about planting grapes at home, then check out this resource. Cheers!

A View from the Tasting Room Floor Up. Last week I had quite the ex perience helping b ottle wine at Hightower Cellars on Red Mountain. As a Washington Wine Ambassador, www.washingtonwine.org/ , I receive occasional invites to help wineries, small and large, with events and other activities. The most recent invite was to help Hightower Cellars bottle their 2006 vintage s. Since I n ever bottled w ine before, I thought this would be a good opportunity to volunteer and see fo r myself what it is lik e. Red Mountain is only a 15 minute drive from my home, so I arrived at the w inery at approximately 9:30 AM ready to work.  Tim and Kelly emptying barrels. Kelly and Tim Hightower are the winemakers of Hightower Cellars. Hightower was originally located in Woodinvi lle, Washington. But, with the purchase of land on Red Mountain, along with water rights, they’ve been producing o utstanding wines on Red Mountai n sinc e they moved there in 2002. Mobile Bottling Hightower d...

Yes Virginia, there is Zinfandel in Washington. Washington is not known for producing Zinfandel wine. Zinfandel is a difficult varietal to cultivate in Washington - it requires more time on the vine and a slightly cooler climate to mature properly (SE Washington is just too hot for Zin ). Fortunately, there is at least one grower cultivating the grape with great success in Washington. Dan Gunkel is a grower in the Columbia River Gorge valley. The Columbia River Gorge is in South Central Washington, bordering the Columbia River and it is the sweet spot in the state for Zinfandel. Dan Gunkel and his family produce some of the finest fruit available - and he's a nice guy too. Rob Griffin and Dan Gunkel have an amiable relationship - the fruit of this friendship includes Rob Griffins award winning Zinfandel wine. I had the pleasure of enjoying a bottle of Barnard Griffin Zinfandel 2005 vintage this weekend. The first thing I noticed about this wine was the bright, clear garnet color...