William Pollard Jr | aka: Wild 4 Washington Wine

Friday wine.  This wine was featured on our Wine Muse World Tour #WineMuse podcast show . Heinz Eifel takes personal control over the whole wine making process: from grapevine to bottling. His daughter, Anne Eifel-Spohr has taken over the position of winemaker for the HEINZ EIFEL label. She has been active in the company since 2001 and continues the long family tradition started in 1640. I enjoyed speaking with winemaker Anne-Eifel Spohr on our #winemuse podcast. You can listen to the recorded podcast here . Tasting Notes : Color : Pale Gold Nose : Mineral hit, steely, intense, pear, honey, cinnamon from sagebrush. Big like. Palate : Honeyed pear, apricot, not heavy sweet, touch of sweet backed by great acidity, medium-heavy, nice weight and lovely flavors, spicy cinnamon, nice brace of acid back of cheeks. Luxurious fruit finish. Day two : Lovely, still fresh, bright steely nose with cinnamon. Nice acid tingle under the tongue. Balanced. Flavors of gently ripe honey...

My New Favorite Washington Riesling  This week I spoke with Chateau Ste. Michelle winemaker Wendy Stuckey; wonderful conversation and worth listening to on our #winemuse World Tour podcast . Afterwards, I was eager to bring home a bottle of  her Riesling. Lucky me, I found this 2012 Cold Creek Vineyard Riesling on sale for $11.99 - a fantastic bargain for an amazing wine. Cold Creek Vineyard was planted in the 1970's and is one of the oldest Washington vineyards. Truly impressed by this vintage and bottle of Riesling. Phenomenal wine, especially on such a hot week in the Columbia Valley. Loved this wine. Suggested music pairing : Luluc - Passerby . Pour yourself a glass and put this album on - relax. Tasting Notes : Color : Pale straw, edged with green highlights. Nose : Bright mineral core, apple peel, melon, wet slate, honey, eucalyptus kissed with cinnamon. Phenomenal nose, intense and satisfying. Peach blossom added as it warmed. Palat...

Hello Old Friend . Chateau Ste Michelle has made Riesling for decades. There was a time I could not think of one without thinking of the other. Washington Riesling and Chateau Ste Michelle were synonymous. Riesling was Washington wine (we called it Johannisberg Riesling at the time). This was one of the first wines I drank on a regular basis. I have noted many times on this blog that I've wandered away from Washington Riesling. Seduced by other varieties and styles of wine. On a whim I purchased this bottle of Riesling to get a feel, a taste, an idea of what a $6 bottle of Washington Riesling is delivering. I wondered, is it good? Is it something I would drink today? For this post I did a little research on Riesling and this famous winery. You can't grow Riesling the same way you grow red wine grapes. Site location is important and proven sites for Riesling are finally being established. Some growers are starting to treat Riesling with respect. Evidently Riesling is ba...

Regular readers of this wine blog and my East Coast wine friends, know that I have become a fan of Finger Lakes Riesling. They have a quality and flavor profile which I adore. It should be no surprise that I am always eager to expand my palate and experience more wines from New York. They do grow more than Riesling in the Finger Lakes. It was a delight to be asked by Damiani Wine Cellars to review four of their wines; a Riesling, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and a Cabernet Sauvignon. Damiani Wine Cellars is a winery located on the eastern shores of Seneca Lake, New York. They have 23 acres of vineyards which they hand-pick and ferment in small batches. Owners Glenn Allen (GM), Lou Damiani (Winemaker) and Phil Davis (Grower) produce a full line of distinctive red and white wines. I encourage you to seek these wines out. If you live on the East Coast they will be easier to find. Visit their website to check on shipping options and availability.

Do not believe me if I tell you I'm not a fan of Washington Riesling.  Many long time wine drinkers may tell you that over time a change in palate occurs. Mine has. A progression from light to sweet white wines, to robust red wines. Then the dabbling in diverse white varieties and on to the realization that many different red varieties exist, which need to be explored. In my case there was a casualty. A wine I had mostly given up on in preference to tastier realms. Riesling. Washington Riesling. Occasionally, a Washington Riesling comes my way which forces me to recognize the fallacy of my prejudice. The Gård Vintners 2011 Riesling Grand Klasse Columbia Valley is such a wine. Provided by the winery, this is the third Gård Vintners I had the pleasure to taste and review. You can now consider me a fan.

It was a true pleasure to receive this bottle of Finger Lakes Riesling to taste and review at home. This is the fourth of four samples I received featuring the 2012 vintage of Finger Lakes Rieslings.  Quality is strong in the Finger Lakes. The 2012 vintage showed well in the samples I received. "The Rieslings from our region have been outstanding in quality for many years and now that Riesling in general is gaining in popularity we are thrilled." - Kevin Zraly, FingerLakesTravelJournal.com

Out of the park! It was my sincere pleasure to receive this bottle of Sheldrake Point Dry Riesling to taste and review at home. This bottle of Riesling is the third of four samples I received featuring the 2012 Finger Lakes Rieslings.  Riesling quality is strong in the Finger Lakes. The 2012 vintage so far is showing well in the samples I am enjoying at home. "The Finger Lakes is a goldmine for world-class Rieslings."  - Mary Ewing-Mulligan, MW, Author, Columnist, Wine Educator, International Wine Center

Finger Lakes Rocks the Riesling! It was my pleasure to receive this wine to taste and review at home. This Riesling is one of four samples I received featuring Finger Lakes 2012 Rieslings. While I assume you know that the Finger Lakes wine region is in Central New York, it doesn't hurt to mention that the Finger Lakes region is just south of Lake Ontario. The deep Finger Lakes run North-South and provide premium growing on the eastern and western slopes. Riesling is King in the Finger Lakes. "From dry to sweet versions, the Finger Lakes is slowly but steadily cementing its reputation as this country's best source for Riesling." - James Molesworth, Senior Editor, Wine Spectator

Guest Post by Juli Crompe. Another year has come and gone at Taste Washington Seattle (Taste). I feel so lucky and grateful for the opportunity to attend for the third year in a row. On top of the wonderful event itself, Taste now offers seminars before the event, four on Saturday and three on Sunday, on a variety of extremely interesting and educational topics (check them out  here ). On Saturday, I chose to attend "Intro to the World of Wine", with moderator Sean Sullivan of Washington Wine Report , and panelists Dr. Kevin Pogue of Whitman College, Thomas Henick-Kling of Washington State University, Thomas Price MS of the Metropolitan Grill and Linda Murphy, author of " American Wine, an Honest Drink ." Quite the caliber of experts for a 90 minute synopsis on the world  of wine. Luckily, they chose to focus mainly on Washington and a few basics. I thought this would be the perfect seminar to share with you; regardless of if you're new to wine or knowl...

Photo: 2010 Poet's Leap Riesling. Wow! The Poet’s Leap Riesling is made by German winemaker Armin Diel, proprietor of the renowned Schlossgut Diel. Mr. Diel makes the Poet's Leap Riesling at the Long Shadows Winery in Walla Walla, Washington. I first tasted this wine in February at the Long Shadows winery, then again in July during a virtual tasting (I had my bottle at home and tweeted about it). I believe this wine has improved in bottle. This time at opening, the wine was steely, it reminded me of polished steel. It was crisp, bright with wonderful minerality. It was not austere, it was tantalizing. Wow! After 2 days in the refrigerator, it was even better. Tonight, it was beautifully integrated, sublime, full of introspection. Pale gold in color, with a lively aroma of soft petrol, nectarine, toast and river rock. Bright, round and spiky flavors front palate, crisp, with lovely apple-pear and honey flavors mid-palate, exiting with a refreshing tart finish of granny...

Sipping the Finger Lakes. In September, I participated in the Finger Lakes 2011 Riesling Launch. The focus was the release of the 2011 vintage. Samples were provided and several days were focused on tasting and tweeting about the 2011 Rieslings from the Finger Lakes wine region. We used #FLXwine in our tweets about the Finger Lakes wines. One of the wines I received in September was a 2011 Fulkerson Winery Semi-Dry Riesling . That is the second wine reviewed on this post. My notes for the Semi-Dry Riesling are from September. The other wine I am reviewing was shipped to me last week, it is the 2010 Fulkerson Winery Dry Riesling . That is the first wine reviewed today. Fulkerson Winery Tasting Room. Fulkerson Winery is a family owned and operated winery and fresh juice plant in Dundee, NY in the heart of the Finger Lakes on the West side of Seneca Lake. They offer over 23 varieties of Wine, 33 varieties of fresh grape juice in the fall and a full line of home wine mak...

Today I am tweeting about the  2011 vintage Rieslings from the Finger Lakes. Saturday, September 22, 2012 6:00 p.m. - 10:00 p.m. EST. We will be using #FLXwine in our tweets. Samples provided by:  Finger Lakes Wine Alliance . Photo: My four samples of Finger Lakes Riesling. This year twenty Finger Lakes wineries are participating in the Riesling Launch.  Look for the Rieslings from these producers at your local wine shops, restaurants and wine bars.  Photo: Riesling vineyard, Courtesy Finger Lakes Wine Alliance. Quick facts on the Finger Lakes Established October 1, 1982  100 plus wineries  11,000 cares under vine  600 + acres of Riesling  100,000 cases of Riesling  Small, specific producers whose wine reflects place and personality  Strong, regional aromatic whites with a focus on Riesling. The average producer makes 2.5 styles of Riesling wine a year.  The Finger Lakes is home to over 20...

Five wonderful days in Oregon Wine Country.  Photo: Phelps Creek Vineyards view. There's a treasure trove of wine across the Columbia River. While I've preoccupied myself with my Washington wine pursuits, I've ignored a wealth of wine next door. I'm referring to Oregon Wine. This month I spent five enlightening days in Oregon, sampling the best of Oregon wine. The fifth annual Wine Bloggers Conference was hosted in Portland, Oregon. I was fortunate to attend. There are not enough words for me to express how affected I was by my experience in Oregon. Oregon winemakers are creating and expressing true wine passion. You can tell by the exquisite wines they are making. Oregon is an environment where sharing and inspiring each other is the norm. Environmentally aware, Sustainable, Organic and Bio-Dynamic are natural topics of conversation in Oregon wineries. Northern Oregon wine country is minutes from the vibrant city scene of Portland. I visited wineries a...

Expanding my palate to California. “You ought to never consider retiring from work, because remaining engaged in some creative occupation makes life so much more full” - Fess Parker California Wine Club Shipment Premier Club Gift. As a life-long Washington resident, I drink Washington wine. This blog is “Wild 4 Washington Wine”  after all, so drinking local comes easy. Yes, the occasional bottle from Australia and Spain grace my table, but not often. That began to change in 2010 when I started attending the Wine Bloggers Conferences . I was exposed to many new wines from across the United States and the world. There is a huge world of wine out there. Since 2010, especially since last year, I've sampled wines from California, Texas, Missouri, Virginia, New York, Spain, France, Italy, Chile and Argentina. Tasting all of these wines has pushed me off my comfortable bench, where I was drinking exclusively Washington wines. The wine critic and author Paul Gregutt recently w...

K Vintners – 2007 Kung Fu Girl Riesling another recommended wine made by Charles Smith. Don't you love the label? I missed sampling this wine at Taste Washington , so I felt I owed it to myself to try a bottle at home. Washington is well known for Riesling - we have the perfect climate for growing the varietal. And Riesling was one of the states first widely successful wines in the 1970's - 1980's. With the increased focus on red wine grape varietals and all things Chardonnay in the 1990's, Rieslings popularity faded. A focus on Late Harvest Rieslings and Ice Wine production meant that dry Rieslings were largely ignored. But that has changed. I've noticed a Riesling renaissance occurring over the last eight years. The popularity of Chardonnay has proportionally decreased as the popularity of Riesling has increased. Some growers have been replacing Chardonnay vineyards with new Rieslings vineyards. Many great Rieslings are being produced in Washington -j...