William Pollard Jr | aka: Wild 4 Washington Wine

One of my main messages on this blog is, " Good stemware is critical to wine appreciation ."  Some of my regular readers may recall that I have written about my personal experiments on how the shape of the wine glass, can positively or negatively, affect the perception of the wine you drink. ( Wine 101 – The Importance of Shape to Wine Appreciation , 10/21/13). But I have never participated in a focused trade tasting, exhorting the same. Yesterday, I participated in a special  Riedel Crystal  Seminar for the wine trade. This was an enlightening sensory experience. One which I highly recommend to everyone. And for those interested, the Walter Clore Center where I work in Prosser, will be hosting an upcoming Riedel seminar for consumers April 28th. Riedel Stemware, Riesling/Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Cabernet (left to right). Riedel?  Riedel Crystal is a glassware manufacturer based in Kufstein, Austria, best known for its g...

Experience Washington wine and food at Taste Washington March 31 - April 3. To all you wine lovers, I encourage you to make plans to attend Taste Washington 2016 .  Do your research before you walk through the doors and you will be rewarded with some truly remarkable wine experiences and an expanded palate for describing Washington wine. Prepare to be dazzled! Appellation Spotlight: Columbia Gorge AVA. Note : I strongly encourage you to sign up for one of the wine seminars on either Saturday or Sunday. These are world class tastings and discussions on my favorite subjects. Truly one of a kind, not to miss sessions. I attended the Columbia Gorge AVA seminar last year and learned a great deal. Today I am a huge fan of white wines made from Columbia Gorge AVA vineyards. I thank the seminar I attended as responsible for this as it brought this region to my attention. Join us March 31 – April 3 for the 19th Annual Taste Washington Indulge in the premier wine and fo...

Taste Washington Appellation Seminar Columbia Gorge AVA There are always opportunities to educate yourself. This year I have expanded my knowledge about the Columbia Gorge AVA. During the weekend of Taste Washington I attended a seminar featuring wines made from grapes grown in the Columbia Gorge. While I was familiar with some of the wines and wineries in this AVA, at this seminar I was introduced to new winemakers, wineries and vineyards. The focus was on wines made from higher elevation vineyard sources in the Columbia Gorge AVA. "A world of wine in 40 miles." The Columbia Gorge was carved out by the epic Missoula glacial floods  around 15,000 years ago. The area where I live in eastern Washington was once covered by the flood waters of the short lived Lake Lewis, before breaking free and creating the Columbia Gorge. Glacial erratics , large boulders carried by glacial ice, were deposited hundreds of miles from their origins as far as the Willamette Valley in Or...

Taste Washington,  Seattle, Washington The nation's largest single-region wine and food event March 26-29, 2015 You owe it to yourself not to miss Taste Washington Seattle this year. This is one of my favorite Washington wine events. Don't come only for the wine, some of the best Washington restaurants will be serving delicacies to accompany all of those amazing wines. Over 200 Washington Wineries and over 70 Restaurants in attendance, this is your opportunity to truly experience a Washington Culinary Adventure. ** Update: 21 March 2015 - Here is the complete 2015 Program for Taste Washington! *Update: 12 March 2015 - Here's a complete printable list of all the participating wineries and the wines they will be pouring. Wow! I advise looking it over carefully and then select the most important wines you wish to sample. Impressive. Thursday - Sunday Taste Washington Experiences The Grand Tasting is a two day event on Saturday and Sunday. But there is...

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...

Summer Thinning Two Mountain Winery in Zillah, Washington, http://www.twomountainwinery.com/ is once again offering seminars on growing and managing grape vines. This Saturday I spent almost two hours thinning Riesling and Syrah vines with about 20 other students. Matt Rawn was our instructor. He discussed the importance of controlling vine vigor by thinning vines and leaves. Air flow is necessary to reduce the chance of mold/mildew, and excess vines and leaves need to be removed to focus the energy into the grapes. The vineyard we “worked” in is planted on rocky soil in Zillah, Washington, part of the Rattlesnake Hills appellation. The vineyard is in a scenic location, mountains are visible above the vineyards, birds sing in the background, and this weekend we were lucky to have a pleasant, slightly overcast morning to work in – we missed the 100 degree heat of the previous week, and the few rain drops which fell Saturday did not bother us. Matt seemed to like the work I did th...