William Pollard Jr | aka: Wild 4 Washington Wine

Have you grabbed a can of wine lately?  Are you curious about those cans of wine you see at the grocery store or your local liquor store? Are you wondering to yourself, " Are they any good?" Today I have reviews of two sparkling/frizzante wines in a can. Eufloria aromatic wines. These wines are produced by the same company which makes Pacific Rim Riesling  in West Richland, Washington. ( see my review: "Pacific Rim 2016 Riesling - Two Styles with Unlimited Enjoyment " ) You might ask yourself, " Why would I want wine from a can? " I asked myself the same question. And you might also ask, as I did, " What do they taste like? " Well, I found out.  Why cans? One of the reasons cans are being used for wine, is that aluminum cans are lighter than glass, and therefore less expensive to transport. Also, aluminum cans take up less space than glass bottles for an equivalent amount of wine. These are 375ml cans of wine, which is equivalent t...

A lovely package full of wonderful items.  To my pleasure, I recently received a gift box with a bottle of Kim Crawford Sauvignon Blanc, two Schott Zwiesel Sauvignon Blanc wine glasses and six Wine Gems by RabLabs. I've included my tasting notes on the Kim Crawford Sauvignon Blanc and my thoughts on the wine glasses and Wine Gems. I always appreciate the gift of wine. "This wine sang." Kim Crawford has partnered with luxury home goods company ANNA New York by RabLabs to create the Kim Crawford Wine Gems by RabLabs – a stylish re-imagining of the "whiskey stone" for wine. Using the natural beauty of fluorite stone, when frozen these limited-edition wine gems are designed to keep a glass of Kim Crawford Sauvignon Blanc chilled for up to an hour without diluting the wine’s vibrant flavors. "Blending beauty and function, the Kim Crawford Wine Gems by RabLabs are a chic alternative to ice and transform an ordinary glass of wine into an extr...

Gosh, a beautiful white table wine. Mark Wysling, owner/winemaker of Parejas Cellars sent me several bottles of his wines to review. I could not resist sharing with you how lovely the Band of Sisters 2012 Wysling drank. Thank you Mark! I will have a complete review of all the wines Mark sent me, but first, let's look at this white table wine.

It's Pepi Time! Pepi wines are sourced from grapes grown in cool-climate vineyard regions of California. Clouds and rain, that's the week we've had in Eastern Washington. Where's our sunshine? Feeling a little low, I needed something to liven up the evening. Thankfully I had two bottles of Pepi wine sent to me for review. Their label reminds me of surfboards standing on end; which makes me think of sun, sand, vacation and good times. I enjoyed these two California wines. Thank you Pepi!

Looks like a Pepi party! Put some Pepi in  your glass! My first exposure to Pepi wines was at the 2012 Wine Bloggers Conference . The 2011 Pepi Sauvignon Blanc was one of the wines featured at the speed tasting session. The wine was quite lively. Since then, I have had the pleasure of enjoying the other three Pepi white wines: Pepi Pinot Grigio, Pepi Chenin Blanc-Viognier and Pepi Chardonnay. Pepi wines are sourced from grapes grown in cool-climate vineyard regions of California. Cheers to the 2011 Pepi Pinot Grigio. 2011 Pepi Pinot Grigio Tasting Notes Color of pale straw, with mineral, slate, fresh pear nose, light pear flavor and wonderful minerality through the finish. Clean, crisp, dry white wine. This would be a good seafood wine. I'd pair with steamed clams, oysters on the half shell, Dungeness crab, halibut, sashimi, cheese fondue and pasta alfredo. I liked this wine. Big value at this price. Recommended. Blend: 90% Pinot Grigio, 10% Chenin B...

A joyful white wine. Market Vineyards 2010 Liquidity. On November 1st, Market Vineyards opened their first tasting room in Queensgate Village in South Richland. My wife and I were surprised to encounter the new tasting room while on a weekend walk. What an excellent discovery. A well appointed tasting room. The tasting room is roomy and well furnished for comfortable wine tasting events. It’s conveniently located for us, and we liked the wines, so we’re planning several functions with friends at this new facility. We went through their entire lineup and enjoyed many of their wines. But the bottles we took home with us were bottles of the 2010 Liquidity. Liquidity is a blend of 50% Viognier and 50% Roussanne, sourced from Gamache Vineyards. I’ve been on a white wine kick since summer and I thoroughly enjoyed the Liquidity. Liquidity is wonderfully focused, beautifully made, a lively wine with stunning acidity. What a pleasure to taste. This wine woke me up and put a smile on m...

A refreshing white wine to combat your summer fatigue. It’s finally hot this summer, and the heat has me craving chilled white wines. Last week I was at the fourth annual Wine Bloggers Conference and one of the distributors kindly gifted me a bottle of 2010 La Côte Blanche Chardonnay Macon-Villages, which is from the South of Burgundy (Bourgogne) France. The wine has a consumer friendly varietal name of “Chardonnay” printed on the label. And yes, it tastes to me of un-oaked Chardonnay. The La Côte Blanche is bright, tart, with citrus, lemon, and some toast on the nose; I found this wine easy to drink and very refreshing, particularly on a sizzling summer afternoon. It was a pleasure to enjoy this wine with chicken fried rice and just picked garden peas. At first taste this wine appears quite light, it is that well balanced, you’d not guess it has 13% alcohol. The luminance of this white Burgundy complimented my meal wonderfully. This is a very enjoyable summer wine which will fla...

My second video wine review. Enjoyed this wine so much, I decided to record opening and tasting a bottle. Hamilton Cellars is a Richland, Washington winery. Their renowned winemaker is Charlie Hoppes. Their 2008 White Wine is mostly Semillon with a little Viognier - and very lovely. If you are unfamiliar with Washington Semillon, I encourage you to view my four videos from the  Semillon Panel at the Walla Walla Wine Bloggers Conference 2010 . Hamilton Cellars Located in Queensgate Village, 1950 Keene Rd, Bldg I, Richland, WA 99352 Phone: 509-628-8227 Tasting Room is open: Wednesday- Thursday- Sunday 12:00 - 5:00 pm, Friday - Sat 12:00 - 8:00 pm , or by appointment* http://www.hamiltoncellars.com/ Cheers!

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...

"One for sorrow - two for mirth - three for a wedding - four for birth" Evidently, this wine has had some buzz in the last year. The buzz, combined with the price, led me to purchase a bottle today. I was happy to find this wine priced at $7.99. While not the current 2009 vintage, this 2008 vintage is holding up well. It was a pale straw color, with honey and Asian pear on the nose, crisp, with a lot of Asian pear in the mouth, and a bright, clean, apple finish. Typically, I would not go for this style of Chardonnay, see notes below – but I like this one. This would pair well with a crab salad, steamed mussels or grilled shrimp. Go buy some and share in the buzz. It’s interesting to note that 65% of the fruit is from Washington and 35% is from Oregon. This makes for a very tasty dual State wine. Does this qualify as a Washington wine? Anyone know? Also of note is that this wine has very little oak, with a blend of 95% fermented in stainless steel and 5% in neutral oak,...

Organic and NSA Goodness in a Pretty Blue Bottle Now that I am back in town, I made a point of visiting the Badger Mountain Certified Organic Vineyard & Powers Columbia Valley Winery. The winery is located on top of Badger Mountain, in the Rancho Reata area of Kennewick. Lucky me, they are only 15 minutes from my home. While I am focusing on the Organic NSA Chardonnay, I did enjoy tasting many of their wines at the winery. I was honestly impressed by the quality and value of every one, white and red. When I have time, I’ll review some of their other tasty wines. Back to the Chardonnay, I like the bright blue bottle this wine is in. It protects and presents well and tells everyone that there is something special waiting inside. The enticing aroma is the first thing you’ll notice when you screw the cap off the bottle. This is a smooth, easy to appreciate Chardonnay. You’ll find it easy to impress your friends with this wine. At first you might mistake this for a “sweet” wine, because...

December - December brings cold, and clouds to the Columbia valley. The chilly overcast weather demands layers of clothing, frequent use of the fireplace and a change of diet. At times like these, I crave my favorite comfort foods. Something which satisfies the mind and senses and lingers longer than usual. Today was a bit warmer, temperature in the upper 40's, a perfect opportunity for yard work and a chance to clean the grill. I use my gas grill all year long so a cleaning was overdue. After a lot of elbow grease, and other types of grease, my grill was looking pretty good. So good, I thought it was time to grill up some brats! I ran to the store and grabbed some brat buns to do them right. Just before I pulled the brats off of the grill, I brushed some olive oil over the buns and heated them in the oven for 4 minutes, just long enough to warm them up and slightly toast them. Oh yeah, they looked good. So, which wine did I pair the brats with? I grabbed a wine full of comforta...

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...

This is one of the few white wines I have reviewed. With the lengthening days and warmer temperatures, I'm getting that good old white wine feeling. This is my first of three white wine reviews. Today I grabbed a bottle of Covey Run 2006 Chardonnay, Quail label, to enjoy with dinner; Medite rranean salad (lettuce, dates, sunflower seeds, feta cheese, oil and vinegar - yes, that is the salad in the picture and one of my plates - I use some of the pottery I make) and Roman style chicken. The wine was priced right and I have fond memories of visiting the former Quail Ridge/Covey Run tasting room, back when they had a public tasting room. Dinner was excellent! The chicken came out tender and delicious, complemented by the salad and the wine as hoped. This Covey Run Chardonnay is tasty but not over the top. The nose has apple, pear and bread, a soft mouth feel, pleasantly buttery, and finishes with some creamy vanilla ( I have to admit that there is more going on in this glass than I c...

Are sulfites responsible for red wine allergies? Last year, when I started this blog, my intent was to share my impressions of the best wines Washington wineries had to offer. However, the more involved I become with the Washington wine industry, the more I learn how big the world of wine is. It’s bigger than I realized. Sometimes I learn by experience, reading (my library is growing) and other times I learn out of social embarrassment. Have you ever paid much attention to the “Contains Sulfites ” on the label of a bottle of wine? Neither had I and I ha ve bought, sold and poured many, many bottles. Occasionally, someone passing through the Columbia valley would remark to me, "I only drink white wine, because I'm allergic to sulfites in red wine." My typical response was to smile and nod my head, I did no t know any better to correct them, and I did no t care. This year I began to care. It was the month of May and I was having a great time championing Washington ...