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By Duane Pemberton Winery website:  http://www.threeriverswinery.com Cabernet Franc – when done well – is still one of my favorite reds and is clearly still way under the “radar” of most wine drinkers and I find that highly unfortunate. This 2008 from Three Rivers winery retails for $39 and offers quite a bit of flavor – [...]

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By Duane Pemberton Winery website: http://www.ste-michelle.com Chateau Ste. Michelle’s Cold Creek Vineyard produces some of the best fruit in the state of Washington and has long been a hallmark for such varietals as Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc. It’s a south-facing vineyard that was planted in 1973, making it one of the oldest vineyards [...]

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By Duane Pemberton & Sarah Bagdon Winery website: http://www.vapianovineyards.com Unfortunately, not too many producers make a Cabernet Franc – it’s either because they don’t have access to quality fruit or perhaps worry  that not enough folks would buy it. Thankfully, Justin Wylie of Va Piano Vineyards has neither of those concerns as he has his own [...]

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By Duane Pemberton Winery website: http://www.baselcellars.com/   Basel Cellars has been an iconic Walla Walla producer of premium wines since it started in 2001 with its noted winemaker, Trey Busch  - in 2006, Justin Basel took over winemaking duties and hasn’t seemed to have missed a beat. There aren’t a ton of wineries in Washington [...]

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Like most small wineries, Willis Hall prides itself on staying as close to the “purity of the fruit” as possible and sources from the best vineyard sites it can get its hands on. Winemaker, John Bell, is extremely passionate about his craft and is always eager to share the wines he produces. Willis Hall has [...]

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Col Solare is an effort by two partner companies to produce an ultra-premium red wine that uses fruit from the famous Columbia Valley in Washington State. It is headed up by Marchese Piero Antinori who arrived Washington back in 1992 – he met Ted Baseler of Chateau Ste. Michelle and the two hooked up. The [...]

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When Don and Judy Phelps started this winery a few years ago they drew inspiration from the old brothel that once “served” the local mining community of the greater Lake Chelan area. For those not familiar with the landscape of this beautiful region in Washington State, it is indeed a bit different than Columbia Valley. [...]

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Powers Winery in the Richland WA, has been producing wines for longer than most other wineries in the state – its legacy extends back to 1982, which for WA is a decently long time. Started by brothers Greg and Bill Powers, they also produce wine under another label called Badger Mountain. It was also one of [...]

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I’ve covered Terra Blanca wines before on this site and there’s no doubt that they produce some great wines. In fact, they really are a good QPR (quality-to-price-ratio) winery that has the accolades to back up its efforts. Like most wineries, it too releases a flagship blended wine which is great because we as wine [...]

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There’s little doubting that many in the Wine industry regard Charlie Hoppes as one of the State of Washington’s more premiere winemakers. His passion and know-how are about as good as you can find anywhere. When he first kicked out his original “Optu”, it wasn’t called Optu it has the name of Meritage – and [...]

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Winery Link Charlie Hoppes’ m100 wine is one he dedicates to his grandmother – who turned the ripe age of 100 back in 2005 - it’s clear to me that he takes much of that passion he has for family and puts it in this bottle. The $15-$20 price range is really the sweet-spot for wineries as [...]

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Winery Link For those who’ve been reading Winefoot you know that we interviewed Washington wine-guru, Allen Shoup a couple of months ago and released it in a podcast format. This visionary of wine “retired” from the corporate side of large-scale wineries only to open up Long Shadows Vintners with the goal of hiring best-of-class winemakers [...]

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I freely admit it, I’m biased and guess what? I don’t care to admit that – I’m biased towards great wine and so should you be. Biases are what help us keep in tune with what we like in things, even though society makes that word a bad word, you should embrace your bias towards [...]

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With its first, estate vineyard planted in 1998, Nefarious Cellars Winery – based in Chelan WA – is run by husband/wife team of Dean and Heather Neff. He makes the reds and she makes the whites – seems like a cool combination. We ran by their booth at the Taste WA event a couple of [...]

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When I first tasted O.S. wines a number of years ago, I thought I had maybe found the holy-grail of Seattle-based wineries as it seemed at the time to offer some of the better wine-values going. Here you have a winery whose winemaker, Bill Owen, was schooled by Chris Camarda and has found a way [...]

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Charlie Hoppes is without a doubt one of the State of Washington’s top winemakers. His passion for wine, love for people and know-how in the cellar room truely help him shine as one of the state’s prominent wine guru’s. A few years ago, he started up his own winery called Fidelitas and has done a [...]

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Nicholas Cole Cellars in Walla Walla has done a great job of building up loyal following of its wines over the past few years and has garnered nationwide acclaim with its Camille – a bordeaux-style blend using Columbia Valley grapes. I always find it a bit on the ironic side whenever a Walla Walla-based winery [...]

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This is a wine that has gained quite a bit of popularity – especially in the restaurant scene – and for good reasons. It’s made by Richard Funk, owner/winemaker of Saviah Cellars – vintner renown for producing top-quality wines at competitive prices. Click image to enlarge Saviah has a strong reputation for its blended wines, [...]

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