William Pollard Jr | aka: Wild 4 Washington Wine

No wine reviews until I'm over this summer cold. I'm getting  a lot of rest and drinking plenty of non-alcoholic fluids - which is helping. Although, the Calvados Hot Toddy (Calvados, lemon juice, honey and hot water) before bed does help me rest better. Calvados  is an apple brandy from the French région of Basse-Normandie or Lower Normandy . Cheers!

Domaine Sainte-Eugenie Recolte 2009 This year I started breaking my rule of reviewing only Washington wines. That’s not much of an issue for me; mostly I find and purchase Washington wines. But one of the local wine buyers at the neighborhood grocery keeps recommending International wines. So there you go. A few weeks ago, I was at said local grocery, browsing for something different, when he showed up and suggested something French. An end-cap full of Italian sparklers and French Rosés, led to some friendly discussion. He eventually steered me to a bottle of Domaine Sainte-Eugenie Recolte 2009 – a French Rosé. He promised I‘d enjoy it; which I did, tonight. This Rosé is from the Languedoc region of Southern France. Wines from the Mediterranean coast of Languedoc are labeled as Languedoc, those from the interior have other labels such as Fronton, Gaillac, or Limoux to the west - and Côtes du Rhône towards the east. Languedoc produces more than a third of the grapes in France. T...

Tonight, I enjoyed the Gordon Brothers 2007 Kamiak Rock Lake Red. Katie Nelson  gave me the bottle Monday at the Gordon Brothers winery. I made a couple of sliders to go with the wine. Sliders were tasty and so was the wine. The Rock Lake Red is easy to drink. It’s smooth with gentle tannins, balanced acidity and a pleasant café mocha finish. After a couple of hours, I’m getting aromas of cherry and chocolate sundae, a subtle note of raw broccoli, black pepper and a whiff of carnation. I find myself with my nose still stuck in my glass. This wine is perfect for dinner, would go great at a wedding reception and will impress your guests. While this wine retails for $15 or less, it reminds me of a particular $25 bottle I’ve enjoyed on occasion. Save yourself $10 or more and try the 2007 Kamiak Rock Lake Red. My suggestion is to find any excuse for a party or a summer BBQ and share this wine with your friends. This wine is ready to drink now my friends, recommend...

An Eminent Family Owned Washington Winery Yesterday, owner Jeff Gordon, daughter Katie Nelson and winemaker Tim Henley took time off from their busy schedules to visit with me and tour the Gordon Brothers Estate Vineyards and winery. Tim and I barrel and tank sampled through 2008 and 2009, Chardonnay, Merlot, Syrah, Tempranillo, Cabernet Sauvignon, 2009 Kamiak White and the 2007 Tradition (gorgeousness). Gordon Brothers has been producing outstanding wines since 1985 . They share the privilege of being among the earliest, eminent Washington wineries. My first visit to the Gordon Brothers winery was about 20 years ago. Back then, there was a small tasting room adjacent to the family home. While the tasting room is now located in Woodinville, Washington, as always, the fruit is grown and the wine is made, on their property overlooking the Snake River and Levy Park. These vines are not afraid of heights Gordon Brothers winemaker, Tim Henley, was my genial guide as we toured the 10...

A quick post while I'm cooking dinner. Just back from Gordon Brothers Winery/Vineyard located above the Snake River. Winemaker Tim Henley gave me a truly fun tour of their 100 acres of grapes (looking good) and we barrel sampled 09 Chardonnay/Rsv Chardonnay, 08/09 Syrah (funky vs fruity), 09 Merlot, 08 Merlot (gorgeous), 08/09 Tempranillo, 08 Tradition (lovely, lovely wine) and 3 or 4 Cabernet Sauvignon samples (clone 6 is new). We even sampled from their other label, the Kamiak white. Thanks Tim and Katie - I'll have a more thorough review/post soon. What's for dinner? I'm cooking chicken wings, marinated with oregano, lemon-mint, garlic, lemon juice, salt and dry vermouth. Smells great. Oh, and I'll have some Gordon Brothers Chardonnay with dinner tonight too - yummy. Cheers!

Now that I'm back home from a week of camping, it's time to start posting event notices and wine reviews. Katie Nelson of Gordon Brothers Cellars, emailed me about an upcomming Winemaker Dinner at Bin 20 Restaurant. Here are the details: Join GORDON BROTHERS CELLARS and Bin 20 Chef CHARLIE REED, For a wonderful pairing event! Chef Reed and Gordon Brothers Winemaker Tim Henley have worked together to come up with a fantastic menu of food and wine you won’t want to miss! When: Wednesday, July 28, 2010 Time: 6:30 PM Place: Bin 20 Restaurant, located inside the Pasco Red Lion Price: $60 per person (includes six-course meal with wine) For reservations: Call Perlicia Mullen-Rando, Red Lion Food & Beverage Manager, (509) 544-3950 Seating is limited - looks like a good time. Cheers!

Shameless self promotion These days I'm calling myself a Social Media Strategist. This type of role is best described as someone who helps companies with branding and marketing using social media tools. A much more interesting title than web designer. My fascination, fixation and passion for wine, has me wanting to connect wine with employment. Which many of us wine bloggers are trying to do. My current employer is a Recruiting company - ANR Group . We're focusing on better presenting our experience, history and capabilities. This has me excited about  expanding my services to include, helping wineries find the people they can't find. Which is what ANR Group does best. Winemaking is essentially a chemical process. It involves chemical reactions where yeast, converts sugars into alcohol and carbon dioxide. There are many chemical processes which affect the strength, appearance, color and taste of wine. Winemaking may require a Chemist for:...

We're heating up in the Columbia Valley, expect to see 100 degree days by the weekend. Feedback from local growers is that they've not minded the cool weather this year. Now that the heat is here, a lot of renewed attention to the vineyards. I'm lining up some winery visits - yes, looking forward to talking to local winemakers and hopefully some vineyard tours. Meanwhile, I'm enjoying what other wine/food bloggers are talking about. On the right column, I keep adding links to other bloggers. There is a lot of good information on these blogs and worth the time to check them out. Rick Bakas has a blog called Back to Bakas , he has a good mix of tasty looking recipes, wine reviews, as well as blogging advice. I really like his World Cup wine and food pairing - great recipes folks. I'll keep you posted to any new developments. Cheers!

Saturday I was at the local Costco, shopping for last minute 4 th of July goodies. Naturally, I gravitated towards the wine section in the back of the store. I was happy to discover a display for Vin du Lac winery . Vin du Lac is one of my favorite Lake Chelan wineries. Even better, Dreux Dillingham, Assistant Winemaker was there in person. I first discovered Lake Chelan had wineries in 2006 while on vacation. My first exposure to Vin du Lac wines was in 2008 at Taste Washington Seattle . Since this is Washington State, Dreux was not allowed to pour me a sample of wine at Costco (boo hoo). He had a Riesling, Red Cuvee and a Syrah. Not being familiar with the Vin du Lac Red wines, I asked Dreux to recommend a wine that would go with the steaks I was buying for dinner. Dreux recommended the 2007 Red Café Syrah. It was an unexpected pleasure to meet Mr. Dillingham and I enjoyed our conversation. Once I had the wine home, I pulled the cork almost immediately. Synthetic closure, no ...

In a previous post, " Unexpectedly Enjoying More Than Washington ", I commented on how much I enjoyed the Jerez (Sherry) tasting at Wine Bloggers Conference 10. Today I'd like to share some of the information I've collected about Jerez. Enjoying a Solera 1847 at home A Little Background First, Sherry is only Sherry if it comes from Jerez, Spain. Just like Champagne can only be called Champagne if it comes from Champagne, France. In the province of Cadiz, in southwestern Andalucia, Spain is the D.O. Jerez, or Xérés, the origin of this fortified wine known as Sherry. After fermentation is complete, Sherry is fortified with Brandy. The Palomino Fino grape is used in the production of sherry wine. Because the wines are blended, there is typically no vintage dating of Sherry. Though frequently aged longer, the minimum aging for Sherry is three years. There is a wide range of styles of Sherry, from the very dry, Finos or Manzanillas to the very sweet, Olorosos. ...

Okay, I am still stoked from WBC10. Still finding people I have not contacted and an ever growing todo list. The tech at WBC10 included a lot of iPhones, laptops, netbooks and the soon to be ubiquitous iPad. What I did not see were Amazon Kindles. Which got me wondering, why not? Being curious, I thought I would see if it was possible. For those who don't know, the Kindle is an ereader device sold by amazon.com and now sold at Target stores. The entry level Kindle has a 6inch e-ink display and is now priced at a reasonable $189. Besides having a crisp monochrome display, long multi-day battery life, the Kindle has NO monthly fee for the 3G wireless used to download books and access the web. I am using the Kindle now to write this post! With the newest 2.5 update I can access Twitter too. No monthly fee, usable keyboard and so much more. I will keep you posted on Kindle blogging. Cheers!

As part of the 2010 Wine Bloggers Conference, Caleb Foster and his lovely wife Nina Buty Foster of Buty Winery, hosted an enchanting and educational Semillon tasting at their winery; along with, Marty Club of L'ecole No 41 winery and Jay Soloff of DeLille Cellars. There are 4 parts to this video, enjoy. Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4   What an amazing panel discussion. Great deal of information exchanged. Loved, loved the wines too. Cheers!

Browsing through my photos and video from the 2010 Wine Bloggers Conference, this photo stands out for me.   Jay Soloff (left), Melissa Peterman (middle) and Steve Heimoff (right) Jay Soloff of DeLille Cellar s , was on Saturdays Semillon Panel, for the 2010 Wine Bloggers Conference. Jay Soloff is DeLille Cellars founding partner and marketing director. Located in Woodinville, Washington, DeLille is dedicated to making Old World-style wines from New World fruit. Jay is a very intense guy, I wish I had half as much energy as he projects. Melissa Peterman is with Foodista.com . We kept bumping into each other during the conference. Foodista is a collaborative project to build the world's largest, highest quality cooking encyclopedia. With contributions, they are working to create a free resource that helps millions of people learn how to cook everything and anything. I knew nothing about Foodista before the conference, now I'm using it as a favorite recipe resource. Steve Hei...

Video Editing Woes My Sony digital camera records "pretty good" video on the fly. Unfortunately, my video editing software on my laptop does not like the sony codec. I found a work-around, but it takes time. If you're going to edit video, plan on spending time doing it. YouTube has a 10 minute cap on video length, the Semillon Panel videos I edited, are a bit over 10 minutes each - rejected by YouTube. Since I have to re-edit the videos down to less than 10 minutes each, I'm ditching the laptop for the desktop computer. The video editing software on my desktop has no problem with the Sony codec - and a much roomier screen. Another lesson learned. * Off Subject : I receive the occasional notice of Winery related jobs. Anyone interested in having me repost these listings? About a line of text with a link. Not very frequent. Cheers!

Okay, still not 100% happy with the layout of this blog. I've managed to cram more information on screen than before. But I'm starting to think a white background is needed. A design with a white background will be more work, if I want  a custom background. I'm most pleased with the list of Wine bloggers (and growing). There's so much good information out there, I had to share. After the Wine Bloggers Conference, I'm starting to think I'll have to begin using my Twitter account - just to stay in the looop. I'll keep you posted (wild4wawine). Cheers!