William Pollard Jr | aka: Wild 4 Washington Wine

My new Wild 4 Washington Wine facebook page is live. You can "Like" it on right column. It was house keeping Saturday this afternoon. By house keeping, I'm referring to social media maintenance. The last week found me sickly with a painful sinus infection; wine was not an option and my tweets were few. I rely on my iPad for daily social media tasks; twitter, email, facebook, and catching up on others posts and the occasional game too. I don't know how I lived without an iPad before. It is my favorite tech gadget of all time. What I can't do on my iPad, I tried, is connect all of the social media dots. There's just no way to connect websites to and from twitter and facebook using the iPad. If you want to enable apps and embed code, you'll have to fire-up the laptop or desktop computer. Putting the iPad aside for a while this morning, I tackled some quick projects on my beast of a desktop computer - after a couple of hours, I side-tracked to working ...

Gordon Brothers Pasco Winery Open for Weekend Tasting and Purchasing! I just received a reminder from Katie Nelson of Gordon Brothers Winery, they are open for tasting Friday 29 April from 2-6 PM, Saturday from Noon-6 PM and Sunday May 1st from Noon-4 PM. If you live in the area or are passing through, this is a great opportunity to visit their winery. The winery is seldom open to the public - and they make some outstanding wines. Specials for the weekend include:   25% off 2007 Merlot and 25% off 2009 Reserve Chardonnay ( link to my last review ). Also, they found several cases of 2005 Chardonnay it is on sale for $3/bottle or $30/case. 2005, you say? Yes, it’s a little old but Katie says it is maintaining quite well! And you can’t beat $3/bottle, that's a great deal! Directions to winery: from Pasco, take I-182/Hwy 12 east toward Walla Walla. Take the Kahlotus exit and head out the Pasco-Kahlotus highway 10.2 miles. Turn Right on Levey road and the wine...

Last month in Seattle, I purchased a bottle of Nigori sake at Uwajimaya. Uwajimaya is one of the largest Asian grocery retailers in the Pacific Northwest. I’ve been visiting Uwajimaya for almost 40 years. When I was much younger, I’d buy model ship and plane kits, Japanese comic books (manga) and I never left without at least one steaming Humbow in hand. Today I buy the manga for my son; while I still enjoy the tasty steamed Humbows, now I never leave without at least one bottle of Sake in hand. Uwajimaya has a terrific selection of imported sake. This most recent visit, I left with a bottle of Sho Chiku Bai Nigori sake. Nigori sake is generally the sweetest of all sakes, with a fruity nose and a mild flavor, making a great drink to complement spicy foods or as a dessert wine. Typical sake is usually filtered to remove grain solids left behind after the fermentation process; however Nigori sake remains unfiltered, resulting in a cloudier beverage. Before serving, the bottle ...

A Washington State Nebbiolo. Nebbiolo is a red Italian wine grape varietal, predominately associated with the Piedmont region where it makes the wines of Barolo, Barbaresco, Gattinara and Ghemme. This bottle of Nebbiolo is produced here in Washington State by Kitzke Cellars. Kitzke Cellars is a newer winery located on Candy Mountain, off of Dallas road and a stone’s throw from West Richland, Washington. They are about a five minute drive from my home. Tasting Notes Color: clear, garnet. Nose: spicy, cinnamon, pomegranate, raisin, pepper-mill. After an hour, concentrated plum fruit-leather emerged. Mouth: medium-light body, smoky, black pepper, touch of bell pepper, bright. Finish: pepper, raisin, dry, soft tannins, pleasant finish. This wine seems best suited for food. Obviously, I’m thinking it would pair well with Italian food; at the moment I'm craving ravioli in a red sauce. Italian sausage, shaved ham and crusty bread also seem fitting. Put braised lamb on my menu too. Thi...

SOME UPCOMING - Not to Miss - EVENTS April 15, 2011 - There will be a lot going on this weekend. Thomas O'Neil Cellars Grand Opening in Richland, Washington. The big day is here! Thomas O’Neil Cellars is opening their doors to the public on April 15, 2011 and having fun the whole weekend with wine, friends and live music. www.thomasoneilcellars.com   Barnard Griffin Winery SPRING BARREL TASTING WEEKEND . They will be tasting wines from both their Tulip label as well as their Reserve line up all weekend. This event is not affiliated with the Yakima Valley event on the same weekend. Spring Barrel Tasting in the Yakima Valley . Locations: Yakima , Prosser , Naches , Sunnyside , Wapato , Outlook , Benton City , Zillah , Granger , Downtown Yakima , Grandview , Paterson Various. Read about the fantastic time I had at the 2010 Spring Barrel weekend in Prosser here . April 16, 2011 Col Solare Winery is hosting a  “Wild and Exotic” Winemaker’s Dinner on...

Some overdue shout-outs and mentions. Last month I was at Taste Washington in Seattle, and it was a 7 hour rush. That is, I was rushing around on my “breaks” from greeting 3,000+ attendees. My breaks only allowed for a bit of time here and there to visit and taste. Today I’d like to say thank you to those I did not mention last month. Shout-Outs! Kitzke Cellars Before the event started, I did manage to visit briefly with Vickie Kitzke and her friends Linda and Bill. This was their first time at Taste Washington. I reviewed Kitzke Cellars here . Their tasting room in West Richland is open by appointment. Check them out at Taste Washington Portland on May 1st if you missed them in Seattle. Gordon Brothers Winery I had hoped to visit with Katie Nelson of Gordon Brothers Winery, but she was engaged with a crowd of tasters when I stopped by. My last visit to Gordon Brothers is reviewed here . They too will be at Taste Washington Portland on May 1st. Hedges Family Estate Winery...

This April weekend had the perfect weather for wine tasting in the Columbia Valley. A gentle wind, with equally gentle clouds, allowed for just enough warmth to create the perfect spring afternoon. Today’s afternoon was perfect for visiting Col Solare winery on Red Mountain. Col Solare vineyard view. My wife took me out to Col Solare this afternoon. I went willingly. Our last visit to Col Solare was  October 2010 for their 2007 release . The warm, partially cloudy day had me in the mood for a short drive and some world-class wine. The word is not out yet that Col Solare is open on the weekend*. So there were only four people at the winery when we arrived. Our hostess was fantastic, friendly, informative and directed us to a perfect paring of wine and food. We enjoyed marvelous Col Solare wines, food from their Chicchetti menu and great conversation with our hostess and two wine lovers from Redmond and Issaquah. * Col Solare used to be closed to the public, last yea...

Four More Washington Wineries Crafting Excellent Wines. My Taste Washington 2011 reviews are divided into three categories, Woodinville , Walla Walla and Other wineries. My tasting was a bit random, so “Other” is my catch all category. The following 11 recommended wines are listed alphabetical by the winery: 1. Laurelhurst Cellars Greg Smallwood has been posting to my Facebook Group for two years. At the Grand Tasting, I made a point of visiting and tasting Laurelhurst Cellars. Laurelhurst Cellars is a Seattle winery located in the Georgetown district just South of the stadiums downtown. The winery was established in 2004 by Gabe Warner, Greg Smallwood and Dave Halbgewachs in the basement and garage of Gabe’s home in Laurelhurst. I’m recommending two of their wines. 2008 Merlot - Fruit sources, Boushey Vineyard and Klipsun Vineyard. 2007 Laurus Nobilis – An exceptional wine, outstanding. Phone: 206-992-2875 Website: http://www.laurelhurstcellars.com/ 2. Lo...

My Favorite Walla Walla Wines at Taste Washington Seattle. Why am I surprised that I liked so many Walla Walla wines? I suppose I should not be, because last spring I reveled in Walla Walla wines during the 2010 Spring Release Weekend . FYI: the 2011 Walla Walla Spring Release Weekend will be here soon, so put these wineries on your must visit list. Alphabetical list of recommended Walla Walla wineries. 1. Basel Cellars Estate Winery This was my first time enjoying Basel Cellars wines. Basel Cellars is part winery, part resort. While I’ve heard about them for several years, this is the first time I’ve enjoyed their wines. My favorite Basel Cellars wines: 2007 Merriment. 2007 Syrah Pheasant Run. Tasting room hours: Monday – Sunday 10am – 4pm. Website: http://www.baselcellars.com/ 2. Buty Winery I had the pleasure of meeting Caleb Foster and his wife Nina Buty Foster, last year during the 2010 Wine Blogger Conference . They hosted an amazing Semillon panel tast...

My favorite Woodinville Wines at Taste Washington My sampling was a bit random this year, but better than my picture taking. I managed to visit with several Woodinville winemakers Sunday. Here’s my alphabetical list by winery of the Woodinville wines I recommend. 1. Chatter Creek Winery I originally met winemaker Gordon Rawson at the Tri-Cities Wine Festival around 10 years ago. Back then, Gordon was still making wine out of his home in Seattle. Now his winery is located in Woodinville, Washington. It was a pleasure to sample their wines again this weekend. My two favorite Chatter Creek wines were: Chatter Creek Winery 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon . Chatter Creek Winery 2010 Pinot Gris. I don’t see either of these wines listed on their Website, so you'll have to inquire with the winery about release dates and availability. Both of these wines are recommended; loved the Cabernet. The Chatter Creek Winery tasting room is open Saturdays 11am - 5pm and by appointment. ...

This morning I've been playing around with the new "Dynamic Views" Blogger has enabled. These views require modern browsers such as Internet Explorer 8+, Firefox 3.5+, Chrome or Safari. Many elements of these views will not work should you have an older browser. Blogger currently offers five dynamic views for its public blogs. These views are only accessible if allowed for by the blog author. Here are links to the five different views for Wild4WashingtonWine.com: http://www.wild4washingtonwine.com/view/mosaic http://www.wild4washingtonwine.com/view/flipcard http://www.wild4washingtonwine.com/view/timeslide http://www.wild4washingtonwine.com/view/sidebar http://www.wild4washingtonwine.com/view/snapshot Well, what do you think? I've listed these views per my order of preference. In all views, search is available in the upper right hand corner. Clicking on the ">" arrow in the very top left of the header bar will slide the header bar across and...