William Pollard Jr | aka: Wild 4 Washington Wine

Wineries + Lodging + Activities + Food + Events + Transportation + Education = Success. This month I attended the second Wine Tourism Conference in Santa Rosa, California, at the Flamingo Resort and Spa . This was my first time attending this conference and my first time visiting Sonoma Wine Country. Sigh, the weather was gorgeous. Next year, the third  Wine Tourism Conference will be held in beautiful Portland, Oregon on November 14-15, 2013. What is the Wine Tourism Conference? The main emphasis of the Wine Tourism Conference is about improving wine tourism traffic, making lasting connections with customers, educating consumers and creating a culture of wine.  With 236 people in attendance this year, the target audience for this conference included: wineries, wine and tourism promotion agencies and chambers of commerce, tour operators, travel agencies, transportation companies, event planners, hotels, and restaurants, public relations professionals and o...

Juli Crompe Guest Post by Juli Crompe. Hey Wild 4 Washington Wine readers! My name is Juli Crompe, I co-blog on another wine blog with William. I live in Seattle, love wine and I'm an event planner so I've decided to take on reviewing a few specific wine events on the west side of the state throughout the year for this blog! I'm looking forward to sharing some really great events with you. Juli Crompe (left) on the Macy's Red Carpet with her former college roommate and good friend Ellen (right). My first post here, is an event review of   20something , "The New Vintage" , a wine event held at the end of November at Fremont Studios in Seattle. It is on my  not-to-miss  event list! This was the 7th  20 Something (6th Annual)    but my first time attending. It is now on my not-to-miss event list! Upon walking in, the setting is far different than most other wine events I attend throughout the year; it was fairly dark, with amaz...

Sipping the Finger Lakes. In September, I participated in the Finger Lakes 2011 Riesling Launch. The focus was the release of the 2011 vintage. Samples were provided and several days were focused on tasting and tweeting about the 2011 Rieslings from the Finger Lakes wine region. We used #FLXwine in our tweets about the Finger Lakes wines. One of the wines I received in September was a 2011 Fulkerson Winery Semi-Dry Riesling . That is the second wine reviewed on this post. My notes for the Semi-Dry Riesling are from September. The other wine I am reviewing was shipped to me last week, it is the 2010 Fulkerson Winery Dry Riesling . That is the first wine reviewed today. Fulkerson Winery Tasting Room. Fulkerson Winery is a family owned and operated winery and fresh juice plant in Dundee, NY in the heart of the Finger Lakes on the West side of Seneca Lake. They offer over 23 varieties of Wine, 33 varieties of fresh grape juice in the fall and a full line of home wine mak...

Hats off to winemaker Jeff White and Glen Manor Vineyards. Last year I visited Virginia wine country for the first time. That's when I learned that Virginia winemakers can craft some exceptional wines. I also made friends with some very passionate Virginians. This summer at the Wine Bloggers Conference, I shared some of my Virginia wine experiences with a member of the Virginia Wine association . She gifted me this bottle of Virginia wine. This is now one of my favorite Virginia wines. These guys knocked this one out of the park. Thank you.  Glen Manor 2009 Hodder Hill - it's time for Virginia wine. Tasting notes: Great color, dark, ripe plum. Good nose, plum, black cherry, tarragon, yummy, with a palate of plum and black cherry, perfectly dry, with cola into the tasty finish. What a great wine. Balanced and very tasty. Big smile on my face. On day two this wine was still tasty, with bright edges on the back of my tongue and cheeks, it had a solid dark cherry cor...

A list of some of the wonderful Maryhill wines I tasted last week. Kelsey and Darin. Last week I visited Maryhill Winery with Kelsey Ivey of Oregon Winette and Darin Burt, Editor of Washington Magazine . We toured, tasted and had a marvelous visit. We were accompanied by amiable winery owners Craig and Vicki Leuthold. This was my first visit to the winery. Actually, it was the first time I had stopped in the Gorge in 18 years. So, there's a lot I want to share with you about the winery and the beauty that is the Columbia River Gorge. Consider today's post "Part 1" of my Maryhill Winery experience. With the holidays almost here, family and entertaining are on my mind. I wanted to post this list to help you with your holiday wine purchasing decisions. If you cannot find these wines at your local wine shop, contact the winery directly. If you have wine shipped, remember that for best enjoyment, wine needs about a week to recover from  *bot...