William Pollard Jr | aka: Wild 4 Washington Wine

Tuesday evening was the November 2013 Virtual Tasting. Washington Wine Report  (Sean Sullivan) hosts these monthly virtual tastings. This months Virtual Tasting wine was the 2012 Boom Boom! Syrah . The tasting took place on Tuesday November 26th from 7-8 pm Pacific. We used the hashtag  #CharlesSmith for our tweets. "Go buy this one before it is all gone." William Pollard, Wild 4 Washington Wine

Showcase the wines of this winery at your next celebration. "They are producing some kick-ass wines at this winery." William Pollard, Wild 4 Washington Wine It's starting to get a little hectic and stressful. I blame my stress on the holidays and everything I want to do to show my appreciation and affection for family and friends. While I was preparing for the Thanksgiving podcast on Minstrel and Muse radio  " Thanksgiving Traditions ", I started to think that it would be fun to showcase one winery and only their wines as the solution for holiday entertaining. One winery shopping if you will. And a way to make selecting the perfect wine a little bit easier. Choose them all!

Guest post by Juli Crompe. It has been a while since I've reviewed an event, but I am starting back up with a winner! Taste of Tulalip was earlier this month, always the second weekend in November. I can honestly say it is THE best event I've been to. Tulalip doesn't win the best hospitality award; having a line stretching outside to the parking lot, with guests waiting in the cold (and no coat check!). Not to mention they had stanchions set up which would have held a lot more people in the check-in line, in the warm tent, which they weren't using. A bit disappointing. But that is where the disappointment ends.

A Red Table Wine from the Yakima Valley AVA by Mark Wysling. The freshness and generous berry flavors of this wine reminded me of Thanksgiving. Add this one to your list and contact Mark today for availability. Contact information below.

What's in the pretty blue bottle? You don't have to take a class to understand what's in this pretty blue bottle. It's a lovely, fresh, unoaked, NSA, Certified USDA Organic Washington Chardonnay. However, let's clear up a couple of terms before delving into the tasting notes.

This year I have had little to do with Washington Merlot. I'm not sure why. Merlot is one of the varieties I have always associated with premium Washington wine. Curious. Last night, early this morning, I was thinking about this unpublished post and this bottle of wine. Somewhere in town last week, I saw a bottle of the 2010 Columbia Crest Grand Estates Merlot on a store shelf. It got me thinking that it would be fun to compare a bottle of the 2010 with 2011. There are not many bottles of the 2010 still on the shelf, so if you are like minded then this is the time to hunt one down. 2011 was a cooler year than 2010 and this bottle of 2011 took a couple of hours to open up - so I'm thinking that the 2010 should be drinking well. Just thought I'd share that. Following are my tasting notes for the 2011 Merlot.

*Updated 16 November 2013 with notes and photos. Notes from the 2013 Finger Lakes Wine Virtual Tasting Series Wednesday, November 13, 2013 We used Twitter hashtag: #FLXWineVT If you are interested in reading the Twitter conversation you can access that here:  http://storify.com/StephJarvis/flwa-virtual-tasting-series-featuring-sparkling-de .  If you are interested in watching and sharing  the recorded footage of the winemakers speaking about and tasting these wines, you can access it here:  http://youtu.be/dRVVOa_7TRg "...six more reasons to visit Finger Lakes Wine Country."

Celebrate the Holidays at Minstrel and Muse, Audio Art Magazine. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. Naturally, I was happy to be invited back to Minstrel and Muse to talk about my favorite Washington beverages for Thanksgiving. As Linda mentioned during the interview, the beverages we choose to pair with our Thanksgiving meals are part of a tradition involving family and friends. Our conversation began with a discussion on hard cider options. Yes, hard cider. Cider is a good choice for those wanting a change from other traditional refreshments. I'd suggest pairing cherry and dry ciders with turkey - both recommended cideries have options for you. If you don't do turkey, apricot or pear cider would be good options for ham. We also discussed appetizer wine options - I recommended dry sparkling wine and dry white still wines. Of course we talked Thanksgiving dinner. We may have gone off track a time or two. At least I know I did. Here's the link to this podcas...

An impressive red wine. This summer friends from the wet side of Washington took me wine tasting in Zillah, Washington. Our friendly guide was Summer, my new friend. Summer is a local, her husband a Zillah winemaker. She was the perfect guide, bubbly, exuberant with sharp wit, her enthusiasm for local wineries contagious. She directed us to several boutique wineries I never would have found on my own. Thank you Summer. One of the more out of the way wineries was Knight Hill Winery.

This year I have had the pleasure of getting to know Kyle and Amy Johnson of Purple Star Wines. We keep meeting each other at Washington wine tasting events. I've enjoyed several bottles of Purple Star at home and promised I would start writing about their wines. Kyle has over 10 years of Washington winemaking experience and it shows in the quality of his wines. In 2008, he and Amy decided to start their own label emphasizing family, friends and the enjoyment of wine, Purple Star Wines.