Winemaker David Phinney made his mark with The Prisoner, a best-selling and widely recognized Napa Valley red blend of Zinfandel with the unlikely mix of Cabernet Sauvignon, Petite Sirah, Syrah and Charbono.
A couple of years ago, Phinney sold The Prisoner to beverage giant Constellation Brands for $285 million. He then turned more attention to another grape.
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We recently attended the Wine Bloggers Conference, which included a “mystery dinner” that was one of our favorite events. The mystery? Nobody knew what winery they would visit for dinner until they arrived there.
We were lucky. Our van arrived at Dunham Cellars, one of our favorite Walla Walla wineries because of the excellent wine and wonderful people. It’s one of our must-stops whenever we are visiting that side of the state.
The evening was perfect. The six-course meal was delicious and paired exquisitely with Dunham Cellars wines. We sat across from the lovely Joanne Dunham, whom we hadn’t seen in several years. What a treat.
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More than 200 writers and media influencers gathered in Walla Walla this month to attend the annual Wine Bloggers Conference (WBC).
We are so proud of the Washington state wine community for hosting this successful major event, and introducing the latest wines to wine enthusiasts from all over the country and different parts of the world.
To our delight, we experienced four days of wine tasting, winery tours, live blogging, mystery dinners, and a delicious banquet.
One of the trickiest and fun events was live wine blogging, where we each tasted 10 wines in one hour.
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We recently stopped by Red Willow Vineyard in the Yakima Valley and spent an incredible afternoon with the Sauer family, Washington wine royalty.
As mentioned in our previous post, one of the highlights of our visit was learning about Mike Sauer’s clone program, which he started with Master of Wine David Lake in 2005. The two Washington wine legends experimented with different cuttings certified from UC Davis Viticulture and Enology. Their clone program continues today.