Mark your calendars for the fourth annual Bellingham Northwest Wine Festival on August 10 at Four Points by Sheraton. This is our favorite local summer wine event. Whether you live in Bellingham, Birch Bay, other parts of Whatcom County, or the Vancouver and Seattle areas, save the date and prepare to have fun. More than 55 wineries from Washington, Oregon and Idaho will be pouring up to 150 different wines. Two local distilleries and at least one northwest brewery will also participate.
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Tag Archives: Dynasty Winery
Bellingham NW Wine Festival
Mark your calendars for the third annual Bellingham Northwest Wine Festival on August 4 at Four Points by Sheraton. This is a fun event, whether you live in Bellingham, Birch Bay, other parts of Whatcom County, or the Vancouver and Seattle areas.
The wines that are poured will be the winners of gold, double gold and Best in Show from an earlier judged competition. More than 125 wineries will be pouring wines from “the only judged wine competition between Seattle and Vancouver.”
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Our Top 65 Washington Wineries
Happy New Year! As we begin 2017, it’s time for our annual Top Washington Wineries List. Why 65 wineries? The list grew to 65 from 60 last year, and from 50 the year before, as we were introduced to new wines or new wine experiences.
The way to get on our list is fairly simple; we only have two criteria: wineries must offer great juice and good people who provide an excellent wine experience. Perhaps we had fun or learned something in a tasting room or at a wine event such as Taste Washington, Taste of Tulalip, Seattle Wine and Food Experience, Bellingham Bay Rotary Grape and Gourmet or Bellingham Northwest Wine Festival. Perhaps someone from the winery gave us a call, or sent us a personal note or samples. Or perhaps we were invited to an incredible winery party.
These people might be the winemakers or the winery owners; in some cases, they are the hard-working staff in a tasting room who went out of their way to make us feel welcome or the amazing workers in the vineyards where it all begins.
We welcome ten newcomers to our list this year, and thank you for the 2016 wine experiences you brought us — Ambassador Wines of Washington, Canvasback, DeLille Cellars, Matthews Winery, Mullan Road Cellars, Savage Grace, Spring Valley Vineyard, Tildio Winery, Upchurch Vineyard and Two Vintners.
Write for Wine’s Top 70 Washington Wineries (in alphabetical order):
- Alexandria Nicole Cellars
- Ambassador Wines of Washington
- Andrew Will
- Avennia
- B. Leighton
- Barrage Cellars
- Barrister Winery
- Bartholomew Winery
- Betz Family Winery
- Boudreaux Cellars
- Buty Winery
- Canvasback
- Chateau Ste. Michelle
- Columbia Crest
- Cooper Wine Company
- Cote Bonneville
- Darby
- DeLille Cellars
- DiStefano
- Double Canyon
- Dunham Cellars
- Dynasty Winery
- Efeste
- Ensemble Cellars
- Fall Line
- Fidelitas
- Fielding Hills
- Figgins
- Force Majeure
- Forgeron Cellars
- Gard
- Gorman Winery
- Guardian Cellars
- Hard Row to Hoe
- JM Cellars
- L’Ecole 41
- Lauren Ashton
- Leonetti
- Long Shadows
- Maryhill
- Matthews Winery
- Mercer Estates
- Mullan Road Cellars
- Obelisco Estate
- Otis Kenyon
- Passing Time
- Quilceda Creek
- Reynvaan
- Ross Andrew
- Savage Grace
- Seven Falls Cellars
- Sinclair Estate
- Sleight of Hand
- Spring Valley Vineyard
- Stottle Winery
- Tildio
- Two Vintners
- Upchurch Vineyard
- Va Piano
- Vin du Lac
- Walla Walla Vintners
- William Church
- Windy Point
- Woodward Canyon
- Woodhouse Wine Estates
To these people, we thank you; we support you. Cheers to Washington state wine!
Happy new year!
Margot and Dave
Write for Wine — it’s Wine O’clock Somewhere!
Bellingham NW Wine Festival
More than 100 wines were poured at the inaugural Bellingham Northwest Wine Festival on Aug. 6, which was presented by Brigadoon Service Dogs in collaboration with Growing Veterans, and benefitted disabled veterans’ programs.
Of course we couldn’t taste all the wines from 36 participating wineries but between the two of us, we found quite a few new wines that we never tasted before and hope to again in the future (e.g., Tucannon Cellars, Two Mountain and Jones of Washington), along with new releases of old favorites from Forgeron Cellars, William Church Winery and Cooper Wine Company.
Here is the list (in alphabetical order by winery):
Cooper Wine Company: 2013 L’inzio (we’ve been fans of this Red Mountain beauty since its first vintage); 2012 Cabernet Franc; and Bud’s Blend “Gatekeeper,” named after Coop’s awesome winery dog- Dynasty Cellars: 2012 DCZ Zinfandel, a local Bellingham favorite
- Forgeron Cellars: 2012 Cabernet Sauvignon, another fantastic release from our friend Marie-Eve Gilla in Walla Walla
- Jones of Washington: 2012 Cabernet Sauvignon (the talk of the VIP room)
- Lost River Winery: 2013 Cedars, a unique blend of 50% Cab Franc and 50% Merlot
- Proper Wines: 2013 Estate Syrah for when you like your Syrah nice and funky
- Revelry Vintners: 2013 “The Reveler” red blend
- Tucannon Cellars: 2012 Cabernet Sauvignon, a great find from Red Mountain
- Two Mountain Winery: 2013 Reserve Cabernet Franc
- William Church Winery: 2013 Sur La Mer and 2013 Malbec (We’ve been long-time fans of both of these wines.)
Cooper Wine Company: 2013 L’inzio (we’ve been fans of this Red Mountain beauty since its first vintage); 2012 Cabernet Franc; and Bud’s Blend “Gatekeeper,” named after Coop’s awesome winery dog
Tucannon Cellars: 2012 Cabernet Sauvignon, a great find from Red MountainEvent organizer Zacchoreli Frescobaldi-Grimaldi told us that plans are already underway for the second festival in 2017, so mark your calendars now.
Cheers!
Margot and Dave