The Wine Knows

This forum was overrun by spammers, as many of you have noticed. I've shut off the comments and forums until I can get the 10s of thousands of spam posts cleaned up.

Eroica, the international Riesling collaboration between Ernst Loosen of the Mosel and Chateau Ste. Michelle of Woodinville, Wash., is a decade old.

Here is a video posted on YouTube by Desert Wind Winery in Prosser after it brought in its first load of Sauvigon Blanc from its estate vineyard on Washington's Wahluke Slope.

Author Judy Nedry, who recently released her first murder mystery An Unholy Alliance, is putting on a contest for copies of her book and other prizes.

All you have to do is solve a murder.

I chatted late last week wine Wade Wolfe, owner/winemaker of Thurston Wolfe Winery in Prosser, Wash. He began checking sugar levels and reported that the grapes are nine days ahead of last year - which puts them at about average for a normal vintage (2008 was extremely cool by recent standards).

Here is what we hear going on around the Pacific Northwest:

A report by the Washington Association of Wine Grape Growers indicates record crop of 155,000 tons of wine grapes this fall. That would be up from 145,000 last year.

Veraison - the term for when wine grapes change color - has arrived in Northwest wine country.

It is blistering in the Pacific Northwest. It has been for a couple of weeks, but folks on the west side of the Cascades - particularly around Seattle and Portland - are suffering unseasonable highs well into the triple digits.

I read an article earlier today from a normally reputable source that stated Northwest growers are loving this heat. Nothing could be further from the truth.

If you had plans to show up at your local Washington state liquor store in August to find the usual great deals available during Washington Wine Month, you'll need to wait a month.

We have long touted the greatness of Barrister Winery, a boutique producer in Spokane, Wash. Since its first vintage, Barrister has been producing some of Washington's finest red wines, particularly its Cabernet Franc, which has won an astonishing number of awards.