We hosted a book club style event featuring a new favorite book for our wine geeky staff. “Cork Dork” by Bianca Bosker is a fun and fascinating look at one person’s transformation from a newbie to a professional sommelier. Join us for a casual chat about this intriguing subject. We can’t promise there won’t be any spoilers!
Don’t miss out on our amazing offer! We’re changing it up every two weeks, until February 16, it’s our amazing 2019 Nectar.
Available while supplies last.
To tantalize the taste buds, our tasting notes:
This crystal-clear, pale-straw colored wine has the lush aromas of summer pomme fruit with the faintest hint of minerality on the end. Honeycrisp apple is the main fruit on the mid palate and the wine finishes with a lingering flavor of ripe Anjou pear and honey. You will be pleasantly surprised by the smooth texture, reminiscent of ice cream.
Pick up a bottle (or two) of this featured wine from February 3 to February 16 at an amazing price!
Regular price is $14.00. Discounts will apply at checkout, go to the webstore here.
Don’t miss out on our amazing offer! We’re changing it up every two weeks. Until February 2, it’s our amazing Doce.
Available while supplies last.
To tantalize the taste buds, our tasting notes: This silky dessert wine has an enticing aroma of plum jam and almonds. Deep ruby colors with warm flavors of honey, vanilla and cinnamon make this wine a perfect after dinner wine. We recommend serving this with roasted walnuts, Stilton or Gorgonzola cheese, dark chocolates or cherry tarts.
Pick up a bottle (or two) of this featured wine from January 20 to February 2 at an amazing price!
Regularly $25.00
Discounts will apply at checkout, go to the webstore here.
We took a “deep dive into wine”. We sipped and discussed our Viognier and Sangiovese. Everything from grape growing, aging, flavor profiles and pairings for these delicious Williamson Vineyard wines.
Grab a glass of your favorite wine and check out the conversation with Mike and Beverly Williamson.
Just because it’s winter it doesn’t mean we don’t work. Patrick and Mike have taken advantage of the good weather this week and started to do some pre-pruning. If you would like to see what’s happening in the vineyard without getting your toes cold, check out Patrick’s video. This wonderful machine does the first rough pruning cut, making it easier and more cost effective for the human pruners to get the fine tuning done.
If public health conditions allow, we plan to host a safe and socially distant version of Wine & Chocolate Weekend. On Friday, February 12, we are partnering with Nate Lindskoog of The Tower Grill on a Valentine’s Dinner for Two kit. Pick up your romantic dinner kit, which will include wine, at the tasting room and take it home to create your own intimate evening. When you purchase your kit, we will send you a link to video instructions by Chef Nate on how to whip up this delicious meal.
On Saturday, February 13 & Sunday, February 14, we will be offering one hour seatings where guests can enjoy a glass of wine or a flight. Guests can “sweeten the deal” by purchasing a charcuterie box of tasty goodies to pair with their wine.
After the rich foods from the holidays, we like to give our tummies (and our hips!) a little break by finding fresh and light dishes to sneak into our menu rotations. This Middle Eastern inspired meal is full of aromatic spices, which will make your kitchen smell heavenly while you’re roasting the mushrooms and onions. There is a long list of ingredients, and feel free to substitute for anything you don’t have on hand. Serve a fresh and crunchy salad alongside and you’re nailing your New Year resolutions. Enjoy this light meal with a light wine! We think either the Dry Riesling or the Lilly White would be amazing. If you’re a red wine fan, go for the Sangiovese or Henry’s Red. Cheers!
We talk a lot about taste and flavor in the wine industry. How a wine tastes is one of the reasons why we enjoy what we do! That being said, understanding the mechanics of how humans process and perceive flavor can actually help us enjoy our favorite pastime even more!
THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT YOUR TASTE BUDS AND THE TONGUE
There are about 10,000 taste buds which are on the papillae. The tongue has four different types of papillae that make the tongue feel rough.
Each taste bud has tiny hairs that pick up signals from the foods we eat. When food mixes with saliva on your tongue, it bathes the taste buds and the receptor hairs pick up the taste signal and send it to your brain to interpret.
The areas of the tongue with the most taste buds are the tip of the tongue and the sides of the tongue though there are some taste buds scattered all over the tongue.
The “taste signal” is sent up a nerve fiber to the brain that tells us if we like what we tasted.
There are at least 5 basic taste types; sweet, salty, sour (like lemons and limes which make your cheeks pucker), bitter (like unsweetened chocolate), and umami (like beef or soy sauce).
Every taste bud has the sensory receptors for each of our 5 tastes.
Taste Buds are located in only 3 of the 4 types of Papillae:
Fungiform papillae are found all over the top and sides of the tongue. They are mushroom-shaped.
Foliate papillae look like grooves to sides of the tongue in back.
Circumvallate papillae are lined up in the back of the tongue. There are up to 14 found there.
A tasting by Wine Press Northwest of fortified wines from Washington, Oregon and Idaho was held in Summer of 2020. There were 48 Northwest producers that participated in their first large-scale judging of fortifieds since 2015, and they combined for 67 entries. Our delicious Doce rated well with their “outstanding” designation. We’ve attached their tasting notes and linked here to their full article.
Syrah remains a go-to grape for some of the Northwest’s top producers of fortified wines, and the multi-personality red Rhône grape thrives in Idaho, particularly in the hands of Greg Koenig, who crafted the Williamson family’s wines for nearly two decades. The nose of toffee, Saigon cinnamon, dried cherry and plum moves into darker flavors of cola and pomegranate syrup. There’s a pleasing bit of burn from the alcohol that’s smoothed out by the finish of Choward’s Violet candy and milk chocolate. The family of foodies at Williamson enjoy this with Black Forest Cake, blue cheese or walnuts.
Anyone who knows us knows how much we love our Syrah. It was one of the first of three grape varieties planted in the Williamson vineyard back in 1999. We sent our currently available Syrahs to a Syrah competition and at the beginning of 2020 where they received top awards. Wine Press Northwest recently completed their 2020 Platinum Invitational. Wines had to receive gold or higher awards during the 2020 year to be invited. With hundreds of northwest wines submitted, our 2018 Syrah received a Double Gold, and our 2016 Reserve Syrah was awarded a Gold. This wine is still available in our tasting room and from our webstore. Cheers!