Summer in the Pacific Northwest means spending more time outdoors and cooking with regional ingredients. This is why we keep fresh white wines in the fridge and ready to open the moment we fire up the grill.

We look for white wines with bright acidity that not only will lift the flavors of the wine but also pair well with a wide variety of dishes.

We're talking about seared scallops, halibut, salmon, mushroom dishes, grilled corn on the cob, linguine tossed...

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Idaho's wine industry is finally coming of age -- and overcoming a haunting slight by none other than the Muppets.

June marks the fourth annual Idaho Wine Month. This year, it is making progress thanks to wineries, restaurants, retailers and wholesalers. That support comes all the way from the capital, as Gov. Butch Otter is even making appearances at stores to sign bottles of Idaho wine.

"We've come a long way," said Moya Shatz Dolsby, executive director of...

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Just 15 years ago, Riesling was barely of importance in Washington state. Certainly, it was a high-production variety that had its niche, but Riesling wasn't taken seriously by the general public.

My, how everything has changed -- and a lot of this has to do with Chateau Ste. Michelle, Washington's oldest winery. Back in 1999, not even 10,000 tons of Riesling were harvested in Washington. Last year, that number was 36,700 tons.

The catalyst in the renaissance...

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What defines the start of summer for you? A date on a calendar? Memorial Day weekend? The first day of your children's summer break? The first two sunny days in a row?

Whatever it might be, now is the time to begin preparing for a lot more casual dining, and that means affordable wines.

The Northwest is loaded with reds that come in at $20 and under, a price point that isn't too painful for a Wednesday night.

Easy-drinking summer reds will generally...

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Canoe Ridge Vineyard is back, thanks to a Seattle company that rescued the longtime Walla Walla winery.

Back in the late 1980s, a group consisting of Washington and California wine investors came together to form Canoe Ridge, led by Rick Small of Woodward Canyon Winery and Phil Woodward of Chalone Wine Group.

Together, they planted a vineyard on Canoe Ridge, a remote area of Washington wine country in the Horse Heaven Hills that legend indicates was named by...

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The Northwest, particularly Washington, has distinguished itself in recent years as a prime region for the king of wines.

Cabernet Sauvignon is celebrated as the greatest of grapes, and the finest examples have traditionally come from France's Bordeaux region and California's Napa Valley.

Thanks to a string of perfect scores from a winery in Snohomish and a stunning award for the state's largest producer, Washington has gained credence as a world-class region,...

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When Damian Davis launched Rainier Wine in 2005, his focus was on producing California wine.

Now, the Florida native has created a label that showcases Washington and offers high quality at a great value.

Davis grew up on the Gulf Coast and moved to Washington in 1999. He came to the Northwest to work in high tech and fell in love with the region.

During his first trip through Eastern Washington, he kept stopping at wineries in the Yakima Valley...

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If anything can be perceived by looking at Chris Peterson's first releases for Avennia, then Washington wine lovers are in for a treat. Not that initial success guarantees the future, but Peterson has a much better than average opportunity at greatness.

Though Avennia is one of Woodinville's newest wineries, Peterson, 42, is no newcomer to the Washington wine scene. The University of Washington grad worked for FedEx before deciding his calling was wine. So he headed east...

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When Chuck Reininger decided to get into winemaking rather than brewing, the Walla Walla Valley still was a bit of a backwater in the Washington wine industry, home to just a handful of high-quality producers.

He and his wife, Tracy, launched their eponymous winery in 1997 in a World War II-era building at the Walla Walla Valley Regional Airport, the first winery in the now-bustling "airport district."

Since then, the Reiningers have moved west of town,...

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In 2003, Doug Gore handed over the Columbia Crest winemaking reins to oversee all of Ste. Michelle Wine Estates' production.

A decade later, he is getting back into winemaking with a new label that pays tribute to the Columbia River's history and focuses on the important and remote Wahluke Slope.

Last fall, the Northwest's largest wine producer launched Seven Falls with three wines and Gore in charge.

"This is an opportunity to get back into...

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We all want to know the best wines to purchase for cellaring, for serving on that special occasion or for having with dinner tonight.

Sixteen professional wine judges have done much of the hard work for us. They sifted through 800 wines at last month's Great Northwest Wine Competition held at the historic Columbia Gorge Hotel in Hood River, Ore.

This week, we look at some of the top red wines from that judging. Our thanks again to friend and longtime wine...

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At the recent Great Northwest Wine Competition, wine professionals judged 800 wines from Washington, Oregon, Idaho and British Columbia. Of these, 267 were white or pink wines, of which 24 won gold medals.

This week, we take a look at some of these top white and rose wines. Our friend, longtime wine scribe and newspaperman Ken Robertson, took on the enviable task of tasting and describing each gold medal winner during the competition, and we appreciate his contributions...

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The inaugural Great Northwest Wine Competition is in the books, and the results showed a delicious diversity of wines from across the Pacific Northwest.

The competition, held at the historic Columbia Gorge Hotel in Hood River, Ore., drew 791 wines from more than 200 producers in Washington, Oregon, British Columbia and Idaho.

Sixteen wine professionals tasted the entries over two days. They evaluated all the wines blind, meaning they didn't know who made them,...

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Paul Beveridge's story is one often told in the wine industry: He began making wine at home and soon his passion became his profession.

"It was a hobby that got out of hand," said the owner of Wilridge Winery. "I couldn't drink it all myself."

So the environmental lawyer launched Wilridge, a name that combines his and his father-in-law's last names (his father-in-law was an investor in those early years).

Beveridge launched Wilridge a...

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Oftentimes, the journey is the reward when touring wine country.

Take, for instance, Walter Dacon Wines near Shelton.

The southern end of the Olympic Peninsula is not classic wine country (though the state's first bonded winery after Prohibition began on Stretch Island, not far away).

Walter Dacon, run by Lloyd and Ann Anderson, launched in 2005 with the release of the 2003 vintage.

The Andersons focus almost exclusively on Syrah, using...

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When Anelare launched six years ago in the heart of Washington wine country, owners Kahryn and Forrest Alexander and Jim and Cindy Campbell envisioned a winery that would sell all of its releases directly to wine club members.

Today, that model remains -- with minor adjustments.

"Wine clubs are not for everyone," said Kahryn Alexander, managing partner for the winery she owns with her husband and parents.

So Anelare came out with a higher-production...

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As Northwest wineries begin bottling some of their 2012 white wines, there still are plenty of 2011s left on store and winery shelves that can be found at good prices.

This week, we take a look at white wines priced $15 and under that we have tasted recently.

All but one of the six wines reviewed here are made by the Northwest's two largest wine producers: Ste. Michelle Wine Estates in Woodinville and Precept Wine in Seattle. Both make wine in such large...

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For the Andrews family, roots run deep in Washington's Horse Heaven Hills.

Back in the 1940s, Mike Andrews' grandfather began a farm in the desolate region south of the Yakima Valley and was responsible for clearing sagebrush from more than 100,000 acres for other farmers.

Today, Andrews grows more than 1,100 acres of vineyards. He began planting Coyote Canyon Vineyard in 1994 after spending years growing other crops and running a cattle business. Through the...

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Looking for a special kind of sweet treat for your favorite valentine? A dessert wine can be just the ticket if you want to skip commonplace chocolate.

And if you want a bit of chocolate with your wine, we have a solution for that, too.

People tend to have a sweet tooth, and that translates to wine. Here's our primer on various sweet wines you can try, along with Northwest wineries that specialize in them.

Late-harvest wines: A...

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Michael Haig is a longtime Seattle Seahawks fan, but the do-it-all quarterback of Whitestone Vineyard & Winery who playfully pairs his wines with junk food doesn't plan to watch the Super Bowl.

"I've scheduled myself to do a wine tasting because I have no interest," he said. "Seattle should be the NFC team there, not San Francisco."

Haig, 36, still wants to make sure his fans attending Super Bowl parties don't...

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As we have for the past decade, in early January we headed to the Sonoma County town of Cloverdale to judge the San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition.This year, the competition included 5,500 American wines, making it the largest wine judging in the country. It is a lot of fun, and we always come away with several insights. Here are a few from this year's competition.

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Winemakers often say, "It takes a lot of beer to make good wine." In the case of David "Merf" Merfeld, he was helping to make a lot of good beer for Ste. Michelle Wine Estates before he started making great wine for Northstar Winery, the Woodinville company's upscale Merlot brand."I would probably be making beer if I wasn't making wine," Merfeld said.

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Winemakers often say, "It takes a lot of beer to make good wine." In the case of David "Merf" Merfeld, he was helping to make a lot of good beer for Ste. Michelle Wine Estates before he started making great wine for Northstar Winery, the Woodinville company's upscale Merlot brand.


"I would probably be making beer if I wasn't making wine," Merfeld said.
Merfeld grew up on an Iowa farm before following a friend to Seattle in 1990, where...

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One of the Yakima Valley's most-tenured winemakers continues to make great strides in his career, without having to travel far.David Forsyth arrived in Washington wine country in 1984 at Hogue Cellars. In 2007, he moved a few hundred yards to the east to Mercer Estates. And last summer, he moved a few hundred yards to the north to take on the winemaking duties for the new Zirkle Wine Co."I've run out of room," Forsyth said with a laugh. "I'm on the Yakima River now."

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In November, we conducted our 13th annual Platinum Judging, in which we gather gold medal wines from the Pacific Northwest to determine "the best of the best."The results came out in the Winter issue of Wine Press Northwest. Here are a few facts about the 13th Platinum Judging: We reviewed 552 wines under blind conditions from 205 wineries. Of these, 14 earned unanimous double platinum awards and 80 were awarded platinums.

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Last week, we introduced you to integrating wine into your cooking with a focus on using white wine to make sauces and salad dressings. This week, we will look at how to use red wine in the kitchen.First, we want to reiterate some keys to successfully cooking with wine.

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If you want to add a bit of flair to an upcoming meal, try incorporating wine as an ingredient.Cooking with wine might sound exotic, but many chefs find ways to work wine into their recipes to add harmony and flair to a dish.This week and next, we will take a look at how to easily add wine into your cooking, thanks to tips from two of Washington's most wine-focused chefs. Today, we focus on white wine. Next week, we will look at how to use red wines in the kitchen.

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