JM Cellars, located in Woodinville just up the hill from Chateau Ste. Michelle, was founded in 1998 by John and Peggy Bigelow. With encouragement and advice from Peggy’s brother-in-law Mike Januik, John decided to venture into winemaking and in 1998 turned the basement of the family home into a winery. 100 cases were made that first year, most of it…
One of the best things you can do as a wine consumer is join (or form) a tasting group. There’s nothing better that getting together with friends who share your passion for wine and pulling the cork on a few great bottles. If you have any doubts, here are some notes from a recent tasting lunch with some Seattle wine…
I’ve seen a number of recent debates on whether or not fine wine reviews can be effectively crowdsourced. Matt Kramer of the Wine Spectator contends that sites like CellarTracker, which crowdsource tasting notes, are not a good measure of the quality of a particular wine. Joe Roberts of 1 Wine Dude and Jon Bonne of the San Francisco Chronicle take…
I’m not really a wine club guy. I like to pick which wines I want, how many I want and when I want them delivered. That being said, I am frequently asked to recommend a wine club. Fortunately, my wife Lisa likes getting to know wineries through their clubs and has joined a number of them over the years including…
The Top 100 Wines of the Year is one of the most anticipated issues of the Wine Spectator since its inception in 1988. The wines included on the list are determined by the Wine Spectator editors based on quality, price, availability and “excitement” factors. Many wine collectors and consumers speculate on which wine might be given the title of Wine…
As a society we are obsessed with lists. From the Forbes 400 to People Magazine’s Most Beautiful People, to college football’s BCS standings, everything in our pop culture is ranked against its peers. I’ve decided to join the fray with the first edition of my Zinfandel Chronicles Power Rankings. This list will consider domestic wineries and rank them based on…
My wife, Lisa Dawson, is running the 2012 ING New York City Marathon on November 4th with Fred’s Team, raising funds for crucial ovarian cancer research. Last weekend she put together a wine tasting fundraiser at Alki Arts, a fantastic little art gallery across from Alki Beach. We poured wines from three of our favorite local wineries: 2011 Alexandria Nicole…
Dear Quilceda Creek, As we get closer to the release of the 2010 Cabernet Sauvignon, I respectfully ask that you consider holding the line in regard to pricing. I have been buying Quilceda Creek since the late 1980’s. I still have a few bottles of both the 1992 Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon and, perhaps my all time favorite, the 1994. Quilceda…
Many wine collectors, myself included, have the romantic notion of buying a case of wine from their child’s birth year to give them upon their 21st birthday. I’m not going to get into the wisdom of giving a 21 year old first growth Bordeaux, but I do like the thought of having some fun bottles on hand to open at…
Lynch Bages has always been a special wine to me. It was one of the first bottles of Bordeaux that really had an impact when I started this hobby 20 years ago. Through dumb luck I ended up buying large amounts of the 85, 89 and 90 vintages. I have tried over the years to add other great vintages like…