I'm surprised over and over by friends who love wine, and are far more knowledgeable about wine than I am, who don't seem to realize that we have lots of fabulous wineries in Washington. Granted, most of them are in California, but people in Washington are quite knowledgeable about California wines, so I'm a little mystified. We have fabulous wine in Washington, wines for every price range and palate. I've been delighted by the interest spurred by the Wine Spectator naming the 2005 Columbia Crest Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon as the #1 wine of 2009 in Wine Spectator's annual Top 100 Wines list, there's been a sudden surge of interest in Washington Cabernet Sauvignons. Sure, the wines of Quilceda Creek, the fabulous Cabernet Sauvignon only winery have been known for quite a while outside the state, but some of the newer wineries are less well known outside of Washington, and outside of those whose profession it is to know wine. I thought I'd write a post for my wine-loving friends in California, Australia, Germany, and South Africa to let them where they can go for information about Washington wines.

Right now we're seeing a lot of focus on Washington Cabs, and, as someone who likes Washington Cabs, I'm happy about that, but I want to point out that while the big journalists are new to Washington wines, the Washington wine bloggers have been there right along. There are a lot of them, all of them passionate, informed, and enthusiastic about Washington wines. I've mentioned Sean Sullivan's Washington Wine Reports, and Wine Peeps. There's also the fabulous informed and thoughtful coverage from Catie the "Walla Walla Wine Woman," of Through The Walla Walla Grape Vine, the blog and Web site Wine Foot. There's Shona Milne of Woodinville Wine Report.

I note that long-term Washington wine aficienados and bloggers like Kori and Colby Voorhees and John and LaGayle Sosnowy of the fabulous Wine Peeps blog have long known about Washington Cabernet Sauvignons. Here's John Sosnowy on Washington Cabs. You'll note that the Wine Peeps were clued in to the superlative nature of the Columbia Crest Reserve long before Wine Spectator. So was Sean Sullivan of the Washington Wine Report, who described the Columbia Crest Grand Reserve 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon as "a lock" almost a year before the list came out. You've got people like Paul Gregutt who have been championing Washington Cabernet Sauvignon and Washington wines for years.

There's a fabulous list of Washington wineries here. There are even guides to setting up your own Washington winery tours and visits. I can't possibly link to all the amazing Washington Wine bloggers, but each of the blogs I've linked to above have a blog roll; explore it! And follow the Washington wineries and Washington wine bloggers on Twitter; Sean Sullivan has some fabulous lists of Tweeters here.