Washington Wine Month: The Real Thing

Washington Wine Month: The Real Thing

I will admit to some disappointment. I was hoping not only for some good prices, but most especially, for some wines from the smaller wineries. There are lower prices, and yes, the lower prices do qualify for a case discount, and I do appreciate that. But even the "special wines" available for the month are from the larger and very well distributed wineries like Avery, Kiona, Washington Hills, Chateau Ste. Michelle, Columbia Crest, and Hogue. I'm very glad to see a wider range from Kiona and Barnard Griffin, and yes, I do like the price on the Barnard Griffin Fumé Blanc, but I was hoping for more from wineries like Bergevin Lane (my local Washington Liquor Store is only carrying the Viognier, and only for this month), Pacific Rim, Rulo. That said, I'm very glad to see Canoe Ridge and Mary Hill represented, even if only temporarily. There's a good "comparison list" of the featured wines and sale prices from the News Tribune.

It seems to me that the Washington State Liquor stores really could be doing a lot more for Washington wineries. I'll check out two others in the area in the next few days, in case my local store is an oddity. It has a nice display area in the front, but there's absolutely no signage, at all, about this being Washington Wine month, or that there's a Washington shelving area. At the very least, they could put up some of the marketing material—most wineries are providing .pdfs for that purpose on their Web sites.