From the category archives:

harvest

El Nino: Verdict not in yet of effect on Grapes

by Shona Milne on March 16, 2010

From a story reported on KING5 news this afternoon. The question of how our El Nino winter will effect the grapes.

{ 0 comments }

Canadian Ice Wine: Quail’s Gate

by Shona Milne on March 6, 2010

I just saw a story on King 5 Evening Magazine about Canadian Ice Wine. I just love ice wine and late harvest wines and I don’t really like sweet wines. I would rather pass on dessert after dinner for a glass of ice wine. I like to think of it as dessert in a glass. Quails Gate in [...]

{ 0 comments }

Washington Wine Industry: We’re Growing

by Shona Milne on January 30, 2010

An article in the Tri-City Hearld tells how the Washington wine industry continues to grow at record levels.

{ 0 comments }

Dirt to Glass: William Church Winery

by Shona Milne on October 23, 2009

I stopped by William Church Winery on Saturday to do a punch down of the grapes. It’s a process of punching down through the grapes as they sit on top of the juice. It looks easy but it a challenge to punch through the grapes at first. It get a bit easier as they have [...]

{ 2 comments }

Challenger Ridge: Crush & Harvest 2009

by Shona Milne on October 16, 2009

It’s a bit of a drive up to Challenger Ridge at Concrete but worth it. We had an incredibly beautiful day to eat, drink, and grape stomp. Everyone and their dog was at this event. There was salmon and brat BBQ, live music, pumpkin bowling, sun and lots of delicious wine. I went through a tasting [...]

{ 0 comments }

Dirt to Glass: NW Totem Cellars

by Shona Milne on October 15, 2009

Last Saturday was another beautiful day to be working with grapes. I spent most of my day hand sorting out leaves, spiders, mold, and bugs from the Cabernet Franc grapes at NW Totem Cellars. After the sorting the grapes they run they through a destemmer to remove the stems and anything we missed. We sorted through 2.6 tons [...]

{ 0 comments }

Dirt to Glass: Hollywood Hill Vineyards

by Shona Milne on October 4, 2009

I spent all day Monday up at Hollywood Hill Vineyards harvesting Pinot Noir. It dosen’t seem to be hard work at first but getting down close to the ground and bending while clipping grapes soon makes the back a bit sore. Then you have to take your full bucket down to the end of a [...]

{ 0 comments }

Challenger Ridge: Harvest and Crush Party

by Shona Milne on September 30, 2009

I had a nice long talk with Rachel at Challenger Ridge Vineyard & Cellars the other morning. I had stopped by to taste Eagle Haven Winery and Tulip Valley Vineyard & Orchard wines and ciders.  I did really enjoy the ciders from Tulip Valley and the wines from both of the Skagit Valley wineries. It was [...]

{ 0 comments }

My Day in the Vineyard:Hollywood Hill Vineyards

by Shona Milne on September 3, 2009

I had a little bit of dirt under my fingernails from A Day in the Vineyard up at Hollywood Hill Vineyards. They are the only producer of grapes in the Woodinville area. They have about 3,000 vines up on their property of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, which do well on the west side of the Cascades [...]

{ 0 comments }

Record Grape Harvest: Washington State

by Shona Milne on August 19, 2009

A story in The News Tribune  today states that Washington is going to have a record grape harvest. The harvest is expected to be about 155,000 tons. That’s a lot of wine.

{ 0 comments }