The weekend kicks off on Saturday, March 26, with a series of seminars at Bell Harbor International Conference Center. These fun and educational panels feature renowned wine experts from across the country leading in-depth explorations of Washington State wines. This year’s panelists include Dave McIntyre, Wine Columnist for The Washington Post; Chef Michael Mina of Bourbon Steak and RN74; Leslie Sbrocco, contributor to NBC’s “Today”; Sara Schneider, Wine Editor for Sunset; Bruce Schoenfeld, Wine Editor for Travel + Leisure; and Jason Smith, Master Sommelier and Wine Director at Bellagio Las Vegas.

The highlight of the weekend is the Grand Tasting on Sunday, March 27, at Qwest Field Event Center, with more than 200 Washington State wineries and the region’s top restaurants sampling their latest releases and newest creations. The Grand Tasting also features celebrity chef demonstrations; dessert and coffee bars; and a vineyard tasting area, allowing guests to compare and contrast the wide variety of wines that are made from some of Washington State’s most sought-after vineyards.

“Now more than ever, wine enthusiasts are looking for good value, and Taste Washington is still the best Washington State wine event around,” says Robin Pollard, Executive Director of the Washington State Wine Commission. “Featuring more than 200 Washington State wineries and the Northwest’s leading restaurants under one roof, the Grand Tasting makes Taste Washington the largest single-region wine and food event in the country,” she adds.

For more information on Taste Washington – including participating wineries and restaurants, seminar topics and chef demonstration schedule, and ticket information – please visit www.tastewashington.org.

Virginia Wine is poised to make a big leap with promoting their wineries. They are making some very nice wines and are interested in moving forward and want to be recognized for their efforts.

Virginia Wne History

Virginians have made wine for more than four centuries. The Jamestown settlers had such hopes that Virginia would become a major source of wine for the British Empire that in 1619 they signed into law a requirement for each male settler to plant and tend at least ten grape vines. Little came of it. Every effort to grow vinifera, or vines of European origin, met with failure from an unknown pest, Phylloxera as well as diseases in a new environment. The booming tobacco trade diluted British interest in the possibilities of American wine. Americans themselves lost interest. While fine wine could be had only from Europe, whiskey, beer and brandy were plentiful.

In hopes of one day realizing the promise of fine Virginia wines, Thomas Jefferson cultivated European grapes for more than 30 years. His Monticello vineyards never produced a single bottle of wine from his years of vineyard trials. He wasn’t alone in trying. After 11 years of efforts at Mount Vernon, George Washington, too, had nothing to show for it.

In the 1820s, wines made from Native American grapes met with great success. Then a Virginia Norton wine was named “best red wine of all nations” at the Vienna World’s Fair in 1873. Plus a gold medal for Norton at the Paris World’s Fair of 1889 when the Eiffel tower was constructed. The discovery in the late 1800s that native and European vines could be grafted gave Virginia’s nascent wine industry a lift – but in the early 20th century, Prohibition promptly brought it to a standstill. The industry was slow to bounce back. Some 17 years after Prohibition’s repeal, Virginia had all of 15 acres of commercial wine grapes.

In the late-1950s, experimental plantings of vinifera showed promise. With the establishment of six new wineries in the 1970s, the recovery was officially underway. A renewed effort to grow a European Chardonnay succeeded at the Waverly Estate in Middleburg in 1973. Then in 1976, Italian pioneer vintner Gianni Zonin hired Gabriele Rausse to grow and harvest vinifera grapes near Charlottesville. He established Barboursville Vineyards and then helped other vineyards do the same. By 1995, Virginia had 46 wineries. By 2005, 107. At 140 wineries and counting today, only California, New York, Oregon and Washington have more wineries than Virginia. The persistence of generations of winemakers is paying off. And the vision of one of Virginia’s most renowned native sons, Thomas Jefferson, is now coming true

In conjunction with the third annual North American Wine Bloggers Conference, WineCHATr.com is offering 12 citizen wine writers the opportunity to catch a free ride across Washington to attend the WBC. The road trip will begin in Seattle on Wednesday, June 23rd and end in Walla Walla two days later for the conference. Along the way participating wine bloggers will experience Washington wine country first hand as they wine and dine their way across the state.