Over the weekend, I headed down to the Taste Washington seminars with one of my winemaking buddies.
Being my first event like this, I really had no idea what to expect.  After finding the conference center hallways set up nice long tables full of excellent wines from Washington State, I knew the day was going to go well.  We tasted before, during, and after our session, and then during and after lunch.  By the end of our 4 hours at the event, I was all tasted out.  This was an amazing event, and I’ll follow up with another post on the Food and Wine pairing session – definitely the highlight of the experience.
Here were my top 5 wines from the tasting portion, in no particular order:

Dusted Valley Grenache: This was one of the Grenache’s at the tasting, and it was quite nice.  Also enjoyed their Cabernet Sauvignon, and they sported the best label I saw all day.

Boudreaux Cellars Syrah: spicy, delicious and my favorite Syrah of the tasting.  I hope Washington continues to find a way to make itself known for Syrah.

Basel Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon: best Cab of the day.  Another great, even if it showed a bit acidic, effort from Basel.

Vin Du Lac Riesling: the folks at Vin Du Lac are producing some of my favorite wines from Chelan, and their Lehm Riesling is really very good.  Its nice and dry and not the fearful syrupy sweet Riesling.

Woodward Canyon Barbera: this was a first for me, a barbera from Washington.  It was excellent, so much so that I am going to have to look to pick up a few bottles somewhere. Plus, its salmon safe, which is good by me.