The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

Winemaker Katie Santora has hit a home run with this clean and fresh wine that mixes multiple tree fruits, from lemon to grapefruit to tangerine. The key here is the supporting acidity, which turns...

Abacela 2021 Fiesta Tempranillo The Jones family who founded Abacela, a central Oregon winery that is coming up on its 30th anniversary next year, did years of careful research on climate and soil...

On one of the recent early spring days when it was just warm enough to fire up the grill, I put on a couple of duck legs, two ears of sweet corn and some fat asparagus. What to drink? The always...

With weather this good, you may want to break out a bottle of rosé to celebrate. I remember our first March in Waitsburg many years ago. After a winter of nonstop construction, we were finally able...

Woo-hoo, Spring is springing (sprung?!?) So why not put away those heavy winter red wines for a while, and go with this refreshing, crisp, delicious Chardonnay from one of Oregon's finest heritage...

Some 16 years ago, I sat down to taste Efesté's first-ever release of Feral Sauvignon Blanc. I noted that it was made by fermenting with wild/native yeast, which gave it pleasing details of dried...

Josh Cellars wines have been around for the past two decades, but suddenly they have memed themselves into the sales stratosphere. Are they dramatically different than before? Better? Cheaper?...

So-called Dry January is upon us, as it has been since it was introduced about a decade ago. The concept is to eliminate or dramatically reduce your alcohol consumption for the month. And the wine...

This rich and tasty California Cab was a thoughtful gift from our neighbors. This 2018 is the current vintage. Produced by JaM Cellars, it's very popular among Vivino users. Softly fruity with...

I’m a believer in old vine Chenins, so much so that I gave up several lucrative wine writing gigs in order to make a few hundred cases under my short-lived Waitsburg Cellars label. Some of those g...

I cannot say enough about how utterly delicious this wine is. In fact, any wine bearing The Jack label is going to gobsmack your tastebuds. This is the latest rendition of the original Jack red, a...

Kirkland 2019/2020 Saint-Julien Bordeaux Left Bank Bordeaux under $20 is a tough bird to hunt. The Left Bank is home to the handful of great wineries you’ve probably heard of – Mouton, Lafite, Lat...

This unique blend is sourced from vineyards near the Dalles, far enough east to be outside the Columbia Gorge AVA, but in the slim slice of the vast Columbia Valley AVA that crosses the river into...

Winemaker Chris Dowsett has a personal passion for Gewürztraminer – not a grape that gets a whole lot of love from most drinkers. But here's the thing - a dry Gewürztraminer is a perfect Tha...

Soos Creek's Dave Larsen sources Cabernet from some of Washington's A+ vineyards, and his sturdy, dense wines are built to age. But with this King Cab, he's given a special gift to less patient wine...

King Estate was founded specifically to grow and produce Pinot Gris. Now entirely biodynamic, the winery has grown to become one of Oregon's most diverse and influential. Pinot Gris remains a strong...

I've been a Zin lover for decades, especially fond of those made from old vines. For Zinfandel, old vines, though unregulated, can mean the plants went into the ground anywhere from several decades...

This is a perennial ‘Best Buy’ from the big magazines, and for good reason. Priced around $15, it’s got big flavors that are hard to find in inexpensive Cabernets. Cedar shakes, toast and vanil...

This Paso Robles winery makes an expansive lineup of ripe, fruity, value wines. The Wine Enthusiast annual Best Buy list has just been published, and this wine is Number One. It's still available but...

Planet Oregon is the value brand from Soter Vineyards. This summertime sparkler is 100% Willamette Valley Pinot Noir, made by the carbonated method rather than the much more expensive methode...

Argyle was established 35 years ago with a mission to make Oregon sparkling wines. Mission accomplished – Oregon now has dozens of wineries making Champagne-style bubbly. Argyle next expanded into a...

Pike Road 2022 Pinot Gris There's Pinot Grigio and Pinot Gris. The same grape from two quite different places. If Pinot Grigio conjures up notions of overpriced, underfruited, ubiquitous Italian...

Chris Dowsett’s winemaking resumé would occupy this entire page. Suffice it to say that the family brand is his most personal, and this often-overlooked grape his particular passion. This is a dr...

I’m not generally a believer that gold medals mean a wine is any good. They’re given out like participation awards at dozens of for-profit wine competitions all over the country. But this med...

Though it was a major part of the original plantings back in the 1970s when this pioneering Oregon vineyard was first established, Riesling is now a minor player in the Hyland mix. This is the...