Went to a wine tasting of League of Rogues wines last night and came away very impressed.  This Paso Robles winery has a Rose, a  Rhone Red Blend, and a Rhone white blend that retail for around $12,50 and a Zinfandel that retails for around $18.00.  All four are approachable, drinkable, and give you what you expect without being overpowering.  Amazingly well done given the fact that the wine is produced and marketed by a young couple, Jake Gottlieb and Jessica Leitch that graduated from Arizona State business school four years ago and got into the business 3 years ago.  They now produce about 1200 cases per year. They do not have a tasting room and are currently available at restaurants and small wine shops (for those of you in Arizona it is available at Phoenix Wine  http://www.phoenixwine.com/  ) throughout Arizona and California and through their website and wine club. You can also get more information and order wine by going to the League of R...

Mrs. Wine Guy and I just got back from a wedding anniversary trip to Seattle (35 Years thank you) and as we usually do when we are in a wine growing region we took some time out to do a little wine tasting.  We visited 3 tasting rooms on Bainbridge Island (a half hour ferry ride from downtown Seattle) and 4 tasting rooms in Woodinville (a half hour car ride from downtown Seattle).  What follows is a summary of what we found during our wine tasting. Woodinville is home to over 100 tasting rooms.  Much of the wine is produced there but most of the grapes are grown in Eastern and Southern Washington and shipped to the area.  A big reason for the number of wine producers in the area is Chateau Ste. Michelle, our first stop in the area. Many of the top winemakers in the area got their start at Chateau Ste. Michelle.  Chateau Ste. Michelle is known as a producer of value wines with many of its wines among the least expensive on the supermarket shelves.  J...