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A dozen great Northwest wines

By Andy Perdue on August 28, 2017

Outstanding wines are worth searching for.

Only after deciding how we want to rate a wine do we learn what it is. Our top rating is “Outstanding!” (Photo by Darlene Hildebrandt/Digital Photo Mentor)

What makes a great Northwest wine? When we evaluate wines, we taste them under blind conditions, meaning we know neither the producer nor the price until the evaluation is complete. We think this is the fairest way to look at a wine, letting the wine speak for itself.

We think this is the fairest way to look at a wine, letting the wine speak for itself.

We look at flavor, typicity of variety (does a Riesling taste like a Riesling), balance and structure, and how the whole package works together. then we decide if it warrants one of our three rankings: Recommended, excellent or Outstanding. Our highest ranking, Outstanding, is equivalent to a gold medal in a wine judging.

Here are 12 wines that have earned our top Outstanding rating in recent blind tastings. Ask for them at you’re favorite wine merchant or contact the wineries directly.

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About Andy Perdue

Andy Perdue is founding partner of Great Northwest Wine LLC and a longtime wine columnist. He is a third-generation journalist who has worked at newspapers since the mid-1980s and has been writing about wine since 1998. He co-founded Wine Press Northwest magazine with Eric Degerman and served as its editor-in-chief for 15 years. He is the author of "The Northwest Wine Guide: A Buyer's Handbook" (Sasquatch, 2003) and has contributed to four other books.