I've heard the term "vertical tasting" a number of times, but am not sure exactly what it means or what its purpose is. I'd like to know more.

A friend served up a white wine at dinner the other night that I'd never encountered. He described it as a blend of Marsanne and Roussanne. What can you tell me about it?

We've visited several of the Northwest's best-known areas for wines - Walla Walla, the Yakima Valley, the Willamette Valley and the Okanagan in Canada - and would like to try out someplace new this summer. Any recommendations?

In the past few years, I've discovered a number of wineries are making Malbec as a single varietal wine instead of using it as a blending grape. What's behind this recent change?

Chenin Blanc was the wine that helped hook me on drinking something better than jug wine. Now, it seems to have almost disappeared. Where can I find some good Northwest examples?

I've recently started taking a more serious approach to wine tasting and have started taking more extensive notes when I do. Any ideas for keeping my notes organized? And any tips for not seeming too obsessively geeky when I'm in the tasting room or at a restaurant?

While wine touring recently in Southern Oregon, I encountered wines made from the Tempranillo grape for the first time and was told it originated in Spain. How did it end up in the Northwest?

Question: I know that British Columbia has been growing many of the classic wine grape varieties for a couple decades now but have never understood how they get the grapes to ripen there. Often I read that Oregon has trouble getting its Pinot Noir ripe, so how do they manage it in B.C.?

Why do winemakers use oak barrels to age wine? And why is oak the preferred wood?

In the past few years I've noticed several varieties of wines with names I'd never heard of - Siegerrebe, Kerner, Ortega and Ehrenfelser, to name a few - are being produced in our region's wineries. Why and where do they come from?

During my visits to wineries, I regularly hear or read about "gravity fed" being used during the winemaking process. What's it all about?