How a wine club can help you wade through the Northwest’s 1,100 wineries

You don’t have stumble far from Washington’s metropolitan areas to find a winery.

Across the state, local wines are gaining popularity while others that may be even better yet, are still waiting to be discovered – that is, unless you find yourself a member of the Pacific Northwest Wine Club.

“We specialize in finding those boutique wineries, those small wineries that you don’t see in the grocery store,” Pacific Northwest Wine Club’s Kevin Craig tells Northwest Vine Time.

The club has been in business since 1992 and it’s one of the largest in the Northwest. They’ve grown to host thousands of memberships across the area – and a few not from around here.

Sure, to a certain extent Craig and his colleagues get to drink for a living and visit beautiful, scenic wineries. But how do they make their monthly selections – two wines from two different wineries – from over 1,100 wineries in the region?

The choices come from blind tasting events held with club members. They choose a type of wine, then cover the bottles so people can choose what they like for flavor – not based on brand or label preconceived notions.

“Whether it’s a small producer of pinot noir in the Oregon area or maybe a new [wine] from the Walla Walla region, we try to bring our customers those unique wines and the unique behind-the-scenes stories from those wineries throughout the region.”

Northwest Vine Time with Brian Bushlach can be heard on KIRO Radio every Sunday at 4 p.m. or on demand at KIRORadio.com.