Reviews of wines and spirits for the curious drinker.
The 2025 Substance ‘Ri’ Riesling is a new, single-vineyard Washington State wine. Introduced in April 2026, it comes from the Substance brand originally associated with the flamboyant Washington winemaker Charles Smith.
The Brooks Winery of Amity, Oregon in the Willamette Valley was founded in 1998 by Portland native Jimi Brooks. The winery’s production is focused on Pinot Noir and Riesling, and includes about 20 selections of each in any given year. Brooks also dabbles in Tempranillo, Muscat, Pinot Gris, Pinot Blanc, Melon de Bourgogne (aka Muscadet), Gewurztraminer, and Viognier, all sourced from nearby vineyards.
Grace Lane Wines
These selections are sourced from a family-owned winery in Mattawa, Washington, nestled in a bend of the Columbia river and 152 miles southwest of Seattle. The family had been farming in the area since the mid-1950s, and believed that the region’s moderate temperatures, low rainfall, and sandy soils would be ideal for wine grapes, and planted their first grapevines in the area in 1997.
Gainey Vineyard
Fifty-seven years ago, in 1962, Dan Gainey purchased 1800 acres in the Santa Ynez valley of California’s central coast region, directly west of Santa Barbara. After twenty-two years of farming and ranching, Gainey became convinced of the area’s potential [and profitability] as a vineyard.