2006 Classification of Washington State Wineries

Washington state's Columbia Valley is, indeed, "a grand cru wine region", as DeLille winemaker, Chris Upchurch says. Here is my 2006 Classification of Grand Cru Washington State Wines. Clive Coates, the English wine guru, describes the history of the classification of Bordeaux wines including the classification of 1855 which still has some waning influence today. At the time, it was a great marketing device for the Bordeaux Chateaux. I can just hear the howls and moans of winery owners and winemakers over my modest proposal to order the wonderful world of Washington wine. I must be either crazy or foolish or both to attempt this. It is only my way of helping comsumer's keep track of what's going on in Washington wine. As they might say in academia, this is "a tentative, heurisitic, approach to a possible paradigm for the classification of Washington wine." This is not meant to be set in stone. I am not interested in producing a set of concretions, here. This is only my opinion about wineries this year. A list such as this has to be flexible and evolving. This is limited to wineries I am familiar with and the omission of a winery from this list is in no way a reflection on the winery or the winemaker. I hope to hear opinions from all of you. This may seem grandiose and audacious, but, hey, somebody's got to do it.