About

Why ‘WINO?’ Well, why not?

After a little market research, control groups, and, most importantly, copious amounts of wine, we chose such an irreverent name for our publication to “break the ice,” if you will, aiding in the mission to further demystify wine and return our esteemed readers to the unabashed enjoyment of the juice, unintimidated by point systems, industry jargon, and incomprehensible wine lists presented by maitre d’s with white towels draped over their skinny arms.

You see, we think wine is good clean fun. It’s supposed to be. We’ve been known to take wine trips, tasting all the wines as we can in a day, and then polish off a few bottles back at the hotel room out of glasses bought at a local Dollar Store. We love how every glass is a conversation, every bottle has its own personality, and the same wine can taste different on Wednesday than it did on Tuesday, depending on you. You can analyze it, deconstruct it and figure it out, interact with it, and it tastes better than a video game.

WINO Magazine is all about the wine experience. We are not about rating wines; you’ll find no points assigned to a bottle, because honestly, there’s no objective scale. We at WINO even disagree among ourselves about many wines. We will, however, talk frequently about the flavor of wines, and encourage you to find the types of wine you enjoy. We do get collectively excited about some wines, and may encourage you to try them, but if you disagree with us, then you’ve just validated our point. So much the better.

Each month, we’ll talk about our experiences at wineries, tasting rooms, wine bars and restaurants, and in this case, we’ll even have the chutzpah to rate them, because hey, everyone likes to have a good time.

josh-doug-wino-magazine And, there’s no better time to be a wine lover than right now in Washington State. In merely a decade, Washington has grown from under forty to over 540 bonded wineries, producing some of the most impressive wines in the world. According to a report released in February of 2008 by the Washington Association of Wine Grape Growers, the number of wineries increased from 160 in 1999 to 534 in 2006, winery revenues increased fifty-one percent, and the number of grape farm entities increased by thirty percent in the same time frame. Wine bars and tasting rooms are multiplying, and they’re filling up with people like us—young cats from Gen X and the Millennial Generation.

According to a 2005 report by IMPACT, associated with Washington State University, the explosive growth in the wine industry has much to do with the adoption of wine drinking by the leading edge of the Millennial generation. Young people have developed sophisticated palates due to what Regan Sheehy, Communications Director at the Washington Wine Center, calls in the report the “Starbucks effect,” essentially referring to the venti non-fat half-caff no-foam caramel macchiato with vanilla instead of hazelnut and one Splenda that you see people ordering in front of you in line at the coffee shop. Palates are primed for wine.

So, that leads us back to WINO Magazine. With so much happening with wine in Washington, and so many people primed to enjoy it, we aim to bring the two together. We will educate, inform, and entertain wine drinkers and would-be wine drinkers, and we’re all going to have a good time doing it.

So, welcome to WINO Magazine. Open a bottle, pour a glass, involve yourself with your wine. If you’re not a wino now, you’re sure to become one, and that’s the kind of wine enthusiasm we can drink to.

WINO Magazine Mission: To inform, educate, and entertain about Washington wine culture.

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