pg bio
Paul Gregutt’s Wine Adviser column appears each Sunday in the Seattle Times Pacific magazine. A different column runs the last Wednesday of each month in the Spokane Spokesman-Review. I am the Northwest editor for Wine Enthusiast magazine, and a founding member of its Tasting Panel. My reviews of Oregon and Washington wines appear exclusively in that publication and on this website.
I also write the Northwest winery column for Vineyard & Winery Management, a trade magazine. Over the years, my reviews and features have run in Sunset, Decanter and many other fine wine industry publications. I was an annual contributor to Tom Stevenson’s annual “Wine Report” – the first wine book to be elected to Gourmand International's Hall of Fame. My own critically acclaimed book – “Washington Wines & Wineries – The Essential Guide” was one of the top selling books on all topics published by the University of California Press in 2008. A new and completely revised edition will be published later this year.
methodology and palate preferences
I taste widely, exploring wines from all corners of the world. But my primary focus is on new releases from Washington and Oregon wines, other wines from the west coast, and wines currently for sale in the Seattle market. I prefer to taste wines for review when they are finished and bottled rather than in barrel, and just ahead of their official release dates. I taste in controlled settings, using proper stemware, and I give the wines as much time and attention as they deserve, often returning to them over a period of days. Almost all of the wines I review are free samples submitted by wineries or their marketing agencies. However, there is absolutely no impact on my review or rating for a wine simply because it was a free sample. Believe me, I don't do this for the free wine – I purchase most of the wine I drink at mealtime.
Several times each month I sit down at one-on-one tastings with winemakers, distributors and/or importers. I also attend trade events and participate in two long-established tasting groups whose members include winemakers, wine distributors, wine retailers and knowledgeable consumers.
I seek out those wines that best demonstrate typicity, specificity, clarity, elegance, polish, depth and balance. If the wine is varietal, I want it to taste like the varietal. If it is from a specific place, I want to taste something unique that is derived from that place. If a wine is designated by vineyard, clone or block; if it is labeled old vine or winemaker’s select or reserve, I think it should justify that verbiage by showing me something specific and special.
It’s ok by me if a wine is light, as long as it is not thin; elegant, but not wimpy; powerful, but not brutal; dense, but not monolithic. Obviously the qualities I seek are more easily found at higher price points, but when I recommend an inexpensive wine you may be certain it stands out well above its peers.
why me?
I never set out to be a wine writer. My high school studies were science-oriented. My college years were spent at the radio station, not in the classroom. I worked as a disc jockey (KZAM) and began a writing career by reviewing rock concerts. The first business I owned was a company that developed online comedy and mystery serials. My first wine writing, two decades ago, was a freelance sideline. It has become my life.
I have met hundreds, if not thousands, of winemakers, and I have yet to meet one who hates their job. Yet the reality is far removed from the glamorous image. Winemaking is mostly hard work, spending hours in a cold barrel room, racking, cleaning tanks or fixing pumps. It’s spending vast sums of money on things you didn’t know existed (you say that monoblock filler/corker starts at $25,000!?! — well, I guess I need one…) And once you finally get your wine into the bottle and out in the world, it’s hoping that some wine writer doesn’t tag your precious fluid with a low score or an adjective like “weedy.”
Wine writing has this in common with wine making. The day-to-day tasks, decisions and minutiae that constitute what I like to call my “self-unemployment” are not what you might think. There’s a lot of time spent recycling boxes, organizing bottles, pulling corks, cleaning glasses, checking prices, answering e-mails, placating editors.
But back to the romance part — the bottom line is, writing about wine is a blast and I love it. Waxing philosophical, I once described my wine journalist role as “a bit of a wandering comet; riding in from the outer limits, streaming past the steady orbits of the grape growers, the vintners, the négociants, importers, distributors, wholesalers, retailers and marketers; extracting from the fruits of all of their labors the best information, the most interesting anecdotes, the most thrilling wines and above all the very best wine values, always with the reader’s interest foremost in mind.”
OK, I pulled one cork too many that afternoon. But the point I was trying to make is simple enough. I work for consumers. Your needs and concerns are uppermost in my mind. Although some in the wine industry view wine writers as unpaid PR persons, I do not fulfill that (unwanted) role. My challenge is to be the first, and the best, to report to my readers on what is most interesting, valuable and inspiring in the wine world.
The primary focus, of course, is on Washington state wines. It is my great good fortune to have lived in Washington from the time there were fewer than a half dozen commercial wineries up to the present day. I watched as a brand new, world-class wine region was being born right before my eyes. And right next door is another brand new, world-class region – Oregon.
On this website I work hard to offer you the most complete, comprehensive, up-to-the-minute insider look at the region’s wines, vineyards and wineries. Opinionated, of course. That is what this type of critical journalism is all about. Opinion backed by accurate research and expertise. I don't expect that you will always agree with me – I welcome a diversity of opinion. But I do believe that there will always be a place for thoughtful critiques of the industry, which is still in its early, growing pains phase. As a professional journalist, I take on that challenge eagerly. I will always do the very best job I know how to do.
