Mailing lists are an interesting and quirky part of the winery/consumer relationship. You want to get on them for the access and perks. The big guys, like Leonetti Cellars, have the clout and know you want to get on the list, so they keep a Mordor-level entrance wall to control who gets through. In some cases, it can take years of waiting to even sniff one. Which is why it's interesting to have an opportunity to get on the ground floor of a new winery, bypass the waiting list, and get in line for some bottles. Which is one of the reasons why wine drinkers are excited for Figgins, the new wine from the folks that brought you Leonetti Cellars. more ›

As vigilant defenders of our beloved octopi, it is our duty at Seattlest to inform you of trouble brewing across the pass! A hot topic in Walla Walla right now is whether or not a gigantic mural of an octopus hugging a castle should be allowed to remain above the Inland Octopus toy store's entrance. The battle of the city vs. the octopus has been waging since September. The mural in question: more ›

Clearly, everybody's new favorite website is The Awl, the delightfully (or not-so-delightfully) low-tech, low- and high-culture smartypants venture from former Gawker-ers Alex Balk and Choire Sicha. Last week, they noted an anecdote about taco trucks in Walla Walla suffering from a severe drop in business over fears of swine flu. Today, they direct us to a meandering thinkpiece in The Rumpus--Stephen Elliott's new online culture mag, which recently hosted an event at the NWFF--about the trials and tribulations of being mistaken for someone famous (and larger issues of identity in These Modern Times™) that kicks off with a story about Lynn Shelton's My Effortless Brilliance. Once again, we are all connected on the internets. more ›

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...and nobody escapes, does anyone really care? more ›

Like anybody else, we appreciate the sentiment of the Presidents' Day long weekend--well, for those of us who have that day off or are able to take it. It provided us the perfect opportunity to temporarily ex-patriate ourselves and pump money into Canada's economy. That's what it's all aboot, anyway. This so-named Presidents' Day has become just a reason for the commercial sector to entice us with Fabulous Savings. Nobody thinks about Washington or Lincoln anymore, much less Millard Fillmore, say, or Grover Cleveland if we are to buy into this doubletalk about the inclusivity of the day. But--ZOMG--holy crap! Fry's has HDTVs on sale! more ›

In 1987, the British illustrator Martin Handford creates a cartoon character named Wally for a series of children's books. Renamed Waldo for the American edition, he becomes an icon of pop culture. more ›

POLEMIC: Understated, respectful, sober -- these are words that describe someone else besides Christopher Hitchens, who we suspect would beat you senseless with his shoe if it meant that he could own "iconoclastic." more ›

Dishin’ doesn’t typically do fast food, but we did and we offer you a fast review. more ›

Destination marketing: it's Patrick McFarlan's specialty. Happens that he's employed by Willows Lodge in Woodinville; that doesn't stop him from marketing Washington's distant vineyards. As president of the Woodinville Chamber of Commerce last year, he spearheaded an event called the Washington Wine Highway, held again this past weekend on the lawn at Chateau Ste. Michelle. more ›

Yep, sonny, there was a time, less than 25 years ago (don't giggle!), that you could write a whole guidebook to Washington wine and list only 37 wineries. Seattlest should know, we typed every word of the fucking thing. Ah, just look how young we were in 1983: more ›

We wandered the campus of Walla Walla's Whitman College campus, our alma mater, this weekend. more ›

Seattlest is a bit of a wino. We can't help it, we love the red stuff. Living in Seattle has only fed our addiction, considering Washington State is the second-biggest producer of wine in the country (after California, of course). So recently, we decided to head east to see where that wine comes from, besides a brown paper bag. Walla Walla ho! more ›

Those design-obsessed types over at Coudal Partners have just recently posted Field Tested Books, an online compendium of book reviews by lots of bookish (and blogish) people. Not just your ordinary reviews, these focus on books read in specific places and the impact the locale had on the reader's experience (hence, Coudal likes to refer to them as "experience reviews" instead). more ›

Other countries have them, official "Route des Vins" complete with signposts. Why not here? Indeed. more ›

Congressman Jim McDermott will be playing all the hits, sending out your long distance dedications, and generally getting the Led out all week. more ›

Someone called Chemical Consortium Holdings, Inc. made an interesting announcement today. With a scary name like that you'd expect them to issue a press release saying that they absolutely refute all charges brought against them by the EPA, however in this case they have something positive to say. Today they announced that they're building a Biodiesel plant in Walla Walla that will be capable of producing 60 million gallons of fuel a year. Yay Chemical Consortium Holdings, Inc. more ›

-Seattlest's own Seth Kolloen will be appearing on John Moe's "The Power of Voice" radio show tonight at 8. Moe will be discussing the question "Do sports matter?" with a panel and Seth will counter with "Does anything else?" 94.9 on your FM dial. more ›

As we may have mentioned before, we love us some wine. While our tastes are biased against the lighter stuff (i.e., to paraphrase Kanye: Seattlest doesn't care about white wines), we loooooooove reds. We like them deep, dark, meaty and full-bodied with a smooth finish. All the better if they're stored in American oak barrels, which can give wine a nice nutty hint of baking spices. more ›