This is the second of two posts intended to provide background information about Washington Wine Report. Any substantive changes will be re-published to the blog.

About
Washington Wine Report is an independent blog focused on bringing Washington wine to you and bringing you to Washington wine. Our goal is:

· To help you select Washington wines at a variety of price levels
· To keep you up-to-date about the state’s wineries, vineyards, and individuals
· To help you plan trips to wine country
· To connect you to the larger wine community

Background
I began what is now Washington Wine Report in 2006. It started with a series of .pdf reports based on my travels to Walla Walla and other Washington wine regions (I live in Seattle; see an example from 2009 Walla Walla Spring Release here). I always wrote notes when visiting wineries. A friend who traveled with me on one trip asked me to send my notes as he had not taken any. I typed up and sent him my terse notes. He circulated it to a friend (much to my chagrin) who circulated it to a friend, and the whole thing began.

Given that the reports were being circulated, I started putting an increasing amount of time into them. I wrote the reports both to provide information about wines of interest and to give information to those visiting wine country.

After a while I found using a long-form, pdf-style format limiting. I started the Washington Wine Report blog in June of 2007, although regular postings did not occur until February of 2008. Part of my interest in starting the blog was to provide information about wines I was seeing on the shelves that I did not see published reviews on. Over time, this evolved into providing information about Washington as an emerging wine region.

Ethical Standards and Disclosure
It is my goal with Washington Wine Report to provide readers with unbiased wine reviews. While I attempt to avoid conflicts of interest that might impact my ability to do this, I will include relevant information if circumstances arise where conflicts might be perceived.

Wine Samples
Wines reviewed include purchased samples, samples provided by wineries, and wines tasted at various events. Reviews of purchased samples and wines tasted at events may, or may not, be published to the blog due to time constraints. All samples received by wineries - both solicited and unsolicited - are reviewed and are published regardless of the nature of the review. Information stating that the sample was received from a winery is provided in the post and included in the tasting note database. For information on how to submit samples, please contact me at wawinereport@gmail.com.

Professional Hospitality
I frequently receive industry discounts and press admittance to public, private, and trade tastings. Additionally, when sampling at wineries, I often have the nominal tasting fees waived. With the exception of tasting fees, if I attend an individual winery event that has an associated cost that is waived, I list this if I review wines at the event. Any other hospitality received beyond that listed above will be explicitly called out in any related blog post.

Financial Associations
· I am not financially associated with any wine retailer or any winery I review.
· Washington Wine Report does not include any advertising.
· I am a member of Amazon.com’s affiliate program and receive a percentage of any direct sales of the Washington wine books listed on the blog.

Tasting Note Database
In the interests of providing greater transparency about the environment wines are reviewed in, for all wines reviewed after January 1, 2010 I will provide in a tasting note database information about the setting in which the wines were sampled. Specifically, I list:

· Whether a wine is reviewed in a public or private setting
· If sampled in a private setting, whether the wine was purchased or provided by as a sample

If you have any questions about the information above, please email me at wawinereport@gmail.com.