With harvest in full swing around the state, contributing photographer Richard Duval is always on the road, looking to capture images of great wines in the making. Last week, he touched down in the Columbia Gorge hamlet of Lyle, home to Syncline Wine Cellars. As luck, the calendar, and the harvest gods would have it, he arrived on the day of Syncline’s harvest of its Nelson Vineyard Syrah.

The October issue of Seattle Metropolitan contains a listing I wrote of Washington's 30 most exciting wines of 2018. This list was culled from sampling over 1,000 wines. Long time readers should note that this list is a reimagining of the annual Top 100 list that I have written for the magazine since 2010.

“Muscadet makes a lovely hot-weather aperitif – ice cold, low alcohol, and insistently neutral, which I’ll admit does sound eerily similar to the selling points of Bud Light,” writes Paul Zitarelli in his debut book, 36 Bottles of Wine, which will be released later this month.

Many lovers of Northwest wine will no doubt recognize Zitarelli’s name and often humorous writing style from his Seattle-based, email-driven retail wine company, Full Pull Wines. Though Full Pull offers wines from around the world, Washington and Oregon are at its heart, with Zitarelli’s engaging writing and incisive palate making the engine go. Zitarelli also serves as wine columnist for Seattle Magazine.