Taste Washington Seattle
 A
popular wine tasting and pairing event gets remodeled
Taste Washington has become one of the most popular events in the
city for those who love food and wine. The ninth annual event takes
place this year, but it will look a bit different from past years. Robin
Pollard, Executive Director of the Washington Wine Commission, shares
the changes and the thinking behind them.
Created as an evening event for the World Vinifera Conference, the
Washington Wine Commission decided in 1998 to turn it into a consumer
event. It began as an intimate affair at the Paramount Theatre featuring
Washington wines and providing consumers with an opportunity to learn
how to pair wine with food.
 By
2005, intimacy was history as 4,000 attendees descended on the Qwest
Field Event Center. The wine and food were great and it could be
considered a roaring success by the attendance figures. As always, the
Wine Commission asked for feedback from attendees—individuals, wineries
and restaurants. What they heard made them realize it was time to
refocus the event.
As Robin explains, "It struck all of us that the event had lost its
focus. It wasn’t so much about wine. The restaurants felt that it was
very taxing to donate their time and food for 4,000. The wineries felt
that the pairing concept was confining—they could only pour the wines
that paired well with the dish the restaurants were serving."
In addition, there were two levels of entry for consumers, the
regular tasting and a VIP early-entry tasting that had a higher ticket
price. Everyone wanted the early tasting so there would be less of a
crowd and more opportunity to speak with winemakers and chefs. So many
people paid the higher price that there wasn’t much less of a crowd.
"We want the event to highlight the Washington wine industry and make
it a meaningful experience for the consumer," says Robin. "There will be
a heavy emphasis on education. We want the consumer to have face time
with the winemakers, to understand what goes into growing these
world-class grapes, hear about trends and pairing and learn more about
the vineyard manager’s perspective."
Education is key for another reason. Right now, only 20 percent of
Washington wine drinkers drink Washington wine. Yet Washington has over
400 wineries and is the second largest producer of wine in the U.S.
behind California. It’s a three billion dollar industry that provides
jobs of all kinds and supports many family operations. Getting people to
understand what our state’s wineries have to offer is a huge part of
this event.
Instead of a multi-day event, everything will be held on Saturday,
April 8. Morning sessions will be held at Bell Harbor International
Conference Center, followed by lunch and an afternoon "Tasting with the
Masters" that will feature a comparative tasting of Washington AVAs
(American Viticultural Areas). Meanwhile, tasting will begin at the Pier
30 Event Center for trade only from 2-4 p.m. This is a no-charge event
for trade only; interested parties must register in advance. At 4 p.m.,
the "Ultimate Wine Tour" commences for consumers. And as a nice capper,
after the tasting from 4-7 p.m., Café Vita is sponsoring a coffee bar
while the Jim Sisko Sextet plays jazz and people enjoy desserts.
Although the official event is one day only, there will be lots of
activities around the city during the weekend. Multiple winemaker
dinners will be taking place in restaurants all over town.
 Since
wineries won’t be paired with specific restaurants at the event, they’re
able to bring more wines with them. Nearly 200 wineries will be on hand
with more than 700 wines. To allow people more access to winemakers,
attendance will be capped at 2,000 this year.
But don’t think restaurants are out of the picture. There will be 30
restaurants at the Grand Tasting. These restaurants were award winners
at the 2005 Washington Wine Restaurant Awards. There will be other fun
food stations like Ray’s Surf Bar and the Beef Commission’s Turf Bar.
South Seattle Community College and the Chef’s Association will create a
farmer’s market. QFC will provide produce and Viking will sponsor chef’s
demo stations.
Besides being great fun and educational, there’s even more to this
event—ticket prices help support wine and culinary scholarships,
FareStart and the Washington Wine Education Foundation. For more
information about the Washington Wine Commission, check out their
website: www.washingtonwine.org.
If Seattle just isn’t enough for you, Taste Washington Spokane is
coming up on June 11. Due to space considerations, they’ll need to cap
the number of wineries at 100. Thirty Eastern Washington-based
restaurants will be in attendance and the event will take place at the
Davenport Hotel, a beautifully restored hotel built in 1914.
Rumor has it that people don’t like change. But if you love wine and
food, the refocusing of this event will make change a breeze.
April 2006
Robin Pollard, Executive Director
Washington Wine Commission
Background:
Became executive director of the Wine Commission July 2005
Worked for the State of Washington for nearly 20 years
Director of the State Tourism Office for six years.
While there, she put together a wine tourism task force
Worked on State Economic Development programs
Part of Governor Locke’s team that landed the Boeing
787 project
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