It's really a case of "you had to be there." Thirty years ago, that is. Because that's when the Washington wine industry was getting started, before there were official commissions and marketing agencies and PR firms. It was when Dick Boushey started planting grapes instead of apples and cherry trees on his land in the Yakima Valley near Grandview (merlot and cabernet sauvignon if you must know; eventually chenin blanc, but that was a mistake). That was when Seattle attorney Alec Bayless and his buddies bought some land near Pasco and planted Sagemoor Vineyards. That was when Budd Gould's pub in Bellevue, called Mad Anthony's, began evolving into a chain of seafood restaurants and started pouring Washington wine.
And now, 30 years later, 25 years after the founding of the Washington Wine Commission, 10 years after the first "Wine Restaurant Awards," it was time once again for the association representing the wine producers to recognize their front line of sales, the sommeliers and wine stewards and writers of restaurant wine lists who promote and sell local wine.
So here we have the new Restaurant of the Year: Metropolitan Grill, represented by General Manager Joshua Anderson (left) and Chief Sommelier Thomas Price. Price is one of half a dozen certified sommeliers on staff at the Met. Nelson Daquip, head wine guy at Canlis, was named Sommelier of the Year.
This post has been sitting here for a full day. Why didn't I hit "publish"? A mystery.
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