Contact

Washington State Wine Authority exists as a reference resource for anyone with a serious interest in Washington wine — whether that's a question about a specific AVA, a gap in the research, or a detail that doesn't quite add up. This page covers how to reach the editorial team, what makes a message useful, and what kind of response to expect. The short version: specific questions get specific answers.

Service area covered

The editorial focus here is Washington State wine in its full scope — the 17 federally recognized American Viticultural Areas that spread from the Puget Sound to the Walla Walla Valley, the licensing and regulatory framework administered by the Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board, grape-growing practices in the Columbia Valley and its sub-appellations, industry statistics, and the broader history, tourism, and culture of a wine region that now counts more than 1,000 licensed wineries.

That scope is intentionally wide, but it has edges. Washington State Wine Authority does not cover Oregon wine in any depth, does not provide legal counsel on licensing matters, and does not facilitate winery or retailer transactions. For questions that fall squarely outside Washington wine — a general question about global wine law, say, or a request for a restaurant recommendation in Bordeaux — the honest answer is that this isn't the right place.

What to include in your message

A vague message produces a vague response, or no response at all. The messages that get answered quickly and well tend to share a few qualities.

1. Name the specific topic. "I have a question about Washington wine" covers roughly 940 square miles of vineyard land and a century of history. "I have a question about the Rattlesnake Hills AVA boundary and whether a specific vineyard block falls inside it" is a question that can actually be answered.
2. State what's already known. If research has already turned up conflicting figures — say, two different sources citing different acreage for planted Riesling in the Yakima Valley — naming both sources helps narrow the problem immediately.
3. Describe the purpose, briefly. A journalist working on a deadline, a winemaker checking a technical detail, and a consumer trying to understand a label all have legitimate questions, but they need different things. A single sentence of context prevents a lot of unnecessary back-and-forth.
4. Include a specific citation if there's a discrepancy. If a page on this site contains an error — a wrong vintage year, a misattributed winery founding date, an AVA boundary description that doesn't match TTB records — naming the specific page and the specific claim makes a correction straightforward.

Messages that skip all four of these tend to fall into one of two categories: general curiosity questions that are better answered by the FAQ or how-it-works pages, and wholesale content requests (write a press release, build a list, generate a report) that fall outside the scope of an editorial reference site.

Response expectations

The editorial team reviews messages on weekdays. For factual corrections, the standard turnaround is 3 to 5 business days — longer if verification requires cross-referencing primary sources like Washington State University Extension viticulture research or archived Washington State Wine Commission data.

For substantive research questions, the expectation should be an acknowledgment within 5 business days and a fuller response within 10, depending on complexity. Some questions — particularly those touching on winery licensing history or obscure appellation history — require sourcing from documents that aren't always immediately at hand.

What not to expect: legal advice, commercial endorsements, or guaranteed response to messages that don't include enough information to be actionable. The editorial team also does not maintain a public phone line.

Additional contact options

For questions that are general enough to have a published answer, the FAQ page covers the most common territory — grape variety comparisons, regional climate questions, label reading, and basic regulatory background. The how to get help page is structured specifically for people who aren't sure which part of the site addresses their question.

For industry-specific inquiries — licensing applications, grape pricing, export data, or trade statistics — the primary public contacts are the Washington State Wine Commission, which publishes annual industry data, and the Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board, which handles all licensing and compliance matters. Those are statutory agencies with staff dedicated to exactly those functions; editorial questions addressed to them tend not to go far, and vice versa.

For AVA boundary disputes or federal appellation questions, the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau maintains the official AVA records and is the authoritative source on approved petitions and boundary definitions. No editorial site, including this one, supersedes those official determinations.