Washington Flashcards
What is Washington’s largest AVA?
Columbia Valley (at 11 million acres!)
What was Washington’s first AVA?
Yakima Valley (1983)
What is Washington’s warmest AVA?
Red Mountain AVA
What is Washington’s smallest AVA? When was it approved?
Candy Mountain AVA
2020
Where can you find “The Rocks”?
Oregon side In Walla Walla Valley
What Washington AVAs are NOT contained within Columbia Valley?
Puget Sound
Lewis Clark Valley
Columbia Gorge
What are the sub AVAs of Columbia Valley?
(N to S)
Lake Chelan
Rocky Reach
Ancient Lakes
Royal Slope
Wahluke Slope
Naches Heights
Yakima Valley
Rattlesnake Hills
Snipes Mountain
Red Mountain
Candy Mountain
Goose Gap
White Bluffs
Horse Heaven Hills
Walla Walla Valley
The Burn of Columbia Valley
Columbia Valley
What are the sub-AVAs of Yakima Valley?
Rattlesnake Hills
Red Mountain
Snipes Mountain
Candy Mountain
Goose Gap
Who owns Columbia Winery?
Gallo, as of 2012
Five major wineries/parent corporations in Washington
Chateau Ste Michelle
Gallo
Hogue Cellars
Hedges
K Vintners
Precept Wines (Canoe Ridge Vineyard, Waterbrook, Willow Crest Winery)
Columbia Basin: Climate and latitude
Arid continental (average diurnal shift 28º, may be up to 40º). 6-12 inches of rain annually; irrigation required for vinegrowing.
46º N, or more
What are synclines and anticlines?
How were these created?
Anticlines are ridgelines
Synclines are the valleys between them
In Washtingon, created by tectonic compression during the Miocene Epoch.
Why is rainfall so scarce in eastern Washington?
As it hits the Cascade Range, Pacific air is pushed upward, cooled and condensed into clouds which release their moisture as precipitation.
This creates a rain shadow effect for the Columbia River Basin in eastern Washington
-the western slopes of the Cascades receive over 80 inches of rainfall annually, yet 50 miles to the east the climate is desert-like.
What do the Cascades do for Eastern Washington.
-rain shadow effect
-responsible for the Columbia Basin’s continental climate -they block the moderating maritime air from moving further inland
What do the Rockies do for the Columbia Basin?
they are located to the north and east so they shelter the region from icy polar air masses.
What is the Yakima Fold Belt, and how does it affect viticulture?
The low-lying topography of south-central Washington, striated by east-west ridges, from 4,000ft high at most, and generally no more than 1,000ft high in the valleys.
The anticlines restrict airflow and cause a temperature inversion layer, as cool air bottlnecks in the synclines. This means that valley vineyards are colder, have a wider diurnal shift and more frost pressure than higher elevation vineyards.
How are Washington’s ripest vineyards situated?
On anticlinal ridges, facing south (seen in Red Mountain, Wahluke Slope, Horse Heaven Hills, and elsewhere); elevation and aspect grants higher degree days, temperatures, and lesser risk of frost.
What are two techniques used to protect against the winter cold?
Dual trunk training and buried canes.
Dual trunk is just what it sounds like, starting an inch or so above the soil; statistically, if one trunk dies in the winter, the other may survive.
Buried cane is used with low cordon trained vines; one fruiting cane is buried by heaping up soil around it so as to protect it from the cold; if the aboveground canopy dies over the winter, the buried cane can be unearthed and used in the coming year.
When were the Missoula Floods, and what caused them?
12,000-18,000 years ago, 2 to 3 times per century as the glacier lake periodically broke through the retreating Cordilleran Ice Sheet.
The Wallula Gap bottlenecked the onrushing water, causing massive flooding of the Columbia Basin.
What are Touchet beds?
Nutrient rich deposits of gravel and other flood sediments, up to 100ft deep at the lowest points of the Columbia, Yakima, and Walla Walla Valleys.
At what elevation did the Missoula floods top out?
1200ft.
What does the term Eolian mean?
Shaped by wind - referring to the loess soils of the Columbia and Willamette valleys.
Who is the father of Washington wine, and why?
Dr. Walter Clore
Pioneered the study of properly siting vinifera in Washington (prior to that, grapevines were either native, or killed off every few years by the cold); mentored the nascent WA wine industry from the 1940’s to the 1970’s.
Who owns the majority of Snipes Mountain? What are the two vineyards planted there?
Upland Estate
Upland Vineyard and Harrison Hill
When was Associated Vintners founded, and what was their original estate vineyard? What is the winery known as today?
1962; planted Harrison Hill Vineyard in 1963.
Columbia Winery
Who was the original consulting winemaker for American Wine Growers? What is the winery known as today?
Andre Tchelistcheff
Chateau Ste Michelle
Major white grapes of Washington
Chardonnay
Riesling
Pinot Gris
Sauvignon Blanc
Gewurztraminer
Major red grapes of Washington
Cabernet Sauvignon
Merlot
Syrah
Cabernet Franc
What and where is Sagemoor Vineyards?
A vineyard network of 900 acres north of the Tri-Cities; breaks down into four smaller vineyards:
Sagemoor, Dionysus, Bacchus, Weinbau
An important source of grapes for the Washington wine industry since its planting in 1968.
Located in White Bluffs AVA
Where was Washington’s first Syrah planted, and when?
Red Willow Vineyard (Yakima), 1986
Where was Washington’s first Cabernet planted, and when? Who is the owner of the vineyard?
Otis Vineyard (Yakima), 1956.
Tom and Sean Tudor and Sean’s uncle Mark Tudor - purchased from Otis Harlan in 2013
What are some top vineyards of Yakima Valley?
Red Willow Vineyard
Boushey
Otis
Where do most vineyards in Yakima Valley lie?
-Clustered north of the town of Prosser
-along the slopes from 1,000-1400 feet in elevation
How many degree days in Red Mountain AVA in 2013?
1866 degree days
-nearly 200 more than western sector of the Yakima Valley
Major vineyards of Red Mountain
Ciel du Cheval (1975, Jim Holmes)
Kiona (1975, John Williams)
Grand Ciel
Klipsun
What were the first vineyards planted in Red Mountain?
Ciel du Cheval (1975, Jim Holmes)
Kiona (1975, John Williams)
What is Washington’s most densely cultivated AVA?
Red Mountain AVA
What is the main grape of Red Mountain?
Cabernet Sauvignon
-about 70% of the plantings
What is the climate of Red Mountain AVA?
Warm
-about 16 hours of high summer sunshine a day
-windy and arid
-significant diurnal temperature shifts
-moderating influence of the Yakima River
What is Col Solare? Where is it?
A collaboration between Antinori and Chateau Ste. Michelle.
Red Mountian
Acclaimed producers of Red Mountain
Col Solare
Force Majeure
Upchurch Vineyards
What is the viticultural elevation of Snipes Mountain?
750ft (south side) and 820ft (north side) at the low end; planted all the way to the summit at 1310ft.
Where were the first vinifera vines planted in Washington, and when? What was the grape?
1917, by William Bridgman on what is now Snipes Mountain on the Upland Vineyard property
Muscat of Alexandria
Who owns Upland Vineyards?
Todd Newhouse
-drafted the AVA petition for Snipes Moutain