Washington Flashcards
Washington State Labeling Laws
- State % 95%
- County %75%
- AVA % 85 / 95%***
- Vineyard % 95%
Washington State basics
- the nation’s second largest producer of premium wines
- 5% of the nation’s total production
- most of the state’s wine regions and over 95% of its vineyards are located east of the Cascade Mountains
Washington Cascade Mountains
-the mountains’ rain shadow effect turns the land arid and necessitates irrigation. (Rainfall is often less than 10-12 inches a year.)
Washington Climate
- Eastern Washington experiences a true continental climate,
- hot summers and cold winters: frost and winter freezes are serious concerns for growers, but ripeness is easily achieved in the state’s warm growing seasons.
- Washington’s vineyards receive additional summer sunshine hours in accordance with its northerly latitude.
Washington terroir
- east of the Cascades—the bedrock is invariably basalt, overlaid by sediments deposited by the Missoula Floods
- Vineyards in eastern Washington are thus generally planted on sandy or silty loam soils derived from the flood-borne sediments.
Missoula Floods
-a catastrophic cycle of massive floods that occurred repeatedly at the end of the last ice age, some 12,000-18,000 years ago.
Washington AVAs
- Columbia Valley
- Columbia Gorge
- Walla Walla Valley
- Lake Chelan
- Ancient Lakes of Columbia Valley
- Wahluke Slope
- Yakima Valley
- Naches Heights
- Red Mountain
- Snipes Mountain
- Rattlesnake Hills
- Horse Heaven Hills
- Puget Sound
Columbia Valley AVA
- the largest appellation in the state, covering eleven million acres—over 1/4 of Washington’s landmass.
- It follows the outline of the Columbia River Basin and dips across the Oregon border.
- Most of Washington’s other AVAs, including Yakima Valley, Walla Walla Valley, and Horse Heaven Hills—the most important vineyard areas in the state—are nested within its borders.
Yakima Valley AVA
-was approved as Washington’s first AVA in 1983;
-it contains over one-third of the state’s vineyards
-three nested AVAs:
Snipes Mountain
Rattlesnake Hills
Red Mountain.
Red Mountain AVA
- warmest growing region and its smallest and most densely planted AVA.
- It has developed a reputation for noteworthy, tannic Cabernet Sauvignon.
Walla Walla AVA
- Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Syrah, 80% of its current plantings
- basalt bedrock and thin alluvial topsoil deposited by the Missoula Floods
the Rocks of Milton-Freewater
- within Walla Walla AVA
- features a topsoil of basalt cobblestones that draws comparisons to the galets of Châteauneuf-du-Pape—and producers are just beginning to explore its potential for Rhône-style wines.
- located entirely in Oregon, received its own AVA status in early 2015.
Washington AVAs Along the Oregon border
southeast of Yakima Valley and Red Mountain, Walla Walla Valley has emerged in this century as a prestige region rivaling Washington’s best.
Vineyards are a small but growing segment of the valley’s agricultural sector: vineyard acreage expanded from 450 acres to over 1,600 in the first decade of the 21st century—it is now closer to 3,000 acres—and the AVA’s reputation for premium red wine is growing alongside it.
Washington white grapes
- Chardonnay and Riesling—a variety that has achieved more success in this state than elsewhere in the country—have dominated viticulture in this northerly climate historically
- by the early 2010s red varieties had surpassed them in total acreage.
Washington red grapes
Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot became the state’s two most planted varieties.
