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 smallest (and warmest!) AVA?
Red Mountain
Where can you find “The Rocks”?
In Walla Walla Valley
What Washington AVAs are NOT contained within Columbia Valley?
Puget Sound
Columbia Gorge
What are the sub AVAs of Columbia Valley?
Lake Chelan Ancient Lakes Wahluke Slope Naches Heights Yakima Valley Horse Heaven Hills Walla Walla Valley Columbia Valley
What are the sub-AVAs of Yakima Valley?
Rattlesnake Hills
Red Mountain
Snipes Mountain
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 Waterbrook, Willow Crest)
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?
Anticlines are ridgelines
Synclines are the valleys between them
In Washtingon, created by tectonic compression during the Miocene Epoch.
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 smaller 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 physical feature caused the bottleneck in southern Washington?
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 sediements, 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.