Give Me Grapes: Washington State

I’ve never been to Washington, but I’d like to go. Its on my list of Pacific Northwest locations I’d like to visit. I’ve done Portland, Oregon, but still need to hit Seattle, Spokane and Vancouver, BC. (Nevermind that none of these cities are particularly close to Washington “wine country”!) While I wait for the opportunity to visit these places, I thought I should hit on a domestic location in my wine tasting. Washington seemed fitting given that one of my former go-to wines is a Washington native (the Chateau Ste. Michelle Riesling).

Most wine is grown in Eastern Washington, over the Cascades from Seattle and generally along the Oregon border, in the Columbia Valley. The Columbia Valley is an AVA that contains several more specific AVAs including Yakima Valley, Red Mountain, Horse Heaven Hills and four others. Columbia Valley seems to be the preferred designation on many Washington labels.

In stark contrast to the Western part of the state, where people likely envision the near constant rain of Seattle, Washington’s wine country is a semi-desert with a continental climate. It also happens to share the same latitude of Bordeaux and Burgundy in France. The growing season is short, however the sun shines most reliably in the summer and it rarely rains, which keeps disease at bay. The winter on the other hand is just downright cold, and while that can be rough on the grape vines (i.e. kill them), it has also kept phylloxera away and apparently most of the vines are planted on their own rootstocks.

Chateau Ste. Michelle is owned by the dominant winery in the state (that also owns brands such as Columbia Crest and many others), but they have also played a large part in helping raise awareness of Washington wines.

I picked up a riesling, which is the third most planted vinifera grape variety in the state behind #1 Chardonnay and #2 Merlot. This particular one is a popular joint venture between Chateau Ste. Michelle and Dr. Loosen, (an extremely popular German winemaker). Nearly every book I read that talked about Washington wines mentioned this wine. It's one of the few specific wines on my tasting list.

When I was at K&L buying the wines I was fortunate enough to be helped by an employee (whose name I missed, darn it!) that said he had just returned from a Washington wine trip. He said he’d had the opportunity to meet the winemakers from Gramercy (whose Syrah I chose) and Seven Hills (merlot), which he described as “delicious”.

And, of course, there’s always a wine that’s somehow unusual that I can always be counted on to buy. This time it's an ice wine. I did some research before deciding to get it and found that in the vast majority of Washington vineyards the grapes do not freeze reliably enough for most wineries to produce ice wine (for example, Chateau Ste. Michelle has only made one a handful of times), but Kiona has a small patch of vines on Red Mountain that allows them to make one every year. At only $22.99, who can pass that up?!