Six years ago, Washington seemed near a tipping point. Supported by strong vintages from 2005–08, this rapidly growing wine region seemed to be emerging from California’s long shadow and ready to gain broader awareness.
Then the lingering effects of the Great Recession hit home. Consumers tightened their purse strings and bought less expensive wines, challenging the state’s numerous boutique wineries. Successive cool vintages in 2010 and 2011 produced an abundance of high-quality wines, but wines that were less accessible than the norm.
Today, propelled by the landmark 2012 vintage and the three strong years that followed, Washington’s time may have finally arrived. From afar, it can seem surprising that Washington is able to grow wine grapes at all. Many equate the state with often-soggy Seattle.
“When I travel, people always say, ‘It’s cold and rainy there. How do you ripen Cabernet?’ ” says Chris Peterson, winemaker for Avennia in Woodinville. Bob Betz, MW, winemaker for Betz Family Winery, has had similar experiences: “You get a novice wine drinker and they think, ‘Washington. That’s just south of Anchorage, right?’ ”
“Even when we have a challenging vintage, the wines are still good-plus or better. That’s not a bad problem to have.”
While you may chuckle, it’s no laughing matter to the state’s wineries. Washington’s association with rain-soaked Seattle and confusion with the nation’s capital have long been hindrances to growing the state’s wine brand. While Seattle does see more than its fair share of gray, gloomy days, almost all of Washington’s wine grapes are grown hundreds of miles to the east. There, thanks to a rain shadow caused by the craggy Cascade Range, lies a desert region with 300 days of sunshine, averaging just 5–8 inches of rainfall each year. (Seattle averages 38 inches.)
“People are always surprised how dry it is here,” says Chris Figgins, president and winemaking director at Figgins Family Wine Estates in Walla Walla. “Most people think of the Northwest as a wet, green place. People don’t understand that we’ve got this whole different climate in the eastern part of the state.”
Washington’s Columbia Valley—which encompasses almost all of the state’s grape-growing regions—is so dry that viticulture would be impossible in most locations without irrigation. However, water from various rivers and aquifers, along with consistently warm summers, give the state’s grape growers a high degree of control during the growing season.
“With irrigation, we have the capacity to control canopy growth, shoot length, berry size and cluster weight,” says Marty Clubb, co-owner and managing winemaker at L’Ecole No 41 in Lowden. “It’s a very powerful tool.”
The results are consistent, high-quality wines across vintages.
“We’re one of the more reliable places on the planet to grow grapes,” says Figgins. “In our almost 40-year history at Leonetti Cellar, we’ve never had a harvest compromised by weather. If you look around the world, that’s pretty unusual.”…read more at Wine Enthusiast Magazine
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