Gregutt - Washington wines and wineries: the essential guide

WASHINGTON WINES AND WINERIES

The Essential Guide

Second Edition, Completely Revised and Expanded

Paul Gregutt

University of California Press, one of the most distinguished university presses in the United States, enriches lives around the world by advancing scholarship in the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences. Its activities are supported by the UC Press Foundation and by philanthropic contributions from individuals and institutions. For more information, visit www.ucpress.edu .

University of California Press
Berkeley and Los Angeles, California

University of California Press, Ltd.
London, England

2010 by the Regents of the University of California

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Gregutt, Paul.

Washington wines and wineries: the essential guide / Paul Gregutt.
2nd ed., completely rev. and expanded.

p. cm.

Includes index.

ISBN 978-0-520-26138-9 (cloth : alk. paper)

1. Wine and wine makingWashington (State) 2. WineriesWashington (State)Guidebooks. 3. VineyardsWashington (State) I. Title.

TP557.G745 2010

641.2209797dc22 2010010389

Manufactured in the United States of America.

16 15 14 13 12 11 10

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992 (R 1997) (Permanence of Paper).

For Karen Stanton GreguttMrs. Gmy love,
my partner, my Muse. Far more than my better half,
you are my better three quarters. Without
your unfailing support, this book would not exist.

Wine the good and bland, thou blessing

Of the good, the bads distressing,

Sweet of taste by all confessing,

Hail, thou worlds felicity!

Hail thy hue, lifes gloom dispelling;

Hail thy taste, all tastes excelling;

By thy power, in this thy dwelling

Deign to make us drunk with thee!

Oh, how blest for bounteous uses

Is the birth of pure vine-juices!

Safes the table which produces

Wine in goodly quality.

Oh, in color how auspicious!

Oh, in odor how delicious!

In the mouth how sweet, propitious

To the tongue enthralled by thee!

Blest the man who first thee planted,

Called thee by thy name enchanted!

He whose cups have neer been scanted

Dreads no danger that may be.

Blest the belly where thou bidest!

Blest the tongue where thou residest!

Blest the mouth through which thou glidest,

And the lips thrice blest by thee!

Translation of twelfth-century
Latin Song of Wandering Students

FIVE STARS

FOUR STARS

THREE STARS

RISING STARS

It may seem as if I have jumped the gun updating the first edition of this book so quickly. Whats the hurry? you might legitimately wonder. The simple answer, to quote Bob Dylan, is because things have changed. A tidal wave of change has rolled over the Washington wine industry in just the past few years. Essentially, this is far more than a revised edition; its almost a whole new book.

Washington State wines have made their entrance upon the world stage, and no longer need to stand shyly in the corner while some marquee player from California hogs the spotlight. Those who most closely follow developments in the wine worldbloggers, sommeliers, distributors, retailers, and even (gasp!) the presshave been keeping their eyes on the nations second-largest wine-producing state. And they like what they see.

In the midst of a global recession, with many of the worlds wine and spirits conglomerates reeling, Ste. Michelle Wine Estates, now the seventh-largest wine company in America, is posting record growth. In the Nielsen data for the sales year ending in July 2009, national sales of Washington State wines increased 9.1 percent by value and 6.8 percent by volumefigures well above national averages. The official number of bonded wineries in Washington has passed 650 and may well top 700 by the time this book reaches print.

The 2009 wine grape harvestpredicated to be the largest everis unofficially pegged at 155,000 tons. Statewide, there are 36,000 acres of vineyard. Better still, Washington has seen five straight exceptional vintages following the freeze of 2004, and these are the wines that form the basis for the reviews and winery classifications in this new edition. Two new AVAs (American Viticultural Areas) are profiledSnipes Mountain and Lake Chelanboth approved in 2009. At least two more are already in the application phase.

The North American Wine Bloggers Conference has chosen Walla Walla as the site of its June 2010 gathering. Sant, a national trade magazine for restaurant professionals, wrote in its May 2009 issue that only recently has Washington wine become a must-have item in restaurants across the country. Eastern Washington is also becoming, often to the astonishment of the locals, a major wine-tourism magnet. Though these statistics are now a few years out of date, an economic impact study done by MKF Research estimated that tourists who visited Washington wineries in 2006 spent more than $237 million, up from just $18.9 million in 2000. In that same period, the number of visitors increased fivefold, from 350,000 to more than 1.7 million.

The quality of Washington wines, and the interest in these wines from around the world, has reached an all-time high. And that dramatically changes the purpose and creative focus of this book. The original edition was intended to make the case, as critically as possible, for Washington State to be considered a world-class winemaking region.

This time around, Im starting with that as a given. The goal here is to give you a handle on the grapes, the AVAs, the vineyards, the wines, the winemakers, and the wineries that represent the best the state has to offer. Since my first wine column appeared in 1984, I have continually tasted and tracked the industrys growth, all the while benchmarking it against the wines of the Old World and the New World. Ive made repeated visits to France, Spain, Italy, Germany, Argentina, and Australia, as well as up and down the West Coast and into British Columbia, and Ive tasted tens of thousands of wines.

The conclusion I reached in the original edition of this book still stands. Its not often that a brand-new wine region with world-class capabilities comes along. Ive been privileged to see this one grow from a tiny cutting into a major vine. Washington has moved out of the shadow of California. My sincere hope is that this book will help you to understand what makes this state and its wines unique and memorable, so that you can make your own delicious discoveries.

To Washington wine!

Though I hold an Advanced Certificate from the London-based Wine & Spirit Education Trust, I owe my wine education less to any particular course of study than to the thousands of individuals who have taken the time to sit with me over the years and taste and discuss wine. They come from all sides of the businessgrowers and winemakers, importers and distributors, retail shop owners and sommeliers, journalists and marketers. All share a wonderful passion for this inexhaustible subject.

My Boars Head brothersHenry Stoll, Richard Hinds, and Ed Amyotintroduced me to the pleasures of wine drinking in college and have kept plying me with fine old wines ever since. The members of the two long-running tasting groups to which I belong, many of them winemakers and wine sellers themselves, have sparked memorable debates and kept my palate polished.