Danehower - Essential wines and wineries of the Pacific Northwest: a guide to the wine countries of Washington, Oregon, British Columbia, and Idaho

ESSENTIAL WINES AND WINERIES
OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST

A Guide to the Wine Countries
of Washington, Oregon,
British Columbia, and Idaho

COLE DANEHOWER
Photography By Andrea Johnson

FRONTISPIECE: One important advantage to wine grape growing in the Northwest is the extra hours of sunlight the grapes receive. TITLE PAGE: The tasting room at Januik Winery in Woodinville, Washington.

Copyright 2010 by Cole Danehower. All rights reserved.
Photographs 2010 by Andrea Johnson

Maps by Allan Cartography, Medford, Oregon

Published in 2010 by Timber Press, Inc.

ISBN-13: 978-0-88192-966-9

Printed in China

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Danehower, Cole.

Essential wines and wineries of the Pacific Northwest : a guide to the wine countries of Washington, Oregon, British Columbia, and Idaho / Cole Danehower; photography by Andrea Johnson.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-0-88192-966-9

1. Wine and wine makingNorthwest, PacificGuidebooks. 2. WineriesNorthwest, PacificGuidebooks. 3. Northwest, PacificGuidebooks. I. Title.

TP557.D357 2010

641.2-209795dc22 2010005073

A catalog record for this book is also available from the British Library.

To Andrea and Heidi

When I moved to rural Oregon from California many years ago, I brought with me a typical American wine bias: California was the only real wine country in North America, and anywhere else that made its own local wine was quaint. So I reacted with skepticism when my sister and brother-in-law, who owned a restaurant on the Oregon coast, served me my first bottle of Pacific Northwest wine. It was a pinot gris, a grape I had never encountered in California, from a winery called The Eyrie Vineyards, a name that was also unknown to me.

To my surprise, I liked the wine. Even more surprising, I found I liked a lot of the wines I began tasting from my new Pacific Northwest home. And I quickly developed an acute curiosity about the wines of the region, from Oregon, Washington, British Columbia, and even Idaho. A long story later, including meeting my wife over a bottle of Oregon wine, I have become intimately familiar with, and infinitely respectful of, wines made in the Northwest.

Since 1999, I have been making my living writing about Pacific Northwest wines and the region. Ive had the pleasure of visiting all the wine-producing areas of the Northwest, from Kelowna, British Columbia, in the north to Cave Junction, Oregon, in the south; from Vancouver Island in the northwest to Boise, Idaho, in the southeast; and all the places in between. From these experiences, I have developed tremendous admiration for the people who have created this world-class wine region, and my esteem for the splendid range and quality of the wines they produce grows with each new vintage.

In this book, I want to share my enthusiasm for these wines and discuss exactly why I think the Pacific Northwest is such an exciting wine region. This book is not a typical wine book. Its not a wineryby-winery touring guide, though in its pages youll find discussion of plenty of outstanding wineries you should visit. Likewise, its not a bottle-by-bottle guide to the best wine buys from the Pacific Northwest, though youll find mention of all manner of great regional wines to seek out and try. And, this is not a coffee table wine book, filled mainly with alluringly romantic photographs of the wine country idyll, though the images created by expert Northwest photographer Andrea Johnson will surely entice you to tour the Pacific Northwests wine regions.

Over the years Ive come to favor Pacific Northwest wines. There is, I believe, a broad stylistic signature to these wines, which, while it varies significantly within the region, distinguishes Northwest wines from those of other places. On average, I prefer an Oregon pinot noir wine to a California one, a Washington syrah to an Australian shiraz, and a British Columbia riesling to most of what I taste made anywhere else in North America.

In this book, I explain what makes the Pacific Northwest a special wine region. My Northwest wine preference is rooted in the realities of how wines are grown and made here. The regions geography, geology, and climate combine with the visions and actions of dedicated winegrowers and winemakers to create a regional wine identity that is truly distinctive.

Illustrating that identity, I knew, would be crucial so that readers could fully appreciate the Pacific Northwests wine regions. It was vital to me that the photographs accompanying the text be as expressive of place as possible. Photographer Andrea Johnsons informed eye and close connection to the wine regions of the Pacific Northwest made her a perfect collaborator. Throughout the writing of the manuscript, Andrea and I met often to work on ideas for images. Then she would go off to capture the best images, often at absurdly early hours to obtain optimum light. Upon returning from her journeys, we studied and selected the results of each expedition. The power of her photographs is apparent throughout the book.

If Ive done my job properly, in these pages youll find Northwest wine places youre inspired to visit and wines you cant wait to taste. And I hope this book will start you on a lifelong love affair with the wine countries of the Pacific Northwest.

In writing this book I have incurred many debts of gratitude and been the object of much generosity. I take great joy in expressing my appreciation to so many wonderful people.

Foremost, I give my ardent thanks to my wife, Andrea Danehower, for her help, support, and companionship, not only through innumerable glasses of Northwest wine and pleasurable wine country jaunts, but also through the writing of many, sometimes painful, pages of text.

Two other Andreas were intimately involved with this book, and their contributions were invaluable. From the earliest days of this project, I have been privileged to work with an unusually fine photographer, Andrea Johnson. The acuity of her eye and the richness of her images bring an aesthetic verve to the natural beauty of the Pacific Northwests wine regions. I am grateful for her partnership and patience.

Andrea Slonecker, my research assistant, has been indispensable to me in completing this book. She has doggedly gathered winery information for the gazetteer, helped with the bibliography, and in countless ways made the work easier.

Enthusiastic thanks are owed for the forbearance of my business partner, Cameron Nagel, whose review of much of the work has been a tremendous contribution. I also thank the expert staff at