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IN THE PACIFIC NORTH WEST, it sits above Oregon and below the Canadian border. Fly into Seattle, and beyond the city boundaries you are faced with a lush, green landscape, well watered by the seemingly incessant rain. But drive inland a couple of hours, heading east over the Cascade mountains, and it’s as if you have entered another country. This is practically desert, without enough rainfall to dry-grow vines. But the warm summers and lack of rainfall make it a good place for wine grapes, for here there is no shortage of water from the mighty Columbia River, which is the fifth largest in the US. This ready supply of irrigation water has made this an important agricultural region, known for its hops, cherries, peas and apples. And now wine grapes.

If you look at the figures, there’s no doubt wine is doing well in Washington State. The first AVA was the Yakima Valley, established as recently as 1983. Then, there were just 40 wineries here. Now there are 850 licensed wineries in the state (although for various reasons – such as some wineries having more than one licence – this is certainly an overestimate of the number of ‘real’ wineries, which is closer to 600).

Currently, the wine scene is growing by just under 9% a year. Vineyard area is now at 57,000 acres (23,000ha), which is double the size of Oregon, but it has the potential to grow to 200,000 acres (81,000ha – almost the size of the whole of South Africa’s vineyards). 

Because of the lack of rainfall, soil organic content is low. The soils are predominantly sandy and loamy over basalt with a thin layer of loess on top (loess looks a bit like ultra-fine sand: fine-grained and made up of dust-like grains). Vines are usually grown own-rooted here because phylloxera can’t cope with the sandy-ish soils. And there’s very little disease pressure because of the lack of rain. The main hazard is winter cold, with extreme lows liable to take out vines from time to time.

IRRIGATION CONTROL

The state’s reliance on irrigation does have one advantage, though, because careful control of irrigation can help with wine quality. In particular, switching irrigation on and off at the right time can regulate berry size at the cell division stage, and this is research that has been carried out at Washington State University. 

A significant geological event helped create the terroir in the Columbia Valley. “What happened here 10,000 years ago made this a great wine region,” says Chris Upchurch, winemaker at Delille Cellars, referring to a series of dramatic water events known as the Missoula Floods. “We imported all our soils from Utah, Idaho and Montana.” These floods occurred several times, around the end of the last ice age. A massive lake, 700m deep, was bounded by glaciers. When these melted and failed, the water was released, creating a huge wave. “In Missoula you can still see on the hills the layers where the lake was,” says Upchurch. “This was discovered by a park ranger in the 1920s.” The fact that this great mass of water couldn’t pass quickly through the Wallula Gap (a narrow break in the basalt folds along the Columbia river in the south of the state) meant it had plenty of time to deposit sediments (slack water deposits) which now form many of the soils in this part of the state. 

DISTINCTIVE FEATURE

One of the distinctive features of this region is the dominance of one large company: Ste Michelle Wine Estates, which in turn is owned by tobacco company Altria (previously known as Philip Morris). The most famous name in the portfolio is Château Ste Michelle, closely followed by Columbia Crest. Other wine brands include Col Solare, North Star, 14 Hands and Spring Valley.

This dominance reflects the history of winegrowing in the state. The company began as the National Wine Company in 1934, and this then merged with the Pomelle Wine Company to form the American Wine Growers in the 1950s. In 1967 famous Californian winemaker André Tchelitscheff joined as a consultant, and a new name, Ste Michelle Vintners, was adopted for wines made exclusively from vinifera varieties. In 1976 the winery moved to Woodinville and the name changed to Château Ste Michelle. 

The dominance of Ste Michelle Wine Estates is reflected in the fact it buys around two-thirds of Washington State’s production of vinifera grapes (there’s still quite a bit of Concord, an American non-vinifera variety grown here). Among other things, it is the world’s biggest producer of Riesling. In 1999, by a stroke of genius, Ste Michelle began a collaboration with Ernest Loosen from Germany’s Mosel, to create Eroica. It’s an affordable, high-quality Riesling that has done a lot to raise the profile of Washington State as a Riesling producer. 

“Riesling is the number one variety in the region,” says Ste Michelle director of winemaking Bob Berthau, explaining why the company began its hugely influential and successful collaboration. “The idea of Eroica was to try to bring up the idea of American Riesling.” 

Further high-profile international collaborations have taken place in the state, including Col Solare, which is a Ste Michelle-owned partnership with Piero Antinori, and the Long Shadows winery set up by ex-Ste Michelle boss Allen Shoup, where each of the wines is a collaboration with a famous wine-making consultant.

Aside from Ste Michelle, the other notable large winery in the state is the Columbia Winery, started in 1962 by 10 friends – six of them Washington State University professors, led by the dean of the psychology department, Dr Lloyd Woodburne. The winery began in Woodburne’s garage and was called Associated Vintners. In 1963 it planted the first vines at Harrison Vineyard, and a big step was taken in 1979 when it hired David Lake, the first MW in north America. It was the first to do vineyard designate wines in the state in 1981, and in 1983 changed its name to Columbia Winery. In 1988 Lake’s inaugural Syrah release was the first example of this variety from Washington State. Since 2012 it has been owned by Gallo, and in this short time production has risen from 100,000 cases in to 400,000.

LARGER COMPANIES

The structure of the Washington State wine industry reflects the dominance of larger companies – 90% of its wines retail in the US at $12 or less. This has led to the image crisis, because they are mostly well made, tasty wines that deliver good value for money, but have very little sense of place. 

In terms of retailing these wines to their target market, the story of Washington State is too complicated and carries too much room for confusion. It’s probably for this reason that in 1984 the AVA of Columbia Valley was created, with the support and political pressure of the big companies. 

This is an almost entirely redundant AVA, because it applies to 99% of wines produced in the state: surely the state name would be better? Brand equity could then be built up. But the large companies wanted the name Washington off the label, to avoid confusion (“Which side of the Potomac are your vineyards located?”), but also – perhaps – so these wines could sit easily alongside Californian wines on the retail shelf. 

“I felt that Washington was the worst word you could have on a wine label,” says Shoup. “Word associations with Washington are all negative. If we could create a viticultural appellation we could all put our hat on, we could get people to know Columbia Valley.”

This is where the Washington State identity problem begins. Some wines are labelled just Columbia Valley, without mentioning Washington State. But not having the state’s name on the label has meant the brand equity has not been built as strongly as it ought. And if anyone knows of Washington State, they may well associate the vineyards with rainy Seattle, unaware of the climatic shift that occurs when you head east over the Cascades.

The first AVA in the state was the slightly more meaningful Yakima Valley (1983), which remains the largest of the proper AVAs, closely followed by Horse Heaven Hills, Red Mountain, Snipes Mountain and Wahluke Slope, which were all designated in the 2000s. Perhaps the most interesting AVAs for fine wine are the more easterly ones of Columbia Gorge and Walla Walla, which straddle the border with Oregon.

Five varieties have more than 1,000ha under vine. While Riesling is the state’s most famous white, there’s more Chardonnay planted here (3,100ha versus 2,600ha). Of red varieties, Cabernet and Merlot are kings (4,200ha and 3,300ha respectively), with Syrah a rising star (1,300ha). “Washington is in this weird state of being able to do a lot of things very well,” says Airfield Estates winemaker Marcus Miller. 

MERLOT EXCELS

Although Merlot is widely seen as a junior and lesser partner to Cabernet, here it excels, making wines with presence and structure. “Merlot is one of the stars of Washington State,” says Ste Michelle head winemaker Bob Bertheau. Caleb Foster, winemaker for J Bookwalter, is even more bullish: “Merlot here is the best in the world,” he says.

“In 20 years time Washington State will be known for Syrah,” says Jeff Lindsay-Thorsen, whose boutique operation, WT Vintners, is making some stunning wines from a lock-up in the Woodinville warehouse district. “Cabernet grows well in Washington, but Syrah reflects the place where it is grown.” Boo Walker, sales and marketing man at Hedges Family Estatem adds: “If Syrah were easier to sell, we would grow a lot of Syrah.”

Chris Camarda, whose Andrew Will winery has been one of the fine wine pioneers in the state, specialises in Bordeaux blends and backs a different variety. “Cabernet Franc is the most important grape in the state,” he claims. “I envision in 50 years’ time this state will be making wine like they do in Bordeaux, with the grapes that grow the best.”

Despite the dominance of more affordable wine, there’s a growing fine wine dimension here, too. Smaller producers are increasingly making wines that are attracting the attention of critics, and there’s a welcome move away from the big, riper-styled reds that have been popular in the past. This tendency to favour ripeness has been encouraged by the wine law that allows significant water addition to must to reduce the potential alcohol levels. 

“We do some water backs if the sugars get out of control,” admits Ste Michelle’s Berthau. But, he adds: “Winemakers and critics together are moving away from the high alcohol and sweet fruit combination.” Particular hot spots for high-end wines include the Walla Walla, Red Mountain and Columbia Gorge AVAs. It is likely Washington State’s fine wines are the ones that could finally put it on the radar of wine lovers, and end its identity crisis.