Feature - The Future of Washington Wines

As of 2006, the winery and vineyard business in Washington state is very robust. There continue to be new wineries opening on a weekly basis, and wine grape production in 2005 was a record 116,760 tons. The question of "How high?" is a valid one, particularly in a region where the dotcom bust of the late twentieth century is still a fresh memory.

As America's second largest premium wine producer (after, you guessed it, California) the question may not be whether Washington can keep producing more and more wine, but whether they can produce a variety of quality wine for an ever-increasingly knowledgeable and savvy consumer.

Consider that three AVAs were established in Washington in the mid 1980s, then there was not another until Puget Sound AVA in 1995. Since 2001 5 more AVAs have been added, and there are at least two more in the works over the next few years. Just today the Rattlesnake Hills AVA (near the Yakima Valley) had officially been recognized as the state's ninth wine grape growing region.

Waiting in the wings are two other regions seeking appellation status. The Chelan area in north-central Washington and the Ancient Lake region near Moses Lake in central Washington.

This continuing "carving up" of the vast Columbia Valley AVA most likely represents a new facet of Washington wines to come. Instead of select varietals and a wide array of blends from the "Columbia Valley", these smaller appelations will compete against each other and tout the specific conditions of their areas, perhaps not unlike certain regions of France and Italy that are specifically known for certain wine grape types. The winner, in the end, will be the consumer.

IF the consumer(s) materialize, and more importantly, stick around. The wine industry in Washington has historically gone in cycles, as consumer taste, economic conditions, and most importantly the bold winemaker visionaries, ebb and wane. Is it possible that this new crop of vintners are the offspring of winemakers who turned consumers away from mellow/sweet table wines in the 1970s, and introduced fine, varietal table wines? And can these visionary winemakers hold the notoriously short attention span of American consumers?

The only thing for certain is that the wine industry will need to be a bold and dynamic, and embrace technology without overlooking the traditions and practices of winemaking that have sustained it for thousands of years.