The Yakima Valley AVA

It produces a remarkable spectrum of world-class wine grapes

EDITOR’S NOTE: Information for this article was provided to DiscoverWashingtonWine.com by Wine Yakima Valley. To learn more about how you can enjoy the great wines of this region, call Wine Yakima Valley at (509) 965-520l, or visit the Association’s website at: www.wineyakimavalley.com

The Yakima Valley cultivates as much diversity and quality as any agricultural region on Earth. Apples, cherries, peaches, nectarines, pears, and more fill a rich cornucopia. Completing this bounty is a remarkable spectrum of world-class wine grapes.

The first grape vines in the valley are credited to a French winemaker named Charles Schanno, who in 1869, planted cuttings taken from the famous Hudson’s Bay Company trading outpost at Fort Vancouver.

But it was not until the very early 20th century that Seattle attorney William B. Bridgman pioneered the modern wine industry in the Yakima Valley.

Many of the vineyards established across the region during this time were planted from Bridgman’s own vine cuttings. Following the hiatus of Prohibition, Bridgman opened Upland Winery and initiated some of the earliest varietal labeling for American wines.

Scientific support for viticulture, or the craft of grape growing, began in the Yakima Valley as early as 1917. In that year, a 200-acre plot of sagebrush near the city of Prosser was designated as an agriculture research site.

Known today as the Irrigated Agriculture Research and Extension Center, it is operated by Washington State University and the USDA. In 1937, this facility hired Dr. Walter Clore, who initiated grape plantings that proved vital to the nascent Washington State wine industry.

Today’s Yakima Valley wine landscape likely emerged in 1962 when Associated Vintners purchased a 5.5-acre site near the town of Sunnyside. It was recommended by the pioneering Bridgeman for its elevation – above frosts along the valley floor – and the south-southwest-facing slopes that take advantage of Eastern Washington State’s sunshine. This became the Harrison Hill Vineyard, which is now farmed by the Newhouse Family for DeLille Cellars.

Even more remarkable vineyards came into being during the following decade. Mike Sauer planted his first three acres of Cabernet Sauvignon at Red Willow in 1973. Forty years later, grapes from Red Willow’s 140 acres supply many of America’s finest winemakers.

At almost the same time, in 1975, John Williams and Jim Holmes started with a dozen acres at Kiona on Red Mountain. Today, much like Red Willow, both Kiona and neighboring Ciel du Cheval supply fruit to Washington State’s finest wine labels.

A Planting Boom

During the 1980s, along with the rest of the Washington State wine industry, the Yakima Valley experienced a boom in the planting of new vineyards and the opening of new wineries. These included Hogue Cellars and Covey Run, both established in 1982, and Chinook Wines in 1983.

Then on March 23, 1983, the Yakima Valley appellation was officially designated by the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms. It was the first American Viticultural Area (AVA) in Washington State, and also the only recognized AVA north of California at that time.

Just four wineries operated in the new appellation: Kiona Vineyard and Winery, Hinzerling Winery, Yakima River Winery, and Tucker Cellars. But some of our region’s finest vineyards were coming on stream in those years, including the now-famous Boushey in 1980, Klipsun in 1984.

Across the following three decades, the Yakima Valley wine industry has consistently justified its status as the “first growth” of Washington State. From the earliest vintages until today, the Yakima Valley has grown more wine grapes for Washington wineries than has any other appellation.

The Yakima Valley AVA now cultivates more than 17,000 acres of vineyards. Yakima and Benton counties are home to more than 152 wineries, and collectively they make up more than half of the wine production in Washington State.

The Yakima Valley AVA stretches from just north of the city of Yakima to the wineries of Red Mountain in Benton City, which is just 11 miles north and west of the cities of Richland, Kennewick and Pasco (collectively known as the Tri-Cities).

The majority of the wineries in the Yakima Valley AVA can be reached by driving along Interstate 82 from Yakima to Benton City.  Many of them are located just off the exits, or are within close proximity, to the exits for the towns that dot I-82 from Yakima to Benton City.  Frequent visitors to Yakima Valley wineries become familiar with the exit signs for Wapato, Buena, Zillah, Toppenish, Granger, Outlook, Sunnyside, Grandview, Mabton and Prosser.

The best way to find all of the wineries in the Yakima Valley is to get a hold of the Valley’s “Winery Guide.” It’s a beautiful, four-color guide that includes a map of the entire Valley from Yakima to Red Mountain and gives you thumbnail sketches of many of the wineries along Interstate 82. To request a copy of this free guide, call Wine Yakima Valley at (509) 965-520l, or send them an e-mail at: wineyakimavalley@msn.com.

Prosser

Exits 80 and 82 will take you into the town of Prosser, which most wine historians refer to as “The Birthplace of Washington Wine.” Prosser is home to 35 wineries and the heralded Walter Clore Wine and Culinary Center.

The tasting rooms for 13 of Prosser’s wineries are located within the Vintners’ Village development, where visitors can walk from one winery to the next without having to get into their cars.

Wineries in Vintners’ Village include Airfield Estates, Coyote Canyon, Gamache Vintners, Gingkgo Forest, Martinez & Martinez, McKinley Springs, Milbrandt, Smasne Cellars, 2 Dor Wines, Thurston Wolfe, Willow Crest and the Bunnell Family Cellars, which also owns Wine O’Clock Wine Bar.

Prosser is also home to dozens of other wineries outside of Vintners Village. Those wineries include Desert Wind, Hogue Cellars, Mercer Estates, 14 Hands, Alexandria Nicole, Pontin del Roza, Kestrel Vintners, Chinook Winery, Wit Cellars, Domanico Cellars, DavenLore Winery, Barrel Springs Winery, Prosser Vineyard and Winery.  You will find a complete list of wineries in the Prosser area by visiting: www.TourProsser.com.

Just off of Exit 82 in Prosser you will find the Walter Clore Wine and Culinary Center. The center features year-round displays and education about Washington wines and celebrates local legend Walter Clore, recognized as the Father of Washington Wine by the State Legislature and the man behind the success of the wine industry in Washington State. They host monthly educational events and tastings as well as the annual Rising Stars Wine Tasting and the Legends of Washington Wine Gala each year.

Fire and Ice: Geology of the Yakima Valley AVA

The federal government designated the Yakima Valley AVA in early 1983; but the story of this appellation began much earlier … fifteen million years earlier.

Imagine molten lava flowing from huge fissures in the Earth’s crust around what is now eastern Washington State and northern Oregon. Hundreds of these outflows eventually covered the area under thousands of feet of basalt. The massive weight of this blanket of rock actually depressed the Earth’s crust, forming the region now called the Columbia Basin.

At the western edge of this basin, the volcanoes of the ancient Cascade Mountains spewed out their own lava. Ash and volcanic sediments rained down into rivers and lakes to the east of the mountains, and these deposits became intermingled with those old Columbia Basin basalts. The combined material is called the Ellensburg Formation, and this special alluvial-volcanic mix can be seen across the Yakima Valley today.

Meanwhile, the ancestral Columbia River that flowed through this region brought in pebbles and stones from outside the Columbia Basin, including granite and quartzite. These smooth, rounded rocks still lace the soils along the old channel of the river. The terrain remains as open and clean as when cataclysmic floods swept through at the end of the ice age.

The soil components are uniformly silt and sand with quartz and micas — and nearly devoid of organic matter or pests common to the rest of the wine world. Water drains through these soils with remarkable ease, and this forces vines to send their root systems deep.

Such an unalloyed foundation also allows Yakima Valley to grow un-grafted vines. It’s a very traditional, but now very unusual, technique — and possible only because of our special geology. The end result is grapes and then wines that are completely true to their varietal character.

Rain Shadow Effect

The Yakima Valley enjoys 300 days of sunshine each year, including more summer sun than even San Diego, Phoenix, or Honolulu. That’s a big surprise to people who associate Washington State with rain. But the snowcapped volcanoes of the Cascade Mountains dramatically influence the weather in this corner of the country.

Skies that are cloudy in Seattle turn clear by the time you reach the Yakima Valley, only about two hours’ drive to the east. Climate scientists call this phenomenon a “rain shadow.”

Most of Washington State’s weather comes off the Pacific Ocean. The vibrant green landscapes along the coast and around the Puget Sound are the direct result of these very moist west-to-east atmospheric currents.

And when those masses of moving air hit the Cascades, they are forced to rise and cool rapidly. Such a quick shift releases huge amounts of mountain precipitation – more than 80 inches a year or double the amount that falls on Seattle.

So by the time those clouds reach eastern Washington State, they have nothing left to give. They dissipate, and the skies over the Yakima Valley are left clear and sunny. The region gets only 7 to 8 inches of precipitation each year, and the definition of a true desert is anything less than 10.

High Desert Region

How do wine grapes grow in a desert? The answer is irrigation. Yakima Valley’s wine industry captures pure mountain snowmelt from the Cascades as it flows into regional river systems and vast natural aquifers. The water is then applied to vineyards with scientific accuracy.

Drip Irrigation

Abundant sunshine and clean water are crucial to world-class wine grape cultivation. But they are not sufficient. Seasonal temperature totals or what scientists call heat accumulation are equally vital to thriving vines; and this is where the Yakima Valley really shines.

On the wine region classification system developed by the University of California at Davis, the Yakima Valley’s 2,600 to 3,000 “growing-degree (F) days” define this AVA as “Region II” and place it on par with the Bordeaux wine region of France.

Even better is the way this heat accumulates. If it were uniformly warm all season long, Yakima Valley’s grapes would lose their natural acidity and the resulting wines would be flabby.

However, there is a dramatic difference between day and night temperatures in this valley during the growing season: afternoon highs in the 80s (F) plunge down to the 50s (F) after midnight. It’s what climate scientists call a significant diurnal shift; and those dramatic temperature swings enable grapes to retain their natural, flavor-enhancing acids.

Regions that lack such ideal conditions can “fix” the quality of the grapes that they harvest — through chemical additions or other manipulations in the winery — but it’s never quite like Mother Nature’s own touch

Average Rainfall

So what does all this mean to the wines of the Yakima Valley? In a word: balance.

The climate of this region combines sunshine and water as well as heat and cold like almost nowhere else on earth. The end result is grapes that are ripe and yet crisp; and those become wines that are lush and yet fresh.

Most remarkable is the way this balance is achieved across multiple varieties — from Riesling and Chardonnay to Syrah, Merlot, and Cabernet. When people ask which grapes grow well in the Yakima Valley, the best response might be which grapes don’t grow well here.

Grape Varieties

Varieties of grapes grown in the Yakima Valley:

REDS: MERLOT – 2,090 acres; CABERNET SAUVIGNON – 1,350 acres; SYRAH — 650 acres; CABERNET FRANC — 250 acres; OTHER REDS – Lemberger; Sangiovese (the classic wine grape of Chianti); Malbec (one of the five permitted red varietals of Bordeaux).

WHITES: CHARDONNAY — 3,180 acres (Yakima Valley’s most widely planted grape); RIESLING — 920 acres; SEMILLON –150 acres; SAUVIGNON BLANC — 270 acres; GEWÜRZTRAMINER — 420 acres; OTHER WHITES — Chenin Blanc; Pinot Gris; Viognier.