Oregon has some of the most stringent legal requirements in the United States. If the label states a varietal, the bottle must contain at least 90% of that grape variety. There is an exception made, however, for Cabernet Sauvignon, which only needs to contain 75%. The bottle must also contain 95% of the stated vintage [...]
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Oregon got on the international wine map in 1979, when a major French wine négociant, Robert Drouhin, held a blind tasting in Paris to compare Pinot Noirs. David Lett’s 1975 Pinot Noir took second in this competition, and suddenly the world was aware that Oregon could be a source of outstanding Pinot Noir. Today Oregon [...]
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Washington State currently has 9 AVA’s, with many more currently awaiting approval.
Puget Sound
Puget Sound is the only AVA west of the cascade mountains. This area does recieve a large amount of rain, but most of it happens during the winter, outside of the growing season. In the summer the weather is mild and dry. Because [...]
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Slightly more red wine is produced in Washington than white. The most common varietals include Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah, Chardonnay, Riesling, Sauvignon Blanc, and Semillon.
Merlot became known in the early 1990’s in Washington. The classic expression of Washington Merlot is flavors of sweet cherries and berries, and aromas like spice, mint, and cedar often add [...]
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Washington state’s wine history dates back as early as 1825, when French, German, and Italian immigrants planted vines. As in many other areas of the United States, however, Prohibition in the 1920’s dealt a huge blow to Washington’s wine business. After prohibition there were a few small wineries scattered across the state that produced very [...]
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Mendocino lies just to the North of Napa and Sonoma. It’s wine history dates back to the 1860’s, when immigrants to the area planted the first vines. Most of the wine produced in Mendocino was consumed only by the locals, and the isolated nature of the area due to mountains prevented a great deal of [...]
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Sonoma Valley AVA
Sonoma valley is a thin 25 mile long stretch that runs acorss the middle of the southern half of Sonoma county. It’s bordered on the east by the Mayacamas mountain range, which separates it from Napa. This part of Sonoma benefits from the cooling influences of the San Pablo Bay, much like Napa. [...]
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In the 1990’s, some growers began to support the idea of dividing the valley floor of Napa up into several sub-AVA’s, which would be named after the towns of the area, much like Bourdeaux’s appellations. The effort to create these AVA’s was never fully completed because the phylloxera outbreak became too demading on wine makers, [...]
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The Napa Valley is the name of a county, but it is also a general AVA that contains many smaller AVA’s within itself. The area is only 30 square miles, and it has about 250 wineries. The Napa Valley soil consists of a complex range of different sedimentary soils, caused by repeated flooding of an [...]
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As I discussed briefly before, one of UC Davis’s earliest contributions to California wine was the heat summation map. The system is based on the number of “degree-days” in a given area. Degree-days are determined by mutiplying a month’s average temperature above 50 by the number of days in the month, times 7 (April through [...]
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