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About Capital press. (Salem, OR) 19??-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 8, 2017)
12 CapitalPress.com September 8, 2017 Puget Sound’s wine region Established in 1995, the Puget Sound American Viticulture Area (AVA) is unique in that it has a temperate maritime climate. More than 60 percent of the wine produced is red with Pinot noir being the most planted variety. British Columbia Puget Sound AVA comes of age By SHERYL HARRIS For the Capital Press Wash. Bellingham Vancouver Island Puget Sound AVA 5 a Canad U.S. 101 Port Angeles Everett 405 Seattle Area in detail Redmond 101 2 90 Tacoma Olympia 101 Centralia Chehalis 12 N 5 30 miles Source: www.washingtonwine.org Wash. Ore. Longview Alan Kenaga/Capital Press Washington State has 14 federally recognized American Viticulture Ar- eas, but only the Puget Sound AVA is on the west- ern side of the Cascade Range. Established in 1995, the Puget Sound AVA reaches from the Canadian border on the north to just below Olym- pia on the south, and east into the foothills of the Cascades and to the west including the islands and mainland adja- cent to Puget Sound. The region’s 92 vine- yard acres produce only about 1 percent of the state’s Anthony and Matt will help you conserve water and energy and put the savings in your pocket! Anthony Tasselli Matt Corcoran is a Drip/Micro Specialist and has trained with Matt the last several years. He has an Ag and Environmental Technology degree from North Carolina State, is fully trained in Irricad Design, plus is a certified Nelson Twig System Designer. is a certified Irrigation Designer with over 30 years of irrigation experience, specializing in Micro-Irrigation, Filtration, and Water Treatment. Matt can provide you a uniform, efficient design that conserves water and energy. Ernst Irrigation is a full service dealership, including a Supervising Electrician on staff. We can handle it! Website: www.ErnstIrrigation.com Please call today, 503-633-1111 20179 MAIN ST. • ST. PAUL, OR 97137 “It is often necessary to log a property fi rst, and that takes a lot of money, especially for a sole proprietor.” Mike Lempriere, Perennial Vintners owner wine grapes. Puget Sound AVA’s 45 or so wineries are a small por- tion of the state’s more than 900 wineries. Most, such as Perennial Vintners, and many other wineries on Bainbridge Island and throughout the Puget Sound AVA, use local- ly grown grapes for at least a few estate-grown wines, although they may purchase grapes from Eastern Wash- ington or elsewhere to pro- duce other wines. AVAs are wine grape growing regions defi ned by the Alcohol and Tobac- co Tax and Trade Bureau and established at the re- quest of wineries or other petitioners, according to the Washington State Wine Commission. It takes in-depth research to defi ne soil types, climate, and whatever it is that makes a proposed AVA unique. Some soil types produce dif- Sheryl Harris/For the Capital Press ferent types of wine. Others are affected by the number Mike Lempriere talks about his wines as he pours for visitors at the of hot days and the amount Perennial Vintners tasting room on Bainbridge Island. of rain. Within the Puget Sound endanger the plants. The cli- especially for a sole pro- AVA, the climate has “long, mate and the long daylight prietor,” Perennial Vint- mild and dry summers.” With hours of this latitude — 46 ners owner Mike Lempriere an average of 15 to 30 inch- degrees North, the same as said, pointing to a dense- es of precipitation per year, France’s Loire Valley — also ly forested portion of his property. however, there is suffi cient help the vineyards thrive. The predominant vari- In this area, you can’t al- rainfall that, unlike vineyards of the state’s arid to semi-arid ways just run out and plant etals planted in the Puget eastern areas, growers don’t a vineyard, no matter how Sound AVA are Madeleine Angevine, Siegerebbe and many acres you have. need to irrigate. “It is often necessary Muller-Thurgau. While it does freeze in Lempriere has all three, winter, it is seldom cold to log a property fi rst, and enough for long enough to that takes a lot of money, plus Zwiegelt.
