Meet Washington’s newest AVAs Part 2: Goose Gap

 This is the second in a three-part series on newly approved appellations in Washington. Read part one on White Bluffs here.

Tomorrow the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) will officially recognize Goose Gap as a federally approved grape growing region. This comes two weeks after the approvals of White Bluffs and The Burn of Columbia Valley, giving Washington a total of 19 appellations.

“It's a good mix between the Yakima Valley and Red Mountain,” Juan Muñoz-Oca, chief winemaker at Ste Michelle Wine Estates, says of Goose Gap. “It has the freshness of the Yakima Valley. It has the ability to hold on to acidity yet has a punch of fruit from the heat that they get.”

Goose Gap’s combination of Red Mountain and Yakima Valley profiles is not by accident. Goose Hill, a 1,339-foot prominence within the appellation, lies approximately three miles almost due south of the summit of Red Mountain. That sub-appellation of Yakima Valley also defines Goose Gap's northern boundary. The Candy Mountain appellation forms part of the northeast border.

As a growing region, Goose Gap has two key distinguishing features. The first is the orientation of the crest of Goose Hill. Like many other Columbia Valley appellations, Goose Hill is a Yakima Fold Belt structure, a series of wrinkles in the landscape. Other prominences in this area, such as Red Mountain, Candy Mountain, and Badger Mountain, have crests that lie northwest to southeast. In contrast, Goose Hill’s crest lies east-west.

Red Mountain and Candy Mountain have more gentle slopes on their south-southwestern sides. For this reason, as well as these slope’s angle to the sun, most vineyard plantings are on these aspects. In contrast, due to its different orientation, Goose Hill has a gentle north-facing slope and a steeper south-facing side. The majority of Goose Gap’s vines are therefore planted on north-northeast facing slopes. This differences in aspect decreases the solar radiation the grapes receive during the growing season.

“Goose, the way that it sits, it’s so different from all of the other mountains around it,” says Sydney Anderson, viticulturalist at Goose Ridge Estate Vineyard and Winery, which lies within the appellation. She notes that the Yakima River, which flows to the west and north of Goose Gap, also influences the weather in the appellation.

“We get this dividing of clouds and fog and weather that’s almost like a rain shadow effect. We’ll be in the fog and you drive to Benton City, and all of a sudden it just clears up or vice versa.” This difference in orientation and weather lead to grapes in Goose Gap ripening as much as a week or more later than nearby sites on Red Mountain and Candy Mountain.

“We will be watching our neighbors harvest different varieties that we won’t start harvesting for a while,” Anderson says. Though like Red Mountain and Candy Mountain, Goose Gap is a warm growing region – averaging approximately 3350 Growing Degree Days – this difference in aspect gives it a unique combination of traditional Yakima Valley and Red Mountain profiles.

“The wines that we've made from Goose in the past have a common thread, and you can identify those as you're tasting them,” says Muñoz-Oca.

The appellation’s other key distinguishing feature is its soils. Five soil series – Warden, Shano, Kiona, Hezel, and Prosser – make up almost 95% of the area. However, nearly two-thirds of the soils are Warden series, a greater percentage than the surrounding appellations.

“I remember Wade Wolfe [of Thurston Wolfe Winery] saying a long time ago ‘Cabernet Sauvignon loves the Warden soils,’” says geologist Alan Busacca, whose company Vinitas Consultants was hired to write the appellation petition. “Perhaps it's the high water holding capacity of the loess cap that helps make it very resilient to drought stress.”

Warden soils have on average 20 inches of loess – windblown silt and sand – overlying stratified slackwater sediment from the Missoula Floods, a series of cataclysmic events that define most of Columbia Valley’s soils. This makes the soils ideal for irrigated viticulture. Together Warden and Shano series soils make up 85% of the area currently planted to vineyards.

Goose Gap is a sub-appellation of Yakima Valley, which itself is wholly contained within the larger Columbia Valley. Both Goose Hill and Goose Gap receive their name from the area being a common flight path for waterfowl. Goose Gap itself is a saddle between Goose Hill to the west and Badger and Candy Mountains to the east.

Elevations range from 577 feet to 1,339 feet above sea level, with the top of Goose Hill above the Missoula Floods, which had a maximum elevation of 1,200 feet. The area receives approximately seven inches of precipitation annually.

Goose Gap is 8,129 total acres in size, with 1,810 acres planted to grapevines across two commercial vineyards. These vineyards are Goose Ridge Estate Vineyard, which contains the vast majority of plantings, and an Aquilini Brands property. Interstate 82 bisects the northern portion of the appellation. Goose Ridge is the sole winery within the appellation’s boundaries, with all of the fruit coming from its estate site. There are also hundreds of acres of tree fruit within Goose Gap.

In addition to Goose Ridge, more than 20 other wineries source fruit from Goose Gap, with other major producers including Ste Michelle Wine Estates, Precept Wine, and House of Smith. Cabernet Sauvignon makes up almost 40% of plantings, followed by Chardonnay (25%), Merlot (14%), and Syrah (14%). However, due to its varied elevations, aspects, and soils, there are 16 grape varieties planted within Goose Gap’s borders.

“There is so much diversity in such a small area,” says Andrew Wilson, winemaker at Goose Ridge. “It makes it an exciting place to make wine.”

Arvid Monson, whose family had already been growing crops in Yakima Valley for decades, established the first plantings at Goose Gap. As is often the case in Washington, the influence of Dr. Walter Clore, the father of Washington wine, can be felt in the appellation.

“Dr. Clore spent many, many, many hours here in the vineyard before it was developed with my dad, going through the sagebrush,” says Molly Monson-Stutesman, co-owner and vice president at Goose Ridge. “He helped lay out the vineyard.” The first vines in Goose Gap were planted in 1998, and Goose Ridge made its first wines the following year.

With the approval of Goose Gap, Yakima Valley now has five sub-appellations: Rattlesnake Hills, Snipes Mountain, Red Mountain, Goose Gap, and Candy Mountain. Altogether, the Columbia Valley has 15 sub-appellations, with major implications for how Washington wine is perceived. There are two other proposed appellations in Washington that have been submitted for approval to the TTB, Rocky Reach and Wanapum Village.

Image of Goose Gap looking at Badger Mountain by Richard Duval. 

Topographic cross-sections of Goose Gap and nearby AVAs from appellation petition. 

Soil map from appellation petition.

Map of all Washington appellations courtesy of the Washington Wine Commission.

Divide and conquer: What carving up the Columbia Valley means for Washington wine

Winemakers hope new growing regions ultimately lead to greater recognition for the state

   

Washington State suddenly finds itself with a surfeit of new grape growing appellations, with the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) announcing the approval of two new American Viticultural Areas (AVAs). This comes on the heels of two approvals last year, as growers and winemakers increasingly subdivide the Columbia Valley, Washington’s largest growing region. 

 “I love the specificity,” says Bob Betz, MW, founder of Betz Family Winery, of carving up the Columbia Valley. “I love the precision and detail that it brings to the consumer.”

Read the full article here. 

Image of Bacchus and Dionysus vineyards in White Bluffs by Richard Duval. 

Meet Washington’s newest AVAs Part 1: White Bluffs

Of the four appellations Washington has gained in the last nine months^✝, White Bluffs – which was approved today by the Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) along with The Burn of Columbia Valley – is the biggest slam dunk.

“It’s long been known but not named,” Kent Waliser, director of vineyard operations at Sagemoor Vineyards, said recently of the appellation.

Indeed, some of the state’s oldest producing vineyards are in the area. Nearly one in every 10 Washington wineries source fruit from White Bluffs. Additionally, the quality of the resulting wines has proven itself over decades.

Wholly contained within the larger Columbia Valley and spanning 93,738 total acres, White Bluffs has 1,127 acres planted to grape vines. The appellation has nine commercial vineyards and one winery, Claar Cellars. The most planted varieties are Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Syrah, Riesling, and Sauvignon Blanc.

Grape vines were first planted in the region starting in 1972 at Bacchus and Dionysus vineyards. These sites are part of Sagemoor Vineyards, which also farms Sagemoor and Gamache in White Bluffs. Together these vineyards comprise the majority of plantings in the appellation. Other vineyards include High River, Mirage, Reed, Wooded Island, and White Bluffs – an estate site for Claar Cellars.

White Bluffs has two main distinguishing features. First, the appellation lies on a plateau approximately 200 feet above the surrounding area. The Columbia River flows south by the appellation’s western boundary, with White Bluffs beginning on the escarpment above the river.

“All the significant acres are on bluffs,” notes Waliser. “The area is kind of like an island.”

The analogy is apt, as this plateau did not rise up from the surrounding area but rather remained after the surrounding land was inundated with water and eroded by the Missoula Floods, a series of cataclysmic, ice age events.

This modest additional elevation, which brings the area from 800 feet above sea level up to about 1,000, allows cool air to drain and helps protect against frosts and freezes. Along with airflow from the Columbia River, this extends the growing season by an average of 45 days relative to lower lying regions. Given that frost and freeze events are the Columbia Valley’s Achilles heel, this gives White Bluffs an advantage.

“Anything that can get you up off the floor of the valley is good,” says Kevin Pogue, a geologist at Whitman College and principal at VinTerra Consulting who was hired to write the appellation application. “Anything that extends your growing season and makes you a little warmer is good.” Waliser says the effects are readily apparent. 

“There are vines planted in those vineyards that never froze to the ground since, in our case, ’72.”

The White Bluffs’ second major distinguishing feature is the appellation’s subsoil, which is referred to as Ringold Formation. This is a thick deposit of ancient river and lakebed sediment. On top of the Ringold Formation is a hard layer of caliche (calcium carbonate). Above that are Missoula Flood deposits along with windblown silt and sand.

The thick Ringold Formation and hard caliche layer mean that, unlike almost all other areas of the Columbia Valley, vines planted in White Bluffs will never reach bedrock. “I purposely drew the boundary so that any vine planted in the in the AVA can't possibly get its roots into basalt bedrock,” Pogue notes.

Vines will therefore interact with a different suite of minerals. Basalt is rich in iron and magnesium. In contrast, Ringold Formation is higher in sodium, potassium, and calcium Pogue says. Additionally, these sediments have a higher clay content. This increases water holding capacity, an important factor in a grapegrowing region where irrigation is vital.

The Ringold Formation runs approximately 30 miles, the length of the appellation. It is exposed in the escarpment above the Columbia River. The white striations in the Ringold Formation, caused by volcanic ash and caliche deposits, give White Bluffs its name.

John Bookwalter, president of J. Bookwalter in Richland, is intimately familiar with the area. His father Jerry moved to Washington in 1975 to manage Sagemoor Vineyards, and John grew up in a home above Bacchus and Dionysus vineyards. These vineyards are the winery's second largest fruit source.

Bookwalter says the added elevation and proximity to the Columbia River make the area special.

“It's all about the drainage of the air due to the Columbia River,” Bookwalter says. “It’s not as hot as some areas or as cool as others. There’s power and then the tannin profile still tends to be pretty approachable.”

Mike Januik, owner and winemaker at Januik Winery and winemaker at Novelty Hill, has similarly been using White Bluffs fruit for decades. He says the history of grapegrowing also separates the area.

“They’ve been doing this for a long time,” Januik says. “They've got those vineyards figured out.”

Beginning July 19th, wineries can submit labels with White Bluffs on them to the TTB for approval. Given the large number of producers sourcing fruit from the region – a number of whom have already been making vineyard designated bottles for years – Washington wine lovers can expect to see White Bluffs on bottles shortly thereafter.

However, Claar Cellars’ owner Robert Whitelatch, whose family has long advocated for the area to gain appellation status, says the approval is just the beginning of achieving consumer awareness.

“The job’s not over, Whitelatch says. “The job is just starting.”

✝ Candy Mountain, Royal Slope, White Bluffs, and The Burn of Columbia Valley have been approved in the last nine months.

Picture courtesy of Kent Waliser, Sagemoor Vineyards. 

Graphic from White Bluffs appellation application, courtesy of Kevin Pogue. 

See a map of all Washington appellations here. The two newly approved appellations bring Washington's total number to 18.

Jeremy Santo named winemaker at J. Bookwalter

J. Bookwalter in Richland, Washington has named Jeremy Santo as head winemaker. The hiring comes as the winery prepares to move into a new facility.

“I'm excited about having Jeremy on board,” says John Bookwalter, president of the 50,000 case per year winery. “We continue to grow, modestly, and I needed a winemaker that could accommodate the growth. Jeremy has had a lot of success working at [our] scale.”

Santo joined the Washington wine industry in 2003, first working as a lab technician at Snoqualmie Winery. In 2006, he joined Ste Michelle Wine Estate's Canoe Estate Ridge Winery, where he eventually became assistant winemaker. In 2012, Santo joined Wahluke Wine Company, where he was responsible for the Ryan Patrick wines. Most recently, he was winemaker at Mercer Estates, overseeing production at the 60,000 case per year winery.

“Having grown up in Prosser, the interest for me [in Bookwalter], it's been there forever,” Santo says. “The winery has such a great heritage, the grape sourcing is amazing, and the Bookwalter quality is through the roof. It’s a great thing to walk into.”

Santo will also soon be walking into a brand new winery. Bookwalter is in the midst of completing a 20,000-square foot building that will include a production space, a new tasting room, and indoor and outdoor event spaces. The winery will start moving into the new building next month.

“I've always said qualitatively we can move the needle a few points just by changing the way we handle our wines,” Bookwalter says. “We've always been a bit challenged because of the diverse use of our building and storage areas. This is going to make a big difference for us.”

In addition to its winery, J. Bookwalter also has an attached restaurant, Fiction. As the winery and tasting room move to the new building, the restaurant will gain space.

“It adds about 4,000 square feet,” Bookwalter says. “Ultimately we’ll be able to move the kitchen around so we have more space for the kitchen and that area becomes a banquet area. We’ll be doing it in phases.”

J. Bookwalter was founded by Jerry Bookwalter in 1982. Bookwalter had overseen plantings at some of Washington’s oldest vineyards and also managed Connor Lee Vineyard. His son John subsequently joined the winery in 1997 and has since grown it to be one of Washington’s most successful producers.

Santo follows Caleb Foster, who left the winery earlier this spring after seven years as winemaker.

Image of Jeremy Santo by Richard Duval.

Betz Family will not release 2020 vintage Washington, Oregon wines

Concerns of smoke impact leads winery to discard vintage

Today Woodinville’s Betz Family Winery, one of Washington’s most highly regarded producers, announced that it will not release its 2020 vintage wines from Washington and Oregon. The decision, which was announced to customers via email, comes amid concerns about the effect of wildfire smoke on wine quality.

“It’s a brutal decision, but it’s an easy one,” says owner Steve Griessel. “We couldn’t release the wines.”

Founded in 1997, Betz Family sources fruit from throughout Washington’s Columbia Valley for its Betz wines and from areas of Oregon’s Willamette Valley for its SuNu wines. Wildfire smoke blanketed the entire west coast of the US in September of 2020, with large fires in areas of California and Oregon.

Due to the widespread nature of the smoke, many commercial laboratories were unable to test for smoke influence in grapes prior to harvest. Subsequently, many wineries, such as Betz Family, were in the difficult position of determining whether to proceed with picking fruit.

“We decided at that point in time there was no way we could say to growers, ‘Look. We’re just not picking,’” says Griessel, who purchased the winery with his wife Bridgit in 2011. “We thought that would be incredibly unfair because how do you know whether you’ve got [smoke impact] or not?”

Griessel says after the wines went through primary and secondary fermentations, the smoke influence became apparent from a sensory perspective.

“Some had let’s call it a low impact, where there was just a muting of the fruit, but still, there was an impact, then all the way up to very high,” Griessel says.

Laboratory analyses subsequently confirmed the presence of smoke marker compounds at varying levels. This, along with sensory analyses, cemented the winery’s decision not to move forward with the wines.

“We determined that there's absolutely no way we would ever produce a [2020] vintage of Betz or our new [Willamette Valley] project that we started in 2017, SuNu,” Griessel says. “Even if someone couldn't taste it, we know it's there.”

The 2020 Betz Rhône-style wines and SuNu Pinot Noirs were scheduled to be released in the fall of 2022, with the Bordeaux-style wines released the following spring. None of this will happen. The winery is now planning for the consequences.

“In simple terms, you've got to find a way to release two years’ worth of wine over three years, so you aren’t suddenly faced with the fact that you have no inventory,” Griessel says. “You’ve just got to get through that, and we can. It’s not pretty I can tell you, but it’s doable.”

For a winery that produces 6,000 to 7,000 cases annually at prices ranging from $35 to $120, the financial impact of a lost vintage is enormous. Additionally, Griessel says, to his knowledge, no insurance exists for wineries with smoke impacted wines. This stands in contrast to growers, who can purchase crop insurance. However, that insurance only applies to non-harvested fruit.

“Our growers have been very sympathetic to the smoke taint issues we faced in 2020, and many have borne the pain with us,” Griessel says. “This is a very big structural issue I think for wineries in general in terms of how we survive [as an industry] going forward.” 

Smoke influence in wine is complex, with factors such as proximity, intensity, duration, variety, and timing contributing to any potential impact on the resulting wines. Smoke in the air doesn’t mean there will be smoke taint in the wines. Similarly smoke impact at one winery doesn’t mean there will be the same impact at another, with vineyard sourcing, picking dates, winemaking decisions, and other factors all having an influence. For this reason, some wineries might emerge from 2020 unscathed; others might not.

“People are going to have to make their own choices,” Griessel says. “It's a brutal, brutal thing because this might be the end of some wineries. Then there are going to be wineries that completely escaped this, and then others that have maybe small amounts, and no one will ever notice. We had to make the best decision for ourselves and for our customers.”

Seven Hills Winery founder retires, assistant named winemaker

Seven Hills Winery, one of Walla Walla Valley’s founding wineries, announced this week the retirement of co-founder Casey McClellan. Bobby Richards, who has worked at the winery since 2013, has been named winemaker.

“It’s been a fun run,” says McClellan, who founded Seven Hills with his wife Vicky in 1988 as the valley’s fifth winery. “It’s been constant growth, constant hard work.”

Seven Hills Winery and the McClellan family have played integral roles in establishing Walla Walla Valley as a premier wine region. In addition to the winery’s success, Casey worked with his father, James, and Herb Hendricks to establish the valley’s first commercial vineyard in 1982.

“A lot has changed,” McClellan says. “We've gone from five wineries to over 100 [wineries] and 3,000 acres of vineyards now. It does not look like the same place.”

Seven Hills Winery has made its mark over the years crafting classically styled wines known for their restraint and aging potential. Even as the wine industry more broadly moved toward riper (and riper) styles, Seven Hills did not.

“I think if we would have been willing to bend the style more dramatically, it would have been a more market-friendly approach, but we really wanted to stand for something in wine, and we did. We stayed the course,” McClellan says.

New winemaker Bobby Richards is a Northwest native who became interested in fermentation science in college. After graduating with a degree in forest management from Oregon State University, he spent two harvests at Benton-Lane Winery in Monroe, Oregon and went on to become a cellar hand at Tranche Cellars in Walla Walla. Richards subsequently worked a harvest at Seven Hills Winery in 2013. He was eventually hired on full-time and worked his way up to associate winemaker.

“I’ve got big shoes to fill,” Richards says. “I want to stay true to what Seven Hills is, showcasing the unique terroir that we have here in Walla Walla. I want to keep crafting wines that are food friendly [and] ageable, with nice balance, without oak overshadowing the fruit.”

This week’s change was not unexpected. The McClellans sold Seven Hills Winery to Crimson Wine Group in 2016, with Vicky McClellan retiring at that time. Several other long-time valley wineries, such as 

Tamarack Cellars and Walla Walla Vintners, have also been sold to new owners in recent years.

“There’s a changing of the guard here in Walla Walla,” says Richards. “We have these pioneers that are now retiring, and that have raised a family here, created this community such that there's opportunity for people like me to continue in this family-oriented business and community that Walla Walla has.”

While stepping aside from full-time work, McClellan will continue to consult for Seven Hills.

“I’ll be there for Bobby when he has a question about how things historically worked and try to be helpful in the way of maintaining continuity stylistically,” says McClellan. “But I have every confidence in Bobby.”

Images courtesy of Crimson Wine Group. 

Southwind Vineyard purchased by Sagemoor, private equity firm

Sagemoor Vineyards announced today that it had partnered with a private equity firm to purchase Southwind Vineyard in Walla Walla Valley.

“We’ve been looking for properties that fit our business model and are known to raise exceptional grapes. Southwind certainly fits that and already has pedigree, which was a big attraction,” says Kent Waliser, director of wine and grape sales at Sagemoor.

Southwind is the largest property within SeVein, a 2,700 acre project located on the south side of Walla Walla Valley. The vineyard was established in 2007 and currently has approximately 70 acres planted to grape vines. Walla Walla’s Dusted Valley receives fruit from approximately 30 acres on a long-term agreement.

“For us, if we imagined 100 outcomes, Sagemoor purchasing [Southwind] is about the best we could have come up with,” says Chad Johnson, owner and winegrower at Dusted Valley. “We’ve worked with Sagemoor for years, and for custom farming, they are great.”

Southwind is notable for having sections that reach high up to SeVein’s ridgeline. The area has near constant winds, so much so that a wind farm is nearby.

“That whole hillside is pretty unique,” Johnson says. “Wind is a big part of the terroir. [Southwind] has the thickest skins of any of the sites I’ve worked with, and with that comes everything: flavor, tannin, acid, and a little bit more concentration.”

Other wineries using Southwind fruit include Devison and Oregon’s Domaine Serene. The property includes a "Glass House" used for industry events.

Sagemoor’s holdings have previously included Bacchus and Dionysus vineyards in the proposed White Bluffs appellation and Weinbau Vineyard on the Wahluke Slope. Gamache Vineyard in Columbia Valley was added in 2016. This is Sagemoor’s first investment in Walla Walla Valley.

“It broadens our reach and our diversity of what we can plant and grow,” says Waliser, who notes Sagemoor already has 30 clients in the valley sourcing fruit from its other vineyards.

Chris Banek of Banek Winegrower Management currently farms Southwind and will continue to through at least the 2021 vintage, with Sagemoor planning additional plantings in 2022.

To purchase Southwind, Sagemoor partnered with Resource Land Holdings, a private equity firm based in Denver, Colorado. Metis, a Northwest-based mergers and acquisitions advisory firm, worked with both parties on the sale.

Image by Richard Duval.