State of the Puget Sound AVA wine industry (Spring 2020)
When I started getting into growing grapes in 1998 there were only a handful of established vineyards in the Puget Sound AVA. They were Bainbridge Island Vineyards and Winery, San Juan Vineyards, Whidbey Island Vineyards, Mt. Baker Vineyards and Lopez Island Vineyards and a few smaller ones. Gerard Bentryn had just gotten approval for the Puget Sound AVA in 1995, so it was fairly new at that point. When I got involved, wine grapes had been grown successfully in Western Washington for at least 20 or so years to that point in time. The wine industry in WA state was still in it’s infancy compared to today. Maybe there were a couple hundred wineries in 1998. Now there are well over 1000. The number of wineries making Puget Sound grown wine have remained pretty static over the past 25 years. New ones appear and older ones fall off but it’s less than 20 wineries that use Puget Sound grapes.
We had only a few grapes at our disposal in 1998, Madeleine Angevine, Muller-Thurgau, Siegerrebe, Pinot Noir and Pinot Gris made up the majority of the grapes grown. There were many old hybrids that had been around for a long time. Leon Millot. Marcheal Foch and Island Belle were the old time grapes that people grew. Unfortunately, they mainly made mediocre wine in my humble opinion. We as a group were looking for grapes from the old world that would grow world class wines. We were seeing what was going on in Oregon and due to our similar climate, we thought why not?
The WSU Mt. Vernon Research station had just started up a new grape growing program in the mid 1990s to try and identify the best grapes for Western Washington. Gary Moulton lead the effort at Mt. Vernon until 2009. In 2011 the grape research program at Mt. Vernon was shutdown to the chagrin to many growers. I had mixed emotions about the grapes trials back then. I thought they did good work at promoting some grapes, but Mt. Vernon was never a good spot to work with grapes because of the really cool weather there. At this point, I think there is more than enough research out there for cool climate grape growing that we really don’t need much more research in the Puget Sound AVA. If I could have my way and do my own extensive research, that would include root stocks and clones. But Gary did make one amazing find before he left Mt. Vernon and that was the Pinot Noir Precoce grape. Years later we are still thanking him for introducing it to us.
As I’ve said to anybody that will listen, we need a couple of things to happen for the Puget Sound AVA to establish itself in the minds of the public. We need a critical mass of wineries making high quality wines. Right now, we only have about 15 wineries making Puget Sound AVA wines. (There are over 300 wineries in the Puget Sound AVA, but they import their fruit from Eastern Washington). The Puget Sound AVA is never going to be the force that Eastern WA wine industry is. But at the same time, people like vineyards and farming in their backyards.
It would be really nice to see a large operation move into Western Washington and establish a large estate grown vineyard and winery. Currently the largest operation is Challenger Ridge with about 10 acres planted, (This operation went bust around 2012) but still tiny by most standards. There were rumors a few years ago a Champagne house was looking for land, but nothing came of it. The biggest operation remains Bainbridge Vineyards with over 10 acres of grapes.
I think that if the Pinot Noir Precoce (Fruburgunder) clone really comes through, like early trials have shown, this could be the grape that puts the Puget Sound AVA on the map. While some of the other clones of Pinot Noir work in the warmer locations, this could be a grape that all growers could plant and produce a decent red wine. Regent is another grape that needs more testing. My efforts have been fairly successful, but we need to work optimal crop levels and mainly winemaking practices since it is a unique grape needs special attention in the cellar.
One other area for growth is disease resistant grapes like Regent and Rondo. I think if marketed right this a growth industry since these could be “no-spray” grapes require less attention in the vineyard and reduce costs while still making great wines. I would like to see more research in this area. I’m trying to dig up as many grapes new and old as possible that fit this model. Time will tell. I have been working with some people that have imported some of the Blattner varieties from Canada and they show a lot of promise. I have 2 year old vines now and maybe a small crop next year (2021).
In my opinion, the Puget Sound AVA will remain a niche AVA in the minds of consumers, but that doesn’t detract from the world class wines we can grow here!