Living: Washington's Bright New Wine

From the Pacific Northwest, a challenge to California

Until about 15 years ago, Washington State vintners, if they could be called that, were known chiefly for syrupy wines made from fruit and berries. Thus corks popped across the state in October 1974 when a '72 Chateau Ste. Michelle Johannisberg Riesling from Federal Way, Wash., won first place in a blind tasting organized by the Los Angeles Times; it beat out 14 California Johannisberg Rieslings, three German wines and an Australian entry.

Scores of awards later, the bright newcomers from Washington are just beginning to attract a national following. The state is the second biggest U.S. producer (after California) of Vitis vinifera grapes, the classic European wine varieties. It has the climate, soil and available land to become a wine region of world repute. Says Robert Finigan, editor-publisher of the newsletter Private Guide to Wines: "Washington is now where California was ten years ago."

The wine-growing areas are mostly in the arid south-central part of the state, in the Yakima and Columbia valleys, just north of the 46th parallel (about the same latitude as Bordeaux and Burgundy). The vineyards are sheltered from the heavy rainfall in the western part of the state by the Cascade Mountains, much as Alsace is protected by the Vosges. During the growing season, the Washington vineyards enjoy cool nights and in June, 17 hours or more of not-too-intense sunlight daily, allowing the grapes to ripen with good sugar-acid balance. The fruit tends to be tarter and crisper than California's, with a more intense flavor and aroma and a more pronounced varietal character.

There are now 31 wineries in Washington, twice as many as in 1980, and their numbers are growing fast. Most are small family operations such as Yakima River Winery, Neuharth Winery and Leonetti Cellars, all of which have won awards in the past two years. The biggest by far is Chateau Ste. Michelle, owned by U.S. Tobacco Co., whose three wineries produced 1.25 million gal. last year; it plans to expand to 2.5 million gal. by 1987. By comparison, the Napa Valley's long-established Beaulieu Vineyards makes less than 1 million gal. a year.

It was Beaulieu's venerable André Tchelistcheff, at 81 the dean of American wine makers, who helped stir the ferment in Washington wines. In 1967, he chanced across some Gewürztraminer, the spicy wine of Alsace, that had been made in a basement by the late Phil Church, a University of Washington professor. The sage of Beaulieu was astonished. "It was the best Gewürztraminer produced in the U.S.," he recalls. Tchelistcheff then turned his attention to a fledgling winery that became Chateau Ste. Michelle. The race was on. Church and colleagues began marketing wines in 1969 as Associated Vintners, now the state's fourth biggest winery. Associated is noted for its bone dry '80 Gewürztraminer and, in an area best suited to cool-climate white varietals, a robust '78 Pinot Noir. Hinzerling Vineyards, owned by Mike and Jerry Wallace, won a silver medal last year with its '78 Cabernet Sauvignon.