The 2015 Washington State Wine Tour
Guide just came out. The lead article is Fire
and Ice by Julie H. Case. Why is this article important? Well, a lot of
other writers will look at it for content and copy it. I found it a little
confusing but other than that it seems accurate. It is written in a style that
is meant to be exciting (not instructive) which makes it a little hard to
follow.
First off, the picture they chose
is of Mt. Hood in Oregon. Although the picture was taken in Washington, all the
land shown is in Oregon. A picture of Mt. Adams in Washington from the
Rattlesnake Hills AVA would be more appropriate.
In the fine print, the story is
essentially correct. But I quote, "Vines scatter across a basalt cliff
formed by ancient volcanoes." When one thinks of volcanoes, the picture of
the beautiful stratovolcanoes of the Cascade Range comes to mind; one of which
is Mt. Hood along with Mt. Adams. The other type of volcano is the shield volcano, like Mauna Loa in Hawaii.
Ancient volcanoes consist of remnant cores like Morro Rock in California. None
of this will be found in the Columbia Plateau. Shortly after the eruptions, the
land was perfectly flat. It wasn't until California started pushing northward
into the "perfect climate for wine" did the wrinkling occur. I assume
with global warming California will continue to push northward - in more ways
than one.
The whole story is even more
interesting. The type of volcanism that created the basalt cliffs of Eastern
Washington no longer exists in the world, that is at this time anyway. Fortunately
for humankind there are no active examples because.......
The source of the lava was giant
fissures in the earth, not the cones or mountains we call volcanoes. These
fissures were more than 100 miles long is places, unlike a volcano that has a
single vent. The lava that flowed from these fissures was unique in that it was
very fluid and able to travel at great speeds and cover great distances before
cooling. It is estimated that this lava travelled at a speed of three miles per
hour covering distances of over 375 miles from central Idaho to the Pacific
Ocean before solidifying.
The quantity of lava extruded from
them was also amazing. Geologists say that enough lava was released from the Grande
Ronde Basalt flow to cover the entire United States in twelve feet of lava.
Luckily, according to the Humane
Society, no dinosaurs were harmed during this event. You see the dinosaurs were
gone 66 million years ago and the majority of the lava flows occurred only 17
to 15.5 million years ago. Considering the Earth is 4.54 billion years or 6000
years old, depending on the story you believe, either way, the Columbia Plateau
is a relatively recent event.
Not included in the article are the
wines grown on the ancient cobbles of the Yakima River (called the Ellensburg
formation) found in the Rattlesnake Hills above 1100 feet. These wines have a
unique minerality and complexity with a lack of herbaceous notes not found
elsewhere in the state. With the same warmth as the Horse Heaven Hills it is
the perfect site for Bordeaux-style reds. Unfortunately these unique wines are
hard to identify, since many examples are labeled as generic Yakima Valley and
can't be distinguished from wines grown on Warden soils. Two good examples of
wines grown on the ancient cobbles are Portteus Vineyards' Cabernet Sauvignon
and Bonair Winery's Morrison Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon.
