The results are in, thanks to WSU AgWeathernet. And the
winners are....well just about everybody. It was a really warm year and in the
northwest warm years are good years. Even the Yakima Valley eked out over 3000
growing degree days, although their harvest was two weeks to a month behind the
warmer AVAs. At Bonair Winery, it was a wrap on September 30. We continued to
process Yakima Valley grapes through October for other wineries.
|
AVA
|
GDD
|
Rain
|
|
Wahluke
|
3807
|
1.43
|
|
Red Mountain
|
3664
|
1.99
|
|
Rattlesnake Hills
|
3185
|
1.14
|
|
Horse Heaven
|
3171
|
2.37
|
|
Walla Walla
|
3170
|
4.66
|
|
Yakima Valley
|
3096
|
1.67
|
Wahluke is always the winner, so no news there. Red Mountain
was significantly warmer than the next three AVAs which were almost identical
at around 3175 GDD. Red Mountain usually is not that much warmer, but this year
it was almost 500 GDD warmer. Go figure that one.
The rain prize goes to Walla Walla which lies up against the
Blue Mountains and the drought prize goes to the Rattlesnake Hills, usually the
driest AVA in eastern Washington. Summer storms seem to avoid the AVA by going
north, south, east, or west of the AVA.
The bulk of the state's wine grapes are produced in these
six AVAs. If you are interested in the other AVAs, the data can be found at http://weather.wsu.edu/.
