The Geography of Wine by Brian J. Sommers

Author:Brian J. Sommers [Sommers, Brian J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2008-12-14T16:00:00+00:00

OREGON AND WASHINGTON STATE

If we want to change careers and have the financial resources to open a vineyard, where would we go? There are places that have proven to be great environments for wine production. Starting somewhere like Napa or Sonoma would give us a head start on our marketing. The problem is that their reputation and history of viticulture means that all the good land will already be in production. We would have to buy an existing vineyard.

If we want to live the dream of being a vintner but want to start from scratch, we might want to move up the coast a bit to Oregon or Washington. The climate will be different. We may not be able to grow some grapes that are adapted to Mediterranean conditions, but there are plenty of cultivars from Marine West Coast climates that would work well there. More important, Oregon and Washington offer much more in the way of available land. We can convert existing farmland to vineyards and be in control of everything from the very start.

Before we go running off to the Pacific Northwest with a checkbook and a dream, we need to understand that grape growing will not work well everywhere in those states. We must appreciate the topography of those states, the rain shadow effect, and what these things mean for wine production. A detailed climate map of the Pacific Northwest will illustrate the fact that climatic conditions vary greatly as we move from west to east across Oregon and Washington. These variations are due to the rain shadow effect.

As in California, the coastlines of Oregon and Washington are strongly influenced by the Pacific Ocean and the California Current. The westerly winds coming off of the Pacific are cool and damp throughout the year, which means that coastal locations are not ideal for wine grape production.

This is where the rain shadow effect comes into play. Paralleling the coastline are the Coast Range and Olympic mountains. The cool moist air coming off of the Pacific changes as it is pushed up the mountains. Its temperature drops and relative humidity increases, resulting in substantial amounts of rainfall on the windward side of these mountains. There is so much rainfall that some locations have a temperate rain forest as well as some of the highest average rainfall totals in North America. As the air passes down the leeward side it loses some of its moisture and is significantly warmer. Consequently the Willamette Valley and Puget Sound Lowland have climates that are different from the coast a few miles away.

The rain shadow effect occurs because of differing rates at which air cools as it rises. As air rises it cools at a rate of around 6 degrees Fahrenheit per 1,000 feet of elevation change, and does so until precipitation occurs. Then the rate of change drops to around 3 degrees per 1,000 feet. On the way down the leeward side of the mountain the air will heat at 6 degrees per 1,000 feet, stopping the precipitation in the process.

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