American Wine Guide for Washington State Riesling and More

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Wine is very much a part of this scene. Over recent years urban wineries have sprung up in the industrial outskirts of the city: hipster operations making artisan wine in converted warehouses and selling it to directly to Seattle’s residents.

The grapes for these wines mostly come from the vast Columbia Valley region, only a couple of hours’ drive eastwards over the Cascade Mountains but a world away from the cool, damp climate of coastal Seattle. Here summer temperatures reach into the 40s and rainfall is a desert-like 15cm or so a year, yet its fertile soils produce an abundance of fruits and vegetables, as well as grapes for wine, all irrigated from the mighty Columbia River.

In the 1980s Washington State had only a handful of wineries – now there are more than 900, and numbers continue to rise. Like California, they have more than their fair share of burly wines heavy on alcohol and oak, a style still popular with Americans but less so with Europeans. But, like Oregon, there are also wines with more elegance and freshness, particularly from the newer, younger producers, and it is these which are finding much appeal this side of the pond. Wine with old world finesse made with new world dynamism and energy – what’s not to love?

@KateHawkings