Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/123973
NORTHWEST WATCH SEAN P. SULLIVAN Gilla agreed that white wines present more of a challenge. "I always feel that it is harder to make whites than to make reds," she said. "You have to be a lot gentler and put a lot more effort into the cellar. You have to be very, very conscious of the oak that you are using. Not everybody wants to do that and not everybody has the experience with whites." "Really good chardonnay is hard to make," added Rick Small of Woodward Canyon Winery in Walla Walla. Small made his first chardonnay as a home winemaker in 1976. "It is dependent on the place where the fruit grows, the vine age and clone, the aspect, vintage, and of course the people that grow and make the wine." While Washington has more than 700 wineries, Small is not particularly impressed with what he sees in terms of chardonnay quality, saying, "I'd say there may be 10 Washington producers that are working seriously with chardonnay." No one I spoke with disagreed. Despite the technical challenges, the issue ultimately comes back to the pocketbook. Since white wines – at least from Washington – can't command the prices red wines can, there is considerably less economic incentive to make them. "So many people just want to produce a red wine and sell it for gobs and gobs of money," Januik said with a sigh. DOLLARS AND DIRT The issues with Washington whites don't stop with consumers and winemakers. They also lead to the vineyard. With white wines unable to sell for the prices of red wines, there is a direct effect on grape prices. Chardonnay averaged $904 per ton in Washington in 2012; cabernet sauvignon averaged $1,337. Overall, white wine grapes across the state averaged $200 less per ton than their red counterparts last year. John Abbott, winemaker at Abeja in Walla Walla, said, "In order to be able to make money farming the property or to break even, you have to put a pretty good amount of tonnage on the vines. When you do that, the balance seems to go away from the wines and they are a little more dilute and a little bit more of that browner base character comes through on the fruit. The only way you can really mask that character is higher alcohol, more wood, more malolactic fermentation, or a little bit of residual sugar." The issue goes even deeper, literally. Eastern Washington relies almost completely on irrigation to grow its wine grapes. Dr. Markus John Abbott of Abeja in Walla Walla points out that to make money growing white varieties, which sell for less money than reds, a higher tonnage per acre is often necessary. Keller of Washington State University's Viticulture and Enology program studies pre-harvest irrigation. He said that much of the irrigation research to date has focused on red varieties in areas such as California and Australia, but that this research may not apply to white grapes in Washington. Large or Small...to us you are just right! Local Bank. Local Lenders. www.exchangebank.com 707.524.3000 w w w. v w m media.com We have a wide variety of loan products available for a business your size M a y - J u n e 2 0 13 | V I N E YA R D & W I N E RY M A N A G E M E N T 33