The Wine Knows

Though perhaps this isn't as silly as California's attempt last year to make Zinfandel the official state wine grape, it's right up there: Someone in the Oregon Legislature wants to make Jory the official state soil.

Here's the House Joint Resolution.

I heard about this Saturday from winemakers and grape growers in the Yamhill-Carlton District. They are just west of the Dundee Hills, which has the state's most famous red-tinged Jory soils. The Yamhill-Carlton folks didn't think much of the idea of a state soil that didn't include the more ancient marine sedimentary soils (formerly known as Willakenzie) that are more prevalent in the other five AVAs in the northern Willamette Valley.

On Saturday afternoon, the group I tasted with from the Dundee Hills was downright embarrassed and wanted everyone to know it has nothing to do with the Legislature's resolution. In fact, the push behind it is from Scott Burns, a geology professor at Portland State University.

Meanwhile, the Oregon Wine Board is having to spend valuable resources on this in addition to doing its job, which is to promote Oregon wine.

This is a waste of everyone's time and energy. Someone in Salem needs to shake loose the red rocks in their heads.

Of interest is Washington does not have an official state soil, though one is proposed. It is called Tokul and is found west of the Cascade Mountains. Of course, Western Washington makes up just about a third of the state and Tokul is found in about 1 million acres, primarily in King, Snohomish, Skagit and Whatcom counties.

Meanwhile, the Columbia Valley also takes up a third of the state, and its prevailing soil type is loess, a relatively young soil type that is, essentially, wind-blown sand that has arrived since the end of the last ice age, some 15,000 years ago.

While Tokul is good for the growth of evergreen trees (mostly found west of the Cascades), it does not begin to reflect the importance of Eastern Washington agriculture. Washington's apples, grapes, wheat, potatoes, corn, hops, asparagus and other major crops are grown primarily in loess. (Marijuana, by the way, would be Washington's No. 6 cash crop if it were legal. No word on whether it does better in Tokul or loess, but a lot of it is grown in Eastern Washington cornfields.)

However, it would be silly to make loess the official state soil of Washington because much of it arrived from Canada, Idaho and Montana with the Ice Age floods.