The Wine Knows

This is something I have been thinking about lately as I am sure many of you have as well, and really don't have a good answer. What makes Northwest wine country to you? We all have a romantic notion of wine country with sheep on the roads, vineyards and small farm houses making up the horizon, much like in France or Spain. I think we are doing something very different up here in the NW. Does the area's that grow the grapes, like our AVAs, make it wine country? Or does having vineyards and wineries as the destination make an area "wine country"? What made me think about posting this here was in regards to the new Wine "area" being built in West Richland and the other one going in up on Red mountain.