The Wine Knows

Last week, we brought you the story of AgriVino, a self-serve wine-tasting room in Oregon's Yamhill-Carlton District. How things change quickly. Below is a report from Eric Degerman, Wine Press Northwest managing editor, who is working on a story about it:

The federal government is taking comments (press release, PDF) on the establishment of a new American Viticultural Area in Washington's Yakima Valley.

The Snipes Mountain AVA would be the state's second-smallest appellation at 4,145. About 535 acres of vineyards already are planted in the proposed region, including some of the state's oldest. Included in the region is Harrison Hill.

Up here at Timberline Lodge, we ran into a bit of a mystery over Ste. Chapelle's Sparkling Riesling. On the bottle, it is listed as a nonvintage American wine.

Northwest Wine Summit Director Parks Redwine bet me $1 that it used California grapes, based on the fact that it says in small type on the back of the bottle: "Vinted & bottled by Ste. Chapelle, Madera, Calif."

Have TSA restrictions changed the way you buy wine when you're visiting another wine region?

According to a survey by BottleWise, a company that makes wine carriers, many wine travelers have significantly changed the way they handle wine purchases. Here are the results of a survey conducted last month by BottleWise:

Several weeks back, I wrote an item about a business called Vineyard2Door. It's run out of the Seattle area and is targeted at wineries struggling to sell their products online.

Gary Robertson is the guy behind Vineyard2Door. He saw a need: Wineries sold almost no wine online directly to customers because they couldn't set up their shopping carts and figuring out the state-to-state compliance issues was a nightmare.

A colleague just pointed out something to me:

-- The Washington Department of Natural Resources makes a lot of money by leasing vineyard land, especially on Red Mountain, but also in other areas of the Columbia Valley.

As you may have already read, Costco has failed in its bid to change Washington's wine distribution laws.

The bottom line was that Costco wanted to get around the state's three-tier distribution system so it could sell wines at lower prices by cutting out the middle man.

Tom Wark of the Specialty Wine Retailers Association has issued a damning report showing alcohol wholesalers have dropped $50 million in the coffers of state election funds nationwide - and those contributions have led to the passage of laws that favor wholesalers.

It's been a fascinating and news-filled year for the wine industries of the Pacific Northwest, with weather causing havoc during harvest, pioneers passing away, Ste. Michelle Wine Estates gaining as a major national player and an iconoclastic California winemaker setting up shop in Washington.

In case you haven't heard, the U.S. government is considering a change to wine labeling laws that would require wineries to put information on each bottle similar to the nutrition facts you see on grocery items. This change would have a deep impact on the industry. Thus, if you are or plan to be involved in the wine business, you should learn more about this.