Unlike most European wine appellations of origin, an AVA specifies only a geographical location from which at least 85% of the grapes used to make a wine must have been grown.  American Viticultural Area designations do not limit the type of grapes grown, the method of vinification, or the crop yield.  When a US winery wants to tell you the geographic pedigree of its wine, it uses a tag on its label called an Appellation of Origin.

Current regulations impose the following additional requirements on an AVA:

• Evidence that the name of the proposed new AVA is locally or nationally known as referring to the area.
• Historical or current evidence that the boundaries are legitimate.
• Evidence that growing conditions such as climate, soil, elevation, and physical features are distinctive.

Grapes have been grown in the Lake Chelan area since 1891. The first commercial wine grapes were planted in the Chelan Valley in 1998. Since those ‘98 grapes were planted, the dream and goal was to be recognized as an American Viticulture Area by the Federal Government.

The 24,040-acre AVA is entirely within the Columbia Valley. It is home to 15 wineries and 260 acres of vineyards. Lake Chelan is the third deepest lake in the nation at 1,486 feet and has a cooling effect upon the surrounding area that contributes to the area’s distinctive growing characteristics. At present the grapes planted are predominately  Syrah, Merlot, Malbec, Riesling, Pinot Gris, Gewurztraminer, Chardonnay, and Pinot Noir, although there is experimentation with many other varieties in the area

One of the unique characteristics is Lake Chelan’s higher elevation and more temperate climate than the more southern AVAs also contained within the Columbia Valley.  Because of the ice age glaciers which formed Lake Chelan, the soil surrounding it has distinctive properties such as coarse, sandy sediment with notable amounts of quartz and mica, which results in grapes with discernable textures, minerals, and nutrients. The AVA is also distinguished by a significant “lake effect” which creates mild and favorable temperatures for surrounding areas, resulting in a longer growing season and a reduced risk of frost.  Since the vineyards are cooler than much of the rest of the Columbia Valley, the bud break is later, and the more moderate temperatures caused by Lake Chelan results in even ripening conditions later in the year. This translates into intense fruit flavors and a high acidity.

It will be exciting to watch the development of this area, and to experience the taste of the wines of Lake Chelan as the local wineries continue to experiment with various grape varieties in order to determine a notoriety of their own for specific varietals, as Oregon has with its Pinot Noir.

Bruce Campbell

The process requires that all current members will pay full dues, $15.00 per member on May 1, 2009. Any difference between May 1st and your next membership due date from your current dues will be reimbursed at $1.25 per month per person.

Additionally, the process requires that any new member after May 1, 2009 will pay the prorated amount, at $1.25 per person per month, based upon the number of months until the next May 1st.

Example for current members:
Your original due date is December. In December of 2008 you paid the membership dues for you and your spouse, $30.00. On May 1st you will pay dues again for you and your spouse, $30.00. The Enological Society treasurer will reimburse you for the months between May 1st and December 1st (May, June, July, Aug., Sept., Oct., Nov.) that you have already paid for in December at the rate of $2.50 (for 2 people) per month for a total of $17.50. Then from now on you would be paying your membership dues on May 1st of every year with all of the membership.

Example for new members after May 1st:
A couple joins the Enological Society in September of 2009. Their dues would be prorated at $2.50 (for 2 people) per month to the universal membership dues date of May 1st (Sept., Oct., Nov., Dec., Jan., Feb., Mar., Apr.), so they would owe $20.00.

A prorated chart will be in the newsletters each month along with the membership form and it will also be on the website with the membership form so that people can determine their amount due when joining. See the prorated chart below:

Bruce Campbell

 This summer, for our 30th anniversary, Kathy told me she had set up a two-night stay somewhere as a surprise. I didn’t figure out where until we reached White Trail Road in Quincy and she asked me what was the best route to get to Othello. I knew we wouldn’t stay there, but that direction ruled out the Yakima area and, for the most part, the Tri-cities as well, which left in my mind Walla Walla. She thought it would be fun to do some wine tasting there. Our first night was at a wonderful new bed and breakfast, Cameo Heights Mansion, which just opened last January outside of Touchet. Upon our arrival the owner took us through the home showing all of the various rooms that were decorated in themes like Spanish, Italian, Asian, etc. There were seven in all. We stayed in the Spanish room.

We then began touring wineries starting with Woodward Canyon, which is an older house on the highway to Walla Walla, in Lowden. We had decided we would share a single tasting since we planned to do several wineries. Kathy was in search of Syrahs with a peppery finish that she likes, while I was looking for flavorful Cabernet Sauvignons. We then tasted next door at L’Ecole No. 41, which is housed in an old school house. Next down the highway was the Cougar Crest Winery in their brand new facility followed by the Reininger Winery. Kathy was enjoying the conversations with the people who were pouring since that’s what she has been doing at Tsillan Cellars part-time this summer. Our last stop was at Three Rivers Winery, since we needed to be back to the bed & breakfast for dinner in our room by 6:00.

Our dinner at the bed and breakfast was nothing short of amazing. It was a fondue meal in our room that had several courses. The dinner started at 6:00 p.m., so the table was set when we got back to our room from wine tasting, and wasn’t over until 8:30 p.m. Our first course was a very simple dinner salad with vinaigrette dressing followed by a course of cheese fondue with a plate of vegetables. At this point both Kathy and I were getting full, but we pressed on. The third course had a small grill with a warming tray underneath accompanied by a plate of sautéed strips of two types of meat, shrimp, Walla Walla sweet onion slices, mushrooms and peppers. While we cooked on the top of the grill, underneath were scalloped potatoes with cheese melting over them. To top this all off we finished with, you guessed it, chocolate fondue with a plate of blueberries, strawberries, small pieces of cheesecake, and chocolate marbled marshmallows. By now we were bursting, but it was a fantastic dinner.

Our wake up call was at 8:00 am when a tray with a carafe of coffee for me, a large glass of orange juice for Kathy and a cherry danish for each of us was delivered. Then at 9:00 a.m. we had breakfast on the back deck overlooking the valley towards Walla Walla. Breakfast included more coffee/juice, fruit and yogurt in a parfait dish and a quiche that had lots of sausage. Before continuing our tasting we decided, since we had purchased several bottles of wine and were probably going to acquire more, we needed to buy some styrofoam coolers with ice to keep the wine from spoiling because the temperatures were in the upper 90s to 100s while we were there.

Needless to say we were fortified well for tasting the second day as we visited three wineries in downtown Walla Walla (Canoe Ridge Vineyard, Amavi Cellars Winery and Whitman’s Cellars) and two out by the airport (Dunham Cellars and Patit Creek Cellars). The second night we stayed at the Marcus Whitman downtown.

Most of the wineries had tasting fees, but as we found out, since Kathy has been working at Tsillan Cellars we had our tasting fees waived, as well as receiving various discount on the wines we purchased. Oh, by the way Kathy didn’t find her peppery Syrah at the wineries we visited, but we did come home with several bottles of Cabernet Sauvignon. I’m not sure what I will be doing to top this for our next anniversary adventure; she has definitely raised the bar.

Bruce Campbell

Most recently we visited a new winery in Chelan called Four Lakes, which has only been open for about 3 or 4 months. It took a little work to find it, as it is located out near the airport (yes Chelan has an airport) on Howard Flats Road. The tasting staff was not working that day, but the winemaker had opened up the winery for tasting just before we arrived. Their facility is their operations building currently, but they hope to open their tasting room in Manson sometime in late August. We had my mother with us, who doesn’t drink much wine, but we were about to show her how to determine what she liked and disliked.

The name Four Lakes comes from the future site of their tasting room where much of their grape vines are grown. It sits on the top of a hill that overlooks Wapato Lake, Roses Lake, Dry Lake and Lake Chelan: thus, Four Lakes. Their wines are good and their Merlot has just won an award in Southern California. I was partial to their Cabernet Sauvignon. My mom enjoyed their Riesling and took a bottle home with her. The winemaker is probably in his late 20’s early 30’s and it was fun conversing with him.

We finished the day by visiting Benson Vineyards, one of our favorites, and had dinner and wine at Wapato Cellars. We learned that Lake Chelan Winery had a large number of guests for their Falling Cow Country Wine Festival, which featured Ray Sandidge’s new releases named after the cow that fell on a vehicle near Manson a little over a year ago and received national recognition. All in all it was our typical, nice relaxing day enjoying wine and food at Lake Chelan.

Bruce Campbell

All of us have our favorite things to do. These hobbies, or passions, might be knitting, sewing, gardening, woodworking, sampling wine, reading, hunting, fishing, or numerous other activities. It is often fortunate and surprising that some of our passions overlap in our lives. I have experienced this as my passion for fly fishing and my passion for wine have come together, and as I have indicated earlier, when my fishing buddy, Barney (nickname … long story), and I plan our outings or while we are out on one of our adventures. In the past, one of the wines we shared was a nice Chardonnay from the Sawtooth Winery in Nampa, Idaho, which is located in the southwest part of the state not far from Boise. The wine is made from 100% Chardonnay grapes and was quite tasty out in the wilds of Montana.

I recently was pouring (get the pun?) over my newest edition of “Northwest Fly Fishing” magazine when I came across a small article about the Sawtooth Winery wines – in a fly fishing magazine! I have every edition of this magazine from its first edition, and the first-ever article about alcohol is about a winery whose wines I have personally sampled. For me, the unique thing about the wine is the label, which shows the snowcapped Sawtooth Mountains of Idaho in the background with a stream in the foreground. This is most likely the Snake River, as the Idaho portion of the Snake River is a major fishery for fly fisherman. The label shows a fly fisherman casting his fly forward into the stream. In addition, the foil wrapper over the top of the bottle has a dry fly image stamped into the top portion and the cork in the bottle also has a dry fly image on both ends.

Many times people are attracted to a wine by the image depicted on the label, such as that of a beautiful woman in a sleek red dress or of a favorite old pick-up truck. Sometimes the attraction is an imaginative name such as “Mad Housewife”, “Lady in Red”, or “Joe Blow Red”. These labels are done for the sake of marketing, and it works. Since the first time I saw the label and bought the Chardonnay from Sawtooth, I have also purchased and enjoyed their Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon. Marketing is certainly the key which opens the door to many good wines.

Sawtooth Winery wines are not bold, complex, set-the-world-on-fire wines, but they have a nice smooth taste which complements many different foods without overpowering them, and are reasonably priced at somewhere between $10 to $15. I have found their wines at Food Pavilion. Sawtooth Winery was given the 2006 Winery of the Year Award by Wine Press Northwest.

Bruce Campbell 

Kathy and I have experienced several different types of events, other than those at the Enological Society’s tastings each month, with friends. We attended a vertical tasting last winter at a friends house in East Wenatchee where we compared Fielding Hills‘ Cabernet Sauvignon from 2001 thru 2005. It was educational to be able to learn the percentages of various grapes used in the making of each of the wines and the affect that composition had on the various years.

Horizontal tasting involves picking a specific year and varietal of wine to compare, such as 2005 Syrah’s from various wineries. You can take that one step farther and make the tasting blind by putting the bottles in bags so that people do not know which wines they are tasting and rate the wines as to preferences or identify the wines from a provided list of tasting notes for each of the wines. We did this last February for the Enological Society’s Cabernet and Chocolate event. Some other suggestions might be continent tastings, regional tastings, or country tastings. The potential is limitless.

Paring wines with specific foods is another way to have a delightful event with friends. I’m sure many of you probably have done your own research on pairing wines with specific foods. Joanne Saliby has shared many possibilities for us in her newsletter articles.

I encourage you to share your experiences with events or food pairings, along with recipes, with the rest of the society on the website. E-mail your information to Beth Stone at:
.

Bruce Campbell

Now, before we begin a trip, we have a special meeting to plan our itinerary, our menus, and which kinds of red wines to serve. The dinners are now culinary events in which we trade off cooking and are a little fancier than in previous times. For example, for one of the nights I was to prepare a special chicken dinner, so I said I would make Chicken Cordon Bleu. Of course this had to be set up to be done on a barbecue grill and needed to be done as simply as possible. I jumped on the Internet and found some simple recipes for it and for a Mornay sauce. This called for a rich, creamy white wine, so on the way to the fishing and camping location we stopped at a local winery, where we sampled some fine white wines and selected one – a rich Chardonnay with nice citrus acidity – to go with the dinner. What a meal! As we ate, the other campers watched in amazement as we sat by the fire, savoring our evening feast. How fortunate we are to have so many choices of excellent wines here in North Central Washington.

Fishing trips will never be the same again.

Bruce Campbell

The board was able to see a preview of what the site may look like. The home page will have an overview of who we are, our history, knowledge and the fun we have, and may include some photos of past events. A contact page will include names of board members, their roles in the organization, e-mail addresses and the ability to download forms for membership or wine tasting events. Other pages will include links to wineries and vineyards around the North Central Washington area, our scheduled events, the current newsletter, as well as archives of old newsletters, links to the Washington State Wine Commission website, wine related news of interest sites, wine and food pairing sites, and other enological chapter’s sites.

We hope to include lots of photographs from our club members showing wine related events. We also might add a “members-only” access portion where we can share recipe and wine suggestions, review wine and food pairing experiences, wine country excursions, books, DVD’s, and magazines.

In the last month or so we have had to do a lot of back tracking to be able to access our website and to put us back on a server. The future look of the website, in our eyes, is to keep it simple and uncluttered, organized for ease of navigation, functional and esthetically pleasing to the eye. This will be a fluid site, meaning that there should be new things on it often so that people find it helpful, informational and will be accessing it often. Be checking to see if the website is up and running in the next week or so.

Bruce Campbell