The two-year certificate programs in viticulture and enology are continuing education programs offered through Washington State University Extension. These non-credit, professional certificate programs are tailored for people who are seriously interested in working in the wine industry — grape growing and winemaking — but are not interested in obtaining a college degree.

But that doesn’t mean the mapmaker doesn’t try. Especially when there is tremendous pent up demand from Washington grape growers for a vineyard site-selection tool.

In the heart of Washington wine country, Ian Yau is mapping complexity. Photo by Brian Charles Clark/WSU.

Ian Yau is the mapmaker, and he’s a grad student based at WSU’s Irrigated Agriculture Research and Extension Center in Prosser. Yau is trying to wrestle a vast amount of information to the ground in order to turn raw data into useful knowledge.

“It’s a lot of spreadsheet manipulation,” Yau said, the wry understatement of his project causing a smile to play across his face.

Consider what you’d want to know if you wanted to plant a vineyard in Washington. You’d want to know, of a given plot of land, how many growing degree days it got at a certain elevation on a particular slope. You’d want to know about the soil beneath your feet: is it going to drain properly so the grape vines don’t wallow and rot? Is there hardpan or some sort of other restrictive layer close to the surface that will prevent the plants from sinking their roots deep into the soil? And what’s the soil’s water-holding capacity and pH?

The very model of a modern major variable: Three of them, in fact: climate, topology and soil. And each of those is in turn a complex system that makes site-selection prediction a number-crunchers nightmare. As Ian Yau says, “It’s a lot of spreadsheet manipulation.”

As a future wine-grape grower, you might not even know that you do, in fact, want to know these things. But Yau does, and that’s because he’s working with Joan Davenport, a WSU soil scientist who has been studying grapevines and the (“don’t call it dirt!”) soil they grow in for years.

“I saw Ian’s graduate school application and noticed he had some geographical information systems experience from his previous work for the Oregon Department of Forestry,” said Davenport. “And I thought, maybe he’d be interested in working on this site-selection project. It’s one I’ve had on my wish list for years.”

“I met with Joan, and I met with a weed scientist who also had a GIS project. So it was either wine or weeds.” Yau shrugged; no brainer.

Slope: site-selection modeling has to try to take into account the variability of hills and valleys, as air flow and temperature gradients can make part of the slope ideal and others not so good for growing grapes. Add to that further complicating factors like swales at the bottom of slopes, which can mix air in complex ways, and you’ve gotten yourself into the middle of a complex set of calculations.

“Nothing will ever replace an on-site inspection of a potential vineyard site,” Davenport said. “But with the massive growth of the industry, we get a lot of calls asking about the suitably of a site, so having this tool will help us weed out sites that obviously won’t work.”

Yau, just beginning year two of his master’s project, already has a working iteration of the site suitability model for Washington. Thomas Henick-Kling, director of WSU’s viticulture and enology program and a strong proponent of GIS, helped secure funding for Yau’s project.

“We’re testing the validity of the tool by comparing the model’s predictions with established vineyards,” Yau said. That means walking vineyards to check the accuracy of soil-type data, topology and much more, as well as interviewing experienced vineyardists about the conditions in their fields.

“Establishing a vineyard is very expensive,” Yau said, “so, of course, people want to get it right.”

Click and learn: with the site-selection map Yau is developing (above), the user clicks on a potential vineyard site (or pinpoint a site by entering its latitude and longitude) and the tool gives back a variety of information (below), including an evaluative overall rating for the site as a vineyard.

Yau has already fielded calls from landowners who want advice about which cultivars will do well on their property. The requests have helped him focus on developing the site-selection tool for specific areas. As well, he’s had help from Greg Jones, a geographer at Southern Oregon University who has worked extensively with viticulturists and has a great deal of expertise in site selection, as well as Rick Rupp, a geographic information systems coordinator in WSU’s Lab for Geospatial Research, Education, and Outreach whom Yau considers to be WSU’s go-to guy when it comes to GIS.

“Refining, refining, refining,” Yau answered when asked what comes next. The complexity of the project is daunting, simply because there are so many variables he’d like to be able to account for. “I’m narrowing this down to what is possible in the time I’ve got.”

Yau's site-selection model returns ratings for particular sites based a the data he has so painstakingly entered into the system.

Yau said the eventual goal is to make the site-selection tool publicly available, perhaps through a Web-based interface.

“But that,” he said, “is going to be a project for some other graduate student.”

Davenport agreed: “Initially, the model will be available internally for WSU research and extension people, who field these questions all of the time. Eventually, we want to have this publicly available through the Web, but we are working on that at a larger scale which will include work by Greg Jones of SOU in both Oregon and in the Puget Sound.”

Daniela Romero and the fabulous vista in a Mendozan vineyard.

When Daniela Romero heard Washington State University’s Markus Keller talking about irrigation during grape ripening, her curiosity was piqued. After all, applying water close to harvest time was simply not done.

Keller was teaching a grape physiology course at the Universidad Nacional de Cuyo in Mendoza, deep in the heart of Argentina’s wine country. Romero is a graduate student at the university, and she asked if she could join Keller’s research team in Prosser to learn more about his tradition-defying research.

“Keller’s research is important to the wine industry, because it will influence the way growers add water to their vineyards. In most of the world’s wine regions, irrigation during grape ripening is thought to dilute the sugars in grapes–but this belief does not have any scientific foundation,” Romero said.

As Keller pointed out, “The European wine industries and their many regulators have it all figured out: irrigation during grapes’ critical ripening period is generally a bad thing and must be strictly regulated.”

A quote from the International Organization for Biological and Integrated Control in their 1999 Guidelines for Integrated Production of Grapes illustrates Keller’s point: “Irrigation of vines for wine production will not be applied after véraison or highly restricted by the regional guidelines in order to guarantee the good quality of the wine.”

“The tacit assumption is that irrigation boosts berry size and dilutes the quality-impact components of the grapes,” Keller said. “So pervasive is this argument that, even in the New World, many wineries encourage growers to withhold irrigation water during fruit ripening to avoid any perceived adverse effects.”

Keller and former graduate student Marco Biondi put the assumptions to the test–with startling results that fly in the face of viticultural tradition.“We proved that berries are not hydraulically isolated during ripening,” Biondi said in a 2008 interview. Indeed, Biondi’s experiments show that berries absorb water in a variety of ways, including through the skin and not just through the root system, as commonly believed.

Romero on her way to the vineyards near WSU's Irrigated Agriculture Research & Extension Center in Prosser.

“Late season irrigation doesn’t decrease Brix,” Biondi said, “but irrigation does increase photosynthesis in the leaves, and photosynthesis in turn increases Brix.”

“In other words,” said Keller, “irrigation accelerated ripening!”

Now, Romero is putting Keller and Biondi’s results to the test in a series of field-based experiments in Argentina.

“This is important, for a number of reasons,” Keller said. Better knowledge of the potential contribution of late-season irrigation and water stress to variations in berry size will lay the foundation for better vineyard irrigation management. It also will end the long-standing debates whether irrigation close to harvest will dilute grape sugar and flavors, or whether heavy irrigation may increase berry volume in juice grapes.

Such knowledge is needed to avoid excessive water application or deficit close to fruit maturity, which is potentially detrimental to fruit quality, canopy health, cold acclimation, and vine longevity. It will also improve efforts to estimate yield and make yield prediction more accurate and reliable. This will improve harvest planning, grape and wine quality management, and marketing to ensure a consistent, high-quality supply of fruit for both domestic and export markets.

Large wine companies have already begun to modify their irrigation practices based on results from this study, Keller said, because conservative estimates suggest that the strategy of increasing water supply close to harvest may prevent a greater than five percent yield loss. For Washington alone this would amount to increased returns to growers in the order of $6 million per year and almost $2 million per year to juice grape growers.

In the mean time, Romero’s experiments should yield results soon. When they do, you’ll read about them here, in Higher Learning.

Carolyn Ross explains the fine details of sensory science to a WSU food science student. For more information about food science at WSU, please visit www.sfs.wsu.edu.

When sipping a glass of a fine winemaker’s red blend in front of the fire, it’s easy to appreciate the art that went into that glass.

But anyone who has tried to make wine finds him or herself quickly caught up in what amounts to a science project.

“Winemaking is certainly creative,” said Carolyn Ross, assistant professor of food science at Washington State University and an expert in the sensory analysis of wine. “But at its core, winemaking is a scientific endeavor. What folks often forget is that those two things are not incompatible.”

Take the fine art of fining, for example. Fining agents are substances added at or near the end of the winemaking process in order to improve clarity, adjust flavor, aroma and wine stability. In other words, fining tweaks a wine’s sensory qualities.

And the sensory quality of wine is, of course, what enjoying a glass of great wine is all about: the mouth feel, the unfolding bouquet, the color, the acids, tannins, and other qualities that wine writers deploy armies of adjectives trying to describe. Ross takes a scientific approach to those armies of adjectives be finding ways to quantify their chemical properties and by training panels of wine tasters to communicate the importance of individual sensory qualities.

“Fining is critical for consumer acceptance of white wines as a haze or sediment in the bottle may eventually lead to consumer rejection and economic loss to the winery. Together with racking and filtration, fining agents improve clarity, define aromas and increase shelf life,” Ross and her colleagues wrote in a recently published article in the American Journal of Enology and Viticulture.

But, the researchers add, fining may also “impact the sensory quality of wines,” though how much sensory impact fining has depends upon a complex relationship between the fining compound and the type of wine being fined.

“Fining is definitely where some basic scientific practice is essential to making a good wine,” said Ross.

Ross and her team fined Chardonnay and Gewürztraminer made by a well-known Washington winery which donated the wine to Ross’s team specifically for this series of experiments.

“There’s hasn’t been a lot of research done on the fining of Washington wines,” Ross pointed out. Because wine is so chemically complex, it is very “place specific”: grapes of the same variety grown in different areas produce wines with varying sensory qualities and so research, too, needs to be place specific.

Ross and colleagues tested a wide variety of fining compounds, both those in demand by the industry (bentonite, isinglass, Sparkalloid, and activated carbon) as well as less researched agents (wheat gluten and whole milk).

Ross and team’s paper makes for fascinating reading, as it backs up subjective-seeming words like “fruity” with scientifically quantifiable information: “Isinglass is said to enhance fruity aromas in wines,” the researchers wrote. “In Gewürztraminer, this was demonstrated in that the highest fruit aroma and flavor intensities were observed in the isinglass treatment. The opposite was observed in the Chardonnay, where isinglass had the lowest fruit aroma and flavor intensities.”

Ross is quick to point out that results with fining will vary with the specific grapes and winemaking techniques being used in a particular batch of wine.

“What winemakers should do,” she said, “is bench test small amounts of wine to see the concentration of fining agent that works best. Take small amounts of wine and use different, but controlled doses of fining agents. It’s a good idea to jot down what you used in a notebook, so the winemaker can compare results over time.

“Complicated scientific equipment is not necessary. Visual evaluation of the action of a fining agent should be enough to tell a winemaker which way to go. In three days to two weeks, depending on the fining agent, you’ll be able to see how much settling has occurred. And what you’re going for is the point where there is no more sediment accumulating and you’re seeing the maximum clarity in the wine.”

The take away lesson here is that careful observation aids creativity. Like the poet’s or the novelist’s, the winemaker’s muse is aided by a keen eye for detail.

By Christine Go

Petite Sirah

Does size matter? Well, it does if you’re talking about grapes, namely Petite Sirah and Petit Verdot. These varietals produce big, bold wines, so why are they called “petite?”  Give up? Because of the size of the grapes! Apparently both varietals have small berries, so they have a high skin-to-juice ratio. Since color and tannins come primarily from the skin and seeds of the grapes, more skin equals more color and tannins, which translates to tooth-staining wines with lots of structure.

So Petite Sirah isn’t petite, but is it related to Syrah? There’s been a lot of confusion about the origin of Petite Sirah, and it’s taken about a hundred years to figure out the answer to that question. If you check out the timeline on the “P.S. I Love You” website (an advocacy group for Petite Sirah), you’ll see that Syrah first came to California from France in 1878, but some called it Petite Syrah. Then, a few years later, a French varietal called Durif (named after the grape grower who propagated it) was introduced to California, and it was called Petite Sirah, since that was its common name in France.

We now know that Syrah/Petite Syrah is not the same as Petite Sirah/Durif, but they are related. In 1997, Carole Meredith, a professor at UC Davis, did a DNA analysis of Petite Sirah compared to Durif, and discovered that they are indeed the same. It turns out that Syrah and Peloursin, an obscure French varietal, are the parents of Petite Sirah. Syrah is prone to a fungus called “powdery mildew,” something familiar to gardeners in Western Washington, and originally Petite Sirah was developed to be resistant to it; but in humid climates, Petite Sirah is prone to another fungus called “grey rot.” This is why Petite Sirah does well in drier grape-growing regions. Today the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) recognizes Durif and Petite Sirah as synonyms for the same grape. And just to add to the confusion, some wineries label their Petite Sirah as “Petite Syrah” even though it is not the same as Syrah.

Historically, Petite Sirah became popular in California as a blending grape, since its plum and dark berry flavors, firm tannins, and good acidity added a lot of body and structure to thin, light reds. Here’s a trivia tidbit: back when Americans were drinking generic jug wine blends, Gallo Hearty Burgundy was very popular. Guess what? Petite Sirah was one of the main components of that blend. Today there are hundreds of California wineries producing Petite Sirah, and it’s grown successfully in other drier regions around the world, like Australia, Israel, Chile and Eastern Washington.

So which Washington wineries are producing Petite Sirah, and where are those grapes grown? Here are a few examples: Thurston Wolfe gets Petite Sirah grapes from vines that were planted at Zephyr Ridge Vineyard in the Horse Heaven Hills in 1998. Milbrandt gets their Petite Sirah from Northridge Vineyard on Wahluke Slope. Petite Sirah is one of the varietals planted in Jones of Washington’s Unit 10 Vineyard on Wahluke Slope. Portteus Winery in the Rattlesnake Hills makes award-winning Petite Sirah from estate-grown fruit. Palouse Winery just won a silver medal at the Seattle Wine Awards for their Petite Sirah crafted from Portteus vineyard fruit.

Petit Verdot

What about Petit Verdot? Does it have anything else in common with Petite Sirah besides berry size? Well, it turns out that it does. First of all, Petit Verdot also is a blending grape that originated in France. It’s one of the five Bordeaux varietals—the others are Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, and Malbec. (Carménère, the sixth Bordeaux varietal, is hardly grown in France anymore, but is successfully grown in Chile.) Petit Verdot is a small component of many of Bordeaux’s best wines, mainly from the Medoc region on the left bank of the Gironde. Because of its strong tannins, blackberry flavors, and aromas of violets, it’s used in small amounts to add color, spice, and structure to a wine.

Petit Verdot means “little green,” and it’s aptly named, because it ripens very late or not at all, so in some years, the grapes remain green. That’s why it’s not more popular in France. Just like Petite Sirah, it does better in warmer climates where it can ripen fully, such as the Temecula region in Southern California, the east end of Long Island, and Eastern Washington.

Intrigued by Petit Verdot made in Washington? Then give it a try! For example, Seven Hills Winery in Walla Walla produces award-winning Petit Verdot, as does Northstar, which uses fruit from StoneTree Vineyard on Wahluke Slope. Animale’s Petit Verdot comes from Gilbert Vineyard on Wahluke Slope. The Cara Mia Cadence vineyard on Red Mountain was planted to 10% Petit Verdot. Meek Vineyard in Yakima Valley near Red Mountain provided the Petit Verdot fruit for three Seattle Wine Award winners, OS Winery, Olsen Estates and Pleasant Hill Cellars.

Finally, wines made from both Petit Verdot and Petite Sirah will age nicely, thanks to their firm tannins. With so many delicious options available in Washington, it shouldn’t be difficult to find some petit/petite for your cellar…or enjoy a glass now with a hearty meal at your favorite restaurant.

Meet the Makers

There are a few winemakers in Washington State doing good things with Petit Verdot. We talked to two award winning winemakers of Petit Verdot to get the skinny on their vino.

Kyle Johnson

Winemaker
Olsen Estates
Seattle Wine Awards GOLD – 2007 Olsen Estates Petit Verdot, Meek Vineyards Olsen Estate Vineyards

As the winemaker, how would you describe your Petit Verdot?

On the aroma side…very earthy, dark fruit, blackberries and dark cherries, a little cassis, chocolate, and tobacco leaf. It’s round and full on the palate, ripe dark fruits, more earth, and ripe fine grained tannins.

What is it that made you decide on a 100% PV release?

Aside from being somewhat unique in Washington, this wine, for me, turned out to be a great hedonistic expression of Petit Verdot. We had to share it with everyone.

The 2007 is very relaxed, soft even, compared to some other PV efforts. Can you speak to the style that you’ve come up with for your 2007 release?

The 2007 was sourced from one block (Ranch #15 or “Olsen Hill”), one tank, fermented without commercial yeast or bacteria, lending itself to a longer cooler fermentation (about 28 days on the skins), preserving fruit character and taming the tannins that so many PV’s can exhibit.

What is the biggest challenge when working with PV (with respect to a 100% release).

There is a barrel selection process that weeds out a few outliers, but for the most part, about 95% of the wines make the final cut. Luckily, I have Leif (Olsen) bringing me the best fruit from Olsen vineyards, so my job is all that much easier.

Stylistic changes for the 2008 release?

I did play around with a few commercial yeast strains in 2008, and we have a new block coming in to production…stay tuned…

Larry Lindvig

Winemaker
Pleasant Hill Cellars
Seattle Wine Awards SILVER – 2006 Pleasant Hill Petit Verdot, Gilbert Vineyards

As a winemaker, how would you describe your Petit Verdot?

Our Petit Verdot is from the second warmest site in Washington State, the Wahluke Slope. This site, on decent years, gives enough heat units to get the darn grapes ripe. It is generally the last grape picked. Our Petit Verdot is big in every aspect, tannins, alcohol, color, and body. When first bottled, you almost gasp on your first drink. We like to say it will suck your brains out. But, on surprisingly little bottle age it mellows out with plums and dark fruit on the palate. It is not an elegant wine that strokes you; it is a Mike Tyson right hand smacking you in the mouth.

Since Petit Verdot is traditionally used for blending, what is the key to making a PV that is so drinkable on its own?

The location of the vineyard is the most important criteria for making a good Petit Verdot. You have to have the heat units.

For the 2006 release, your fruit was sourced from Gilbert Vineyards. How would you characterize the PV fruit from Wahluke Slope compared to that in other AVA’s?

We have sourced other vineyards for Petit Verdot and tasted Petit Verdot from some much respected wineries, and have found them to be lighter in color, tannins, alcohol and body. Again, you need a well managed vineyard in a very warm section of the state.

As a winemaker known for enthusiastic blending, what made you decide to release a straight Petit Verdot?

At Pleasant Hill, we try to stay ahead of the curve by making wines that are not on everyone’s radar, like Petit Verdot. Our first release was 2002 along with our Malbec. Now, everyone is making Malbec. We have traveled to many wine-making regions, both in the U.S. and abroad, checking their processes. At an experimental vineyard in Denmark, we tasted a Muscat grape that was from Siberia and could withstand 40 degrees below zero temperature. The wine was not good, but what the heck, it had alcohol.

What should consumers expect from future releases of Pleasant Hill’s Petit Verdot?

That is hard to say, but we are working on a blend for 2010 of Petit Verdot and Tannat. Now that should make a person shudder!

Chris Nishiwaki

“I was lured to a restaurant with the promise of $5 glasses of wine during happy hour, including one of my favorite Côte du Rhones (Grenache-based blend). When the wine arrived, the glass was merely a third full. Isn’t that false advertisement?”

That’s a great question and one I hear often. Glass pours can be misleading. The fill level of a wine glass is relative to the size of the glass. Some bars and restaurants will serve you a tasting glass filled to the rim that amounts to about two to three ounces of wine. Ideally you would want a large glass about one third full leaving enough room for the wine to release its aromas inside the bulb for maximum enjoyment.

Instead of focusing on how full the glass is, measure as best you can how much wine there is in your glass or simply ask your server or bartender. Pours of five to six ounces for still wine or three to four ounces for sparkling wine are standard. Some establishments may in fact serve smaller pours during happy hour.

One way to ask politely is to enquire how many glasses of wine they pour per bottle. A regular bottle is 750 milliliters, which amounts to a little more than twenty-five ounces. Five glasses per bottle calculates to about a five-ounce pour. Four glasses per bottle equals to about a six-ounce pour.

By Henri Schock

Our favorite corkscrew. We all have one, and without it we would be lost looking into an empty glass of nothing (unless you find a screw cap, of course). But once that cork has been pulled, what do you do with the bottle? Well, drink it of course! But, what’s the best way to consume this juice? What is the appropriate vessel to put it into? What do you do with half drunken bottle on that off chance you don’t finish it? And, with all this wine you’ve been drinking, how on earth will you begin to remember what each bottle was like?

As a carpenter with his tools, a wine drinker needs the proper gear to guarantee that every experience is a pleasant one. Forget all that gimmicky shit you’ve seen; this is the real deal—your essential tool kit for the everyday wino.

Waiter's Corkscrew

1. The corkscrew is the king of wine accessories. As it’s difficult to say which one is better than the next, the one I endorse (along with many of my wine geek and foodservice amigos) is the double-hinge corkscrew. With less torque on the cork and ease of use, you can ensure a clean, fully intact cork pull every time.

Wine Glass

2. Once the top is popped, the natural tendency is to reach for a glass. A plastic Santa-face goblet, keg cup from last night’s party, Ball Mason canning jar, or whatever else you might have that’s clean. STOP! Wine drinkers need a decent wine glass in their grip. My suggestion—keep your wine drinking segregated with a red wine and a white wine glass. If that is too much, a universal glass is a great option, too. Whatever you choose, look for a stemmed glass with a slight bulbous shape, thin lip, and light in weight. In wine glass land, the lighter the glass the better.

Aerating Funnel

3. For those of us wino-philes who like to drink wine young (I’m guessing 99% of you) or have that special bottle waiting to be opened in the cellar, there are two essential wine tools you’ll need. For maximum aeration in your younger wines, look to the newest technology to hit the industry—aerating funnels. There is an onslaught of wine aerating tools hitting the market, with the original being the Vinturi. Many of them claim the same results—pour your wine through the magical funnel and witness an aeration miracle. What normally takes two hours in a traditional decanter only takes seconds through these funnels. If Oprah endorses it, how could you not give it a shot?

Decanter

4. The traditional decanter might seem archaic when compared to these new aerating devises, but wine isn’t always about speed and convenience. Slow down, grab your decanter, and bring the romance back into your wine drinking. While decanters will pump life into your young wines, it will also help prevent sediment from forming in your glass. Plus, your wine looks beautiful in there. If your decanter is sitting at home collecting dust, bring it out sometime. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised.

Vacuum Pump

5. It’s a weekday, you open up a bottle, yet you find it difficult to convince yourself that cashing a whole bottle on a Tuesday is the best idea. To preserve your wine to tomorrow, or even Sunday, pump evil oxygen out with a wine vacuum pump. Use it as many times as you need until you find the end of the bottle. It’s sure to preserve the life of your wine for up to a week.

Champagne Stopper

6. 3, 2, 1…Happy New Year! Every other day, you might find it unsettling chugging copious amounts of sparklers. A similar concept to vacuum pumps, but specifically designed for sparkling wine, champagne stoppers will keep the fizz in your bubbly for an enjoyable mimosa both Saturday and Sunday.

Wine Journal

7. After consuming your favorite beverage, it would be a shame if you couldn’t remember exactly what you saw, smelled and tasted. Because we don’t all have photographic memories and can’t remember today the subtle cassis notes from the 2002 Abeja Cabernet Sauvignon we had two weeks ago, grab a journal. They come in an array of sizes and styles, which you can find at any local wine shop. My advice is to find one that is tailored to your specific wine drinking style. If you’re new to tasting and have trouble describing what you’re drinking, they have journals to walk you through these steps. If scrapbooking labels is your thing, they have those, too. For the people that like writing five pages of notes just about the finish, you won’t find anything like that. I’m sure you can pickup a moleskin and create your own makeshift journal. The point is, get writing and start documenting these lovely wines you’ve been drinking. It’s worth your time.

By Brian Charles Clark
wine.wsu.edu

When humans don’t get enough zinc, we can get sick with cancer and suffer immune-system dysfunction. The same is true of plants. Micronutrients such as boron, zinc and copper, although only a tiny part of a plant’s diet, can have a profound effect on the plant’s health.

Suphasuk “Bird” Pradubsuck, a recently graduated WSU doctoral student, measures a Concord grape vine.

Washington State University soil scientist Joan Davenport and her colleagues at the WSU Irrigated Agriculture Research and Extension Center in Prosser are studying micronutrient utilization in Concord grapes. Washington is the nation’s number one Concord grape producer, so understanding what happens with micronutrients is important to the industry’s bottom line. And what Davenport learns about micronutrients in Concords is going to be applicable to wine grapes, too.

Micronutrient availability is an issue in Washington’s grape-growing region, with its high pH soils. The soil availability of micronutrients decreases as pH increases.

“Right now, growers apply micronutrients based on their experience and on what’s commercially available. We want to give them quantifiable data to work with,” said Davenport. “Then they’ll be able to supply plants with what they optimally utilize without spending more than they need to on inputs.”

If the vine doesn’t get enough boron, Davenport said, pollen lands on the flower but doesn’t germinate. “That’s a disaster,” she said, “because if there’s no pollination, there’s no seed, and then there’s no fruit.” Copper and zinc don’t affect the plants so dramatically, but do affect the size of the canopy.

Davenport’s current project is based on one that her doctoral student, Suphasuk “Bird” Pradubsuck, finished recently.

“Bird excavated Concord vines at various times during the growing season and then did detailed and comprehensive analysis of the plant parts in order to ascertain the amounts per acre of micronutrients the plants used,” Davenport explained.

Macronutrients, such as nitrogen, are measured in pounds per acre, while micronutrients are generally measured in parts per million. “A typical Concord yield is about eight tons per acre,” said Davenport, “To get that, the plants need about fifty pounds of nitrogen per acre, but only a third of a pound of boron.”

Davenport is running extensive field trials on micronutrient utilization with a cooperating grower. “We’re putting on micronutrient fertilizers as both ground and foliar applications,” she said, in order to determine whether vines take up the nutrients from the soil or through their leaves.

Davenport’s research has direct impact on wine-grape growing as well. She and her team are imposing nutrient deficiencies on Cabernet Sauvignon and Semillon grapes.

“All micronutrients have different M.O.’s. By depriving plants of individual nutrients, we’ll be able to see what affects they have and, with the field study data, compare the results in ways that inform wine-grape growers. It’s all about yield and quality,” said Davenport.

By Erin Thomas

Dean and Heather Neff

Heather and Dean Neff really are living the dream, as the signs up to their Chelan estate winery suggest. With the green and flourishing Defiance Estate Vineyard overlooking the rolling hills and glistening waters of Lake Chelan, the folks behind Nefarious Cellars are fully aware and grateful for the thriving luxury known as their life.

“We are just a chick, a couple of guys and a dog striving to blow your mind,” the Nefarious Cellars website states referring to Heather, Dean, and their children, George, 4, and Cooper, 9 months.

“The bonus to being the woman in the group is I do notice I tend to smell things a little better than Dean,” Heather said, “That’s my little asset.”

With a bag full of tricks and assets they bring to the blossoming Lake Chelan Valley AVA scene, the chick and the fathering guy have a longstanding history in the industry and as a couple.

The two met in 1996, both striving to crack into the soils of the wine business after attending Chemeketa Community College in Salem, Oregon for enology and viticulture. They then decided to plant a test block vineyard on Dean’s property in Pateros, Washington. At the Rocky Mother Vineyard, named for its soils, Heather said they got a great sense of what they could grow in the Lake Chelan Valley.

The Neffs returned to Oregon, where Dean started working for a vineyard management company, then to study under the uncompromisingly gifted winemakers Isabelle Dutartre of De Ponte Cellars and later with Tony Soter at Soter Winery in Willamette Valley. Heather managed a small tasting room in Carlton, with the intentions of both retaining every aspect of the business but ultimately wanting to start a winery of their own, Heather said.
With the couple having equal parts of formal grape training, they said it was an obvious decision to split production by colors and ultimately give themselves a niche in the industry among giants.

Nefarious Cellars

“I’ve really come to love white winemaking,” Heather said, “I want them to be varietal and I always sort of want our wines to be sexy—subtle and clean and aromatic but not overpowering.”

Dean said he has dreams too. “Some day, I want to have a wine critic that finds my wine ‘spellbinding.’ I read that a long time ago, and that was the description they gave and I thought, ‘That is my goal.’”

While receiving flattering scores from Wine Spectator Magazine and frequent mentions from Paul Gregutt’s research on the AVA, the Neffs have stayed humble.

“I think we’re making wines that people keep coming back for,” Dean said, “If you ever become complacent and think you’re doing everything right then something’s wrong. We’re always trying to improve.”
Since the first vintage in 2004, the 2,000 case production winery has respectfully been half white and half red with a more affluent harvest each year. The Neffs said they are no longer nervous heading into the crush.

“I’m a lot more comfortable than I used to be,” Dean said, “I think I’m still learning and still trying to. Every year we’re experimenting, doing something slightly different. We’re never doing the same thing year after year.”

So why not stay in Oregon and produce Pinot Noir like they had trained to?

“We love the diversity of Washington and the ability to make anything that we want to,” Heather said, “We’re drawn to Rhone varietals and we really love Pinot, but we weren’t sure if that’s what we wanted to do with the rest of our lives.”

Defiance Vineyard

The Neffs said they believe their Washington Pinots would never have all the classic and distinct characteristics that Oregon Pinots are known for.

“The thing that’s crazy to me about [growing Pinot Noir in Washington] is I don’t understand the motivation when we’re totally adjacent to one of the greatest regions of wine in the world – Bordeaux,” Heather said, “Why mess around with it?”

Surrounded by increasingly concentrated fruit and terroir paralleling that of the Bordeaux region of France, Dean said his inspiration to make his own wine came from the elegance, finesse and forward fruit extraction of his two mentors, Dutartre and Soter.

“I think it was great to learn from both of them as they were two totally different styles,” Dean said, “but there are so many ways to take the grape and make great wine out of it, to focus on different styles, on the vintage and the techniques I’m using all depending on the fruit.”

Exploiting and using their local and handfed fruit as much as they possibly can, like any job, it all comes down to why you do it in the first place.

“We drank so many things while making Pinot, and there were so many producers that were doing amazing things,” Heather said, “For us, it’s the desire to create things that someone opens up and says they’ve never had anything like it—in a good way.”

Dean said what’s unique about Nefarious Cellars is visibly the location and the people, but also the cornerstone of it all. “It’s the fact that we’re keeping it really small, trying to focus on what’s important—the wine—and just putting all of our energy into that.”

By Christopher Chan

#10. Tasting Rooms

There are over 100 wineries within thirty miles of downtown Seattle, and that means many, many places to celebrate wine! So much wine, so much time (a whole year) to visit, view, sip and decide before you buy! Just remember to be cool and courteous just like the tasting room staff, and you’ll have a blast. Plus, no glasses to wash afterwards!

#9. Wine Bloggers

There’s an old saying about opinions… everyone’s got a pair and now there’s more than a “million” reviews, recommendations, and write-ups on wine. In fact, this June, Walla Walla will be hosting the 2010 Wine Blogger’s Conference. Read some, write some, heck… don’t cost nothin’. So, get your iPhones ready, and come and get your “blog” on, or if you’d rather…“tweet” this!

#8. Screw Caps

Now you can look suave and debonair and as cool as your local super-Sommelier with just a twist of the wrist. Screw caps make wine easy to open and easier to close; plus there’s never any worry of the dreaded “cork taint” or TCA-246. Screw caps or “Stelvin Enclosures” are de rigueur for quality wines these days – no longer the stigma for plonk – as even a $500.00 bottle of Henschke’s Hill of Grace comes with a twist cap – party on!

#7. Wine Bars & Restaurants

Wine is the “martini” of the new millennium.  Enjoy a glass at lunch (so very European!) with food–it’s a mini-vacation, and it’s healthy as it serves as a digestif, aperitif and relieves a little stress. A double-espresso afterwards will get you back into work mode.

#6. PONCHO Wine Auction is Back

The one and only holy grail of wine auction adoration is coming May 22 at the Seattle Sheraton. Get involved, donate some wine or your summer home in Burgundy and your uncle’s mobile home in Prosser. Volunteer or buy a ticket. It all goes to keep this town a home for world-class art, dance, symphony and song.

#5. WINO Magazine

The write place at the write time – this is the space to celebrate wine! Support your local independent winozine – tell your friends, read online, follow us on twitter, and come to our events. We promise to show you how to have fun…but getting home safely is solely your responsibility. Remember, friends don’t let friends miss an story in WINO.

#4. Washington Wine Commission

From small beginnings to world-wide domination this turbo-team of savvy and seasoned marketers are helping raise the Washington Wine Flag around the globe. Just check out TASTE Washington, the Auction of Washington Wines, 20Something and a host of national and international promotional campaigns that are making the “dirt” in Yakima and vines in Walla Walla famous! Just ask Columbia Crest who received a #1 Ranking by those Spectators of Wine. Big Purple Teethy Smiles for you!

#3. Another Vintage

Every year, we have a whole new world of wine to study, learn, sip, spit, swallow and wallow in.  There’s always something special to discover or uncork…er .. twist off, so set your engines for warp speed and boldly go open a wine that we’ve never opened before! I’m pretty sure in one episode that Captain Kirk drank a Tyrilean Syrah that was from the original root stock from Dick Boushey’s vineyard in Yakima!

#2. Support Your Local Economy

In the words of some former famous politician…let the wine drop from your glass trickle-down economics. It’s simple–buy Washington wine, save the world! Everybody wins (or wines!)…Jim planted the grapes, Jill tended the vines, Javier harvested the grapes, Jerry hauled them to the winery, Joanne sorted and crushed the grapes, Jeramiah started the fermentation, Julie did the punch-downs, John racked the wine into barrels, James bottled the wine, George bought the wine, Judd stocked the shelf, and you bought it and fell in love! Buy Washington – Live Washington!

#1. In Vino Veritas

Let the truth be told… Wine is Good, It Makes Friends, and It Makes People Smile. I love Wine, I have Friends and I’m Smiling right now. Go ahead, make my day and join me for a sip hello…I look forward to seeing you out in our beautiful backyard of wine country, wineries, wine shops, events, tastings and more…share a bottle of wine with someone–anyone–it’ll make the world a better place for you and me.

Cheers to 2010!!!