vineyards more sustainable take strides to become Washington

F&V deputy editor Sarah Kidby reports

With abundant sunlight, cold winters, persistent wind, a dry climate and diurnal shift, Washington State has naturally low pest and disease pressure, lending itself to more sustainable vine growing, according to WA Wine, which represents all licensed wineries and grape growers in the state.

Washington State is the second-largest wine region in the US, cultivating over 80 grape varieties and producing over 17 million cases of wine a year from 400 growers and 30,000ha of land. Out of more than 1,000 wineries in the state, 90% are small, family-owned businesses and collaboration between growers and wineries is signi cant and important, particularly since the state covers such a large area. The state’s wine industry allocates a quarter of its budget to a ground-breaking viticulture and oenology research programme.

Set up for sustainability

The online event saw delegates sample six wines from three vineyards in Red Mountain and Walla Walla Valley – all of whom are certi ed sustainable. Sustainable WA is a science-based certi cation programme developed over the past 20 years, speci cally for Washington State vineyards. To become certi ed, growers must meet 18 mandatory requirements and achieve at least 70% of each of nine chapters (83 requirements in total).

Based on the Paci c West Coast of the US between the latitudes of 46 and 47, the state is well within the 30–40 ideal latitude line to produce grapes. It sees 17 hours of sunlight a day, giving very long growing days in the summer. Other advantages include lots of wind, low humidity, very high UV exposure and cold winters, which all help to mitigate fungal disease pressure such as downy mildew and powdery mildew, said third generation grower and winemaker Tyler Williams, who runs Kiona Vineyards in Red Mountain. The climate makes for deeply coloured, perfumed and acidic wines, which is part of the uniqueness of Washington wine. The area is also water-rich, with the Columbia River being the 13th largest water drainage basin in the world.

Combined with limited precipitation in the growing season, hyper-precise irrigation methods allow Kiona to stress the vines in exactly the way they want, whilst mitigating run-o of spray applications.

Adopting sustainable practices

Cutworms can be a problem in Washington State, and while spraying can remove them, with sustainability in mind Kiona handles them a little di erently. They have established inter-row foliage of natural ora and spray an inert barrier product on the foliage of the grapes. This means the cutworms are still present and part of an active ecosystem, feeding on the inner row rather than the foliage of the grapes.

The vineyard is also trialling subterranean drip irrigation systems, which Tyler said are more e cient than an above-ground drip line. As part of another trial, Kiona is using aerial drones to drop beetles, colloquially known as ‘mealy bug killers’ over the vineyards. Tyler explained: “Mealy bugs are the most ominous pests we deal with here in Washington State, so instead of using sprays that have been traditional for the past several decades, we are starting to recognise that there’s other biological controls that are almost completely benign in order to achieve our goals and control pest pressures.”

On the winery side, Kiona has switched to light eco glass weighing 470g, reduced from 700/960g. “The reason for that is bottling wines is by far the biggest carbon input of wine production. So it’s the easiest way that we are able to minimise our carbon footprint,” Tyler said. They have also installed solar panels on the roof of the tasting room, which is designed to provide enough energy to o set all of their diesel use for the 80-acre original Kiona vineyard.

Meanwhile, on the Hedges Family Estate, which is also located in Red Mountain, they work with organic dairies who supply manure, as the size of the area prevents them introducing their own cattle or sheep. Established in 1987, the estate comprises 130 acres of planted vines, all under biodynamic and organic certi cation. It’s now run by Christophe Hedges with his sister. They also grind up some forms of nutrient dense plants to make compost teas and run them through the drip system. “Essentially what we’re doing is using very basic materials, whether it’s cow manure or the plants that we grow here on site to help alleviate the constraints that might a ect yields or quality in the vineyard,” Christophe said. reesinkagriculture.co.uk

One of the wines sampled during the event was Hedges’ Touriga 2018. Touriga Nacional vines were planted in 1998 and have surprisingly become more balanced as the heat summations have increased. They’re also more tolerant to water stress, being some of the least watered varietals they have on the vineyard, despite very high evapotranspiration in the soils. On the other hand, the estate has removed some of its Merlot due to poor performance over the past few years, in part due to heat and water stress. Christophe believes that moving into di erent varietals such as Touriga Nacional could be a glimpse of the future for Washington State as temperatures increase.

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