Lake Chelan wine designation a big win for region’s commerce

Lake Chelan wine designation a big win for region’s commerce
 
CHELAN — Lake Chelan’s recent designation as the state’s newest Agricultural Viticultural Area (AVA) is bringing new attention to a region already popular as a prime summer recreation area. The recognition will extend the tourism season and help the area grow and thrive more months of the year, say those in the wine and tourism industries.

"It will literally put us on the map," said Judy Phelps, winemaker and co-owner of Hard Row to Hoe Winery in Manson. She is also the outgoing president of the Lake Chelan Wine Growers Association. "Everyone up here has been making award-winning wines for years. A lot of people still don’t know. This will be a way to get the word out."

Lake Chelan’s 15 wineries have already brought a significant increase in tourism during the spring and fall, said Ray Sandidge, owner of C.R. Sandidge Wines and director of winemaking for Lake Chelan Winery and Karma Vineyards. Sandidge was the Wine Growers Association president in 2006 when the AVA application was made. He said a recent survey of Lake Chelan lodging and restaurants showed more people are coming to the area during the summer shoulder seasons for spring barrel tasting and fall harvest wine events.

"We know and understand the dramatic impact this type of designation has had on commerce in other areas of our state. We expect nothing less for Lake Chelan," wrote Michael Steele, executive director of the Lake Chelan Chamber of Commerce, in the AVA application.

"They’ve done a lot of work to define the region and say why it is unique in terms of weather, soil and topography," said Vicky Scharlau, executive director of the Washington Wine Grape Growers Association, a statewide organization of grape growers and vintners based in Cashmere. Scharlau said gathering information required to win AVA designation from the federal government is a "horrendous" and costly task.

The result, however, can bring worldwide interest from those knowledgeable about wine.

An AVA is the American equivalent of what is known as an appellation in Europe. Bordeaux, Champagne and Cote du Rhone are well-known appellations in France in which there are government regulations that oversee where and how the wine is made.

A wine must be made with at least 85 percent grapes grown in the AVA to use the designation on its label. With Lake Chelan, Washington now has 11 AVAs.

Early Lake Chelan vintners Steve Kludt and Bob Christopher started thinking about the AVA process shortly after they started thinking beyond apples.

The two former Manson growers started replacing their apple trees with wine grapes in 1997.

In 2000, they licensed Lake Chelan Winery, the first winery in the area.

The wine association, with the support of local businesses, hired soil scientist Alan Busacca in 2006 to collect soil and climate data that would show the Chelan Basin’s unique qualities for producing wine grapes and wines that can be differentiated from wines made with grapes from other areas.

What he found is something that apple growers have known in non-scientific terms for decades: Lake Chelan’s huge body of water acts as a climate-moderating heat sink that increases the length of the growing season and reduces the frequency of vine-killing freezes, while producing exceptional crops.

About 25 varieties of wine grapes have been planted on 300 acres around Lake Chelan.

Most vineyards are less than five years old. The AVA includes more than 24,000 acres of land around the lake.

"We’re so new that nobody knows about us yet," Phelps said. "But that’s going to change."