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History of winegrapes in the Puget Sound AVA

Follows are some notes of the history of winegrapes in the Puget Sound AVA. Apologies that I don't have time now to do a better job, but it's more important to at least get down my terse notes, in hopes that we'll be able to fill in the gaps in the future.

Mike Lempriere 26-Mar-2007

First plantings

Late 1800's -- Lambert Evans -- see MikeL's WA Winery Guide.
Additional plantings were right after the repeal of Prohibition -- Old St. Charles Winery -- see MikeL's WA Winery Guide.
Also 1940's -- Werberger Winery -- see MikeL's WA Winery Guide.

"old" grapegrowing vs. "modern"
Here we have a break between "old" winegrape growing and "modern". This is a statewide distinction -- before the mid-1960's, eastern WA was almost unutilized for premium winegrapes. Also the very few WA wineries (east and west) produced primarily sweetened and fortified wines for the less discerning palate, typically from non-vinifera grapes.

In the mid 1960's, Dr. Walter Clore at W.S.U. Ag. Ext. in Prosser, was instrumental in showing that premium vinifera winegrapes had a bright future in eastern WA. His work spawned an entire new industry starting with eastern WA (among others) Hinzerling Vineyard and Winery, Preston Vineyards, and western WA wineries (who trucked eastern WA grapes over the mountains to the Puget Sound winery buildings) like E. B. Foote Winery, and Columbia Winery, and Chateau St. Michelle.

The "modern" era
Gerard Bentryn was the first to establish a commercial vineyard in the PS AVA in the "modern era". His Bainbridge Island Vineyard and Winery (BIVW) was first planted in 1977.

The following was derived from a conversation with Gerard at BIVW, Mar-2007:
In the mid-late 1970's, Les Street established grapvines in his nursery on Maury Island (southern tip of Vashon Isalnd). I believe his cuttings came from John Harper in Surrey British Columbia. He had Madeleine Angevine, Muller Thurgau and "early Madeleine Angevine" which Gerard says was later determined to be Madeleine Sylvaner. Gerard believes that his (BIVW's) purchase of these vines/cuttings from Les in 1977 was probably Les' first sale of winegrapes.

Siegerrebe was brought in to BIVW by Dr. Norton at W.S.U. Mt. Vernon Ag. Ext. (position currently held [editor's note: 2007] by Gary Moulton), probably in 1980.

Around 2000, Gary Moulton brought in a large number of previously unseen vinifera and hybrid varieties from British Columbia. If my understanding is correct, U.B.C. closed down an existing nursery area and ripped out a significant experimental grapevine plot. At the time, these plants could not be legally brought in to WA state as they were not certified to be free of Rupestris Stem Pitting. Tom Bronkema worked to have this restriction removed from the WA state quarantine law as it had been shown that the current state-of-the-art test was not sufficient, and in fact had been dropped as a requirment by the U.C. Davis motherblock program a few years earlier. This was an extensive list of primarily northern European varieties with names like Golubuk, Regent, Dornfelder, Dunkelfelder. The big excitement from this work is that many "big reds" were brought in -- varieties that ripen early enough that even in our cool Puget Sound climate they should produce a "big red" style wine. More details on this at the W.S.U. website.

In 2004, Mike Lempriere purchased Melon de Bourgogne plants from an eastern WA nursery and established a vineyard adjacent to BIVW on Bainbridge Island. Some of those cuttings were sold to Louis Dailly in 2007, presumedly they'll turn up as wine from his winery in the Skagit Valley around 2012. More details on Mike's work can be found at Perennial Vintners and at MelonDeBourgogne.com.