Grant County growing as major part of wine country

Every month new wineries open in Washington in what seems to be a constantly expanding industry.

In 1984, the Washington Wine Commission published a map of the state with thirty wineries scattered here and there. Twenty-eight years later we have broken the 700-winery mark with no end in sight.

Grant County has long had a role in all this.

As the Wahluke Slope was opened up to irrigation in the seventies, a few farsighted farmers planted grapes in what is considered the warmest area in the state. People like Harry Sargent, Don Toci, and Jerry Fox were amongst the first to plant grapevines.

Wineries have now started to sprout on the Wahluke slope. The first was the old Languth Winery. F.W. Languth is a large family concern in Germany that somehow became aware of the Wahluke Slope.

They planted grapes and built a winery in the early eighties on the eastern side of the slope. They opened the first wine tasting room in Grant County and eventually had to call the county offices as sheriff's deputies were tending to park at the end of their driveway. For some reason this was putting a damper on their tasting room business.

Languth eventually sold and a large custom crush winery is now in the facility - as they do not wish the public to be aware of their activities I shall not disclose their name.

Milbrandt Farms and Jones of Washington have both built large winemaking facilities that are not open to the public (Milbrandt's tasting room is in Prosser and Jones' in Quincy).

Ginkgo Forest Winery now has a tasting room open near Mattawa and the Port is hoping to encourage other wineries to do the same thing.

Further north, and during the same time period as Languth, Vince and Carol Bryan purchased property overlooking the Columbia River north of Vantage. There they started the first vineyard and winery in the Quincy Basin, which they called Champs de Brionne.

This has now evolved into the elegant Cave B, Tendrils Restaurant, and the Sagecliffe Inn. Later White Heron Cellars, St. Laurent, and Beaumont opened their doors.

In an earlier article, we discussed American Viticultural Areas (AVAs).

The growers of the Wahluke have received an AVA known as Wahluke Slope. This means that any winery that sources their grapes entirely from the slope can use the designation "Wahluke Slope" on their label.

In the Quincy area, a petition is under way to create an AVA known as "Ancient Lakes" and the area should be so designated by early 2013.

These AVAs will help bring attention to Grant County and highlight its long underrated role in the Washington wine industry. This also means that more people will be attracted to the area to open wineries. Three wineries are now open in Moses Lake - Kyra, Camas Cove, and Dry Falls. The old underground cold war facilities near Moses Lake would make excellent wine storage areas.

Small plantings of grapes are starting to appear around Moses Lake and this is a sign of the not too distant future when the City of Moses Lake will be in wine country.

Wine tourism is a fast growing sector of the tourism industry. Several years ago the Napa Valley surpassed Disneyland as the number one tourist attraction in California.

Soon we will be seeing many more people discovering the wines and the beauty of Grant County.