History of Puget Sound Grape Growing
First plantings
Vines were probably first planted in Washington state with the first settlers in 1825 at Fort Vancouver. It is not sure if they were just growing them for fruit or wine there is no mention of what they used them for.
The first real vineyard appears on Stretch Island in the 1870s. Planted by Lambert Evans for wine specifically. Lambert started the first winery in the state, St. Charles Winery, which survived until Prohibition.
"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" eraGerard 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.
Work continues around the Puget Sound AVA. Approximately 200 acres of vines are in the ground west of the Cascades. The predominate grapes in the ground are Madeleine Angevine, Siegerrebe and Pinot Noir. Smaller plantings of Muller-Thurgau, Regent, Pinot Gris and Chardonnay.