Why Washington State’s Wine Scene Has Become So Experimental

Author: Taste Washington / Source: Atlas Obscura

The wine scene in Washington state has exploded in recent years. The number of active wineries operating in the state has increased from just 19 in 1981 to more than 900 today.

Among these is a new generation of experimental winemakers who take unconventional approaches at every stage in the process, from the growing techniques to bottling practices and the winemaking itself.

“People are doing things that have never been done before. There’s definitely a pioneering spirit out here,” says Kelly Johnson, the owner and head winemaker at Tetrahedron Wines in Lyle, Washington. At Tetrahedon, traditional winemaking practices blend with modern, science-based techniques. Johnson is one of dozens of Washington State winemakers who are searching for ways to innovate, with delicious results. Plenty of these blends will be available to try during Taste Washington: an annual event in Seattle that features some of the state’s most notable talent in both food and wine.

“This is our first year at Taste Washington,” says Johnson. “This will be the largest and most diverse group of industry tasters and consumers to try our wines thus far. I am excited to see their response.”

“We are not your typical wine industry people,” says Rachael Horn of AniChe Cellars in Underwood, Washington. Instead of tweaking grapes in a lab to achieve high marks on a 100–point scale, AniChe’s wines are focused on showcasing what wines should show as agricultural products: a sense of when and where their grapes were grown. That means letting grapes be grapes, not imposing a certain flavor profile on them or modifying them based on wine scoring criteria.

“In our hippie–dippie way, we ask the fruit what it wants to be, then we don’t manipulate it with chemistry to force it to meet a certain style—we guide it into wine without an agenda,” Horn says. The result is a series of blends that “taste” like the area they came from. With cheeky names like “Goat Boy” and “Three Witches,” Horn acknowledges that her customers aren’t traditional. “Our target market is not someone looking for your standard wine; they want something more adventurous,” she…

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