The PacNW Wine Regions’ Climatic Challenges and Benefits
These latter two methods have the added benefit of being useful in Washington's and Idaho's springtimes when late frosts can potentially erase an entire year's crop. Again, frost is rarely a concern in maritime Oregon.
Without getting any more complicated, it is essential to understand that the topography of Washington's and Oregon's wine regions is as divergent a characteristic as latitude is between California and Washington. Washington's vines are predominantly grown in the rainshadow of the Cascade Range, which effectively renders Eastern Washington a desert. Oregon's vineyards lie on the western foothills of the same range, thereby catching as much rain as Washington's vineyards avoid. Oregon's winemakers usually wrestle with the compounded problems of bunch rot and dilution; though the 2 most recent vintages posed no such problems.
BENEFITS OF CLIMATIC SITUATION
The silver lining in the clouds of water supply and temperature extreme are also a function of latitude as well as topography and wine style. To offset fluctuations in rainfall, vineyards can be irrigated to make up for a lack of water, or, in the event of deluge, the clusters can be "thinned" off the vine and/or the resulting wine "bled" (removing juice from the must before fermentation begins). Broader temperature fluctuations between seasons also translate into broader temperature fluctuations between day and night. Cooler nighttime temperatures effectively lock in the natural flavor-preserving acids and somewhat volatile flavor compounds, which give the wine a broader spectrum of vibrant fruit flavors.
To explain, a vine spends its day photosynthesizing sugars and nutrients from nutrients osmotically forced up from the roots. In warmer climes, the day's temperature keeps bringing up nutrients long after the sun has gone down. This shortens the time needed to fully ripen the grapes, yet can also raise the pH of the fruit until it is out of balance with the sugars and acidity. The effect is that, if the wine's acidity is not artificially adjusted, the wine will taste flat, or, as it is sometimes called: flabby.
The biggest single effect of climate on Northwest wine style is that they all possess that vibrant fresh fruit quality that is appealing in its own balance, as well as its balancing effect on meals. This effect is due to the levels of acidity preserved by dint of lower nighttime temperatures. This is true of Washington, Idaho and Oregon.
Climate is also a factor of latitude. Temperature is more "temperate" as demonstrated above, yet
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