Goose Gap becomes state’s latest certified wine region

SEATTLE — Washington State has a brand new officially recognized wine growing area.

As of July 1, the Goose Gap American Viticultural Area (AVA) in Benton County was officially recognized by the federal Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau, which oversees and regulates vintages from the country’s wine-producing regions.

That brings to 19 the total number of AVAs in Washington, nearly all of them in southeastern Washington, according to a press release from the Washington State Wine Commission.

“It helps give a sense of the place,” said Steve Warner, president of the Washington State Wine Commission.

The 8,100-acre Goose Gap AVA, so named because it sits underneath a flyway for migrating geese, is located within the Yakima Valley AVA and right next to the Red Mountain AVA and tiny Candy Mountain AVA as well. All of these defined viticultural areas themselves sit within the huge Columbia Valley AVA, which extends from the northern shores of Lake Roosevelt south into Oregon, and as far east along the Snake River as the Lewis and Clark Valley in Idaho.

Warner said Goose Gap is unique and deserving of its own special designation because of the orientation of the grape fields and the nature of the region’s soil.

Because of the way Goose Mountain — also contained in the new region — lies, the vineyards are planted on the north-facing slope, the only vineyards in the entire Yakima Valley to face north.

Warner said that allows the fruit to hang longer and ripen later.

As for the soils, the region is home to a particularly deep loam loess layered over silts and sands deposited during the Missoula Floods many thousands of years ago, allowing for good water drainage, strong pest and disease resistance in the soil, and vines to sink deep roots.

“It’s really fine, almost like powdered sugar. It’s really unique,” he said.

But, as Warner noted, what makes an AVA unique is not simply one thing — a sentiment echoed by Bill Monson, the president of Goose Ridge Estate Vineyards and Winery, the only winery located in the AVA.

“Our family started farming in the Columbia Valley in the early 1900s and we always knew Goose Gap was a special site,” he said in a press release. “The area has a unique microclimate. We often watch rain clouds and fog maneuver around Goose Mountain avoiding the vineyards planted at the top.”

The designation will allow Goose Ridge — or any other vintner who sets up shop in the Goose Gap region — to apply for an official “Certificate of Label Approval” noting the wine’s origin.

Warner said that it’s not unusual to have small or even tiny AVA’s located inside other AVAs. In fact, most of the state’s designated wine growing regions are located wholly or partly within the Columbia Valley AVA.

“In the Old World, it can get down to the vineyard,” Warner said.

Charles H. Featherstone can be reached at cfeatherstone@columbiabasinherald.com.