Breathtakingly Beautiful Columbia Gorge AVA

I'm Susan Allen, this The Fruit Grower Report has such great affiliates in Hood River and the Dalles, so for today's Vine to Wine Wednesday I thought we would feature their fairly new wine region that often gets overlooked by the critics, the Columbia Gorge AVA. Here' s aginfo's KayDee Gilkey on a little facts and history.

GILKEY: When you drive the Columbia Gorge from Portland to Goldendale most folks don't realize they pass through Two AVAs, the Columbia Gorge AVA and Columbia Valley AVA,. The Columbia Gorge AVA was formed as recently as 2004 while the Columbia Valley AVA was established in 1984.and encompasses most of the wine appellations of Washington from Walla Walla to the Canadian border. Driving from Portland past Multnomah Falls the annual rainfall is 36 inches and it becomes less than half that by the time you reach the Dalles with it's arid high desert. The wines change dramatically from Hood River to the Dalles as well. Wines from the western end of the Columbia Gorge AVA bear more resemblance to those of from wines of the Willamette Valley than the wines of eastern Washington. And next Wednesday the winemaker of one of the highest elevations wineries in the state at 1600 feet, Wy'East Vineyards in Hood River will be on the show. I hear wine tourist say that The Columbia Gorge AVA is memorable because it's friendly . Over 95 percent of the wineries are small and family owned with production of less than 5,000 cases. And it's all within 40 miles of breathtaking beauty in the scenic Columbia River Gorge.

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