Crescent Bar Resort

Environment key in perfect wine

Since the Central Washington and Southern British Columbia climates are somewhat unique in the world we are still learning about the best ways to utilize this arid environment. One such way has more or less been pioneered by British Columbia - ice wines and late harvest wines. B.C. winemakers have made a bit of a name for themselves with these wines, entering competitions and earning gold medals all over the world.

It did not take too long for B.C.'s Washington cousins to realize that we too can do the same thing. Our dry climate allows us to leave grapes on the vine long after optimum maturity has been reached. This allows the grapes to either freeze on the vine (ice wine) or slowly raisin and concentrate sugar (late harvest).

Long before the new world was discovered, and along with it sugar cane, the only source of sugar was honey or concentrating fruit juices. Thus I suspect that in the ancient worlds of western civilization sweet foods were prized above all others and sweet wines would have been considered the greatest of wines. To this day there are sweet wines made around the rim of the Mediterranean Sea in styles that have been traditional for centuries.

In northern European climates sweet wine would have been no less prized. However the length of the growing season is not long enough to develop high sugars. One way to do achieve elevated sugar concentration is to leave the grapes on the vine as winter approaches and hope they will freeze before they rot. If the grapes are picked and pressed before defrosting the ice crystals will remain in the press, thus concentrating the sugar. In a wet climate such as Germany's this can be very risky and expensive as it is more than possible the rot will occur before the freeze.

In the southeast of France in the Sauterne region they have a maritime climate where freezing temperatures rarely occur. There they leave the grapes and a mold can grow on them, known as noble rot, which removes water from the grapes, once again concentrating the sugars. This is also very risky because if the fall is too wet the noble rot can quickly become nasty rot.

That brings us to our arid climate which is an ideal environment for late harvest and ice wines. Blocks of vines can be left unpicked into late October and early November in the hopes that they will freeze and make ice wine. If however they do not freeze the odds are excellent that they will not mold, but dehydrate thus developing interesting and complex flavor profiles. Picking dates as late as December or even early January (which year do you put on the label?) are not uncommon for late harvest wines. Traditionally varieties such as Riesling, Gewurztraminer, and Sauvignon Blanc are used in these wines. However I have seen Late Harvest Pinot Noir made by Washington state wineries and obviously any grape can be made into a Late Harvest or Ice Wine.

Crescent Bar Resort

On Tuesday night, Nancy and I were getting ready to head to the pool when we walked out of our rigs the whole area was engulfed in smoke. (We are down in a valley that has only one way in and one way out.) After about 20 minutes of wondering what is happening and how close is this fire, we get word that we must evacuate. There were about 10 of us who said we are taking our rigs with us. It took us all about 10 minutes to unhook, load and be ready to leave. By this time the fire has jumped the main road so the only place that we can go is down to the little island of Crescent Bar. They have a big day use park there and we were able to spend the night there. I read that the fire burned 1700+ acres of land but no structures were lost and no one was hurt. Thank you firefighters one and all. I was born and raised in Chesterfield, VA. In 1980 I met this sailor (Russell Allen Frady) who swept me off my feet. We got married exactly 9 weeks after meeting at a bowling banquet and for the past 20 years we have been living in Chula Vista, CA. I retired from Civil Service in September 2004 and needed 5 quarters to have enough for social security. That being taken care of we decided to sell our townhouse and take up full-time rving. We bought us a 2006 Holiday Rambler Endeavor in March 2007 and are living the lifestyle that we really love.

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