Puget Sound Wine

Filed in archive Wine Making on October 23, 2006

Many Puget Sound citizens may not know about the huge wine industry in their own back yard. Heck, I bet your average person in general when asked what areas of the United States make the most wine will be hard pressed to come up with a decent answer after first picking California.

Here's more about this area of wine makers from Wine Country: The Puget Sound Region is home of a host of wineries:

Washington is wine country, ranked second in the nation after California in premium wine production. Our state, which shares the same latitude as the famed Burgundy and Bordeaux wine regions of France, includes nine areas, or "appellations," where wine grapes thrive, including our own Puget Sound region.

You can plan your wine tasting road trip by referencing the Washington Wine Commission's map. The map shows larger wineries like Chateau Ste. Michelle and Covington Cellars, but there are also a number of mom-and-pop operations run by people who just plain love wine.

Mike Lempriere and Beth Schoenberg began making wine in 1997 in the basement of their home in Green Lake. It was just a hobby, pure diversion. But they were pretty good at it. Their Cabernet Sauvignon won awards at the Puyallup Fair over the next few years, and they continued to experiment with new varieties and techniques.

In 2003 the couple moved to a three-acre parcel on Bainbridge Island, established Perennial Vintners and began growing their own Melon de Bourgogne (Muscadet) grapes. On Oct. 14 they made their first harvest, and they expect to bottle about 30 gallons of wine this year. Melon de Bourgogne has never been grown in the Puget Sound before, and is not commercially produced anywhere in the state.

"We've proven Melon is going to work here. We've truly made history," crowed Lempriere.