Concrete Eggs

Large, egg-shaped, concrete vessels used to ferment white wine. There are distinct advantages to using concrete eggs instead of oak barrels or stainless steel tanks. The oval shape of the egg helps create a vortex causing the wine to roll in circular arcs, assuring a thorough active fermentation. The concrete itself holds heat well, so the warmth created by fermentation is not quickly dissipated, and the wine doesn’t experience wide temperature swings. Lastly, concrete is porous like wood, which allows for the gentle introduction of air, which softens the wine.

Washington State’s first AVA was created in the same year that Gandhi won the Academy Award for Best Picture and Meryl Streep won the Best Actress Award for Sophie’s Choice. What was that AVA?

A. Yakima Valley

B. Columbia Valley

C. Snake River Valley

D. Walla Walla Valley

The Yakima Valley, an American Viticultural Area established in 1983, was the first AVA in Washington State. It’s more than 600,000 acres in size and is located about 155 miles southeast of Seattle on the eastern side of the Cascade Mountain range. The AVA is best known for Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay and several prominent Washington vineyards are located here including Boushey, Ciel du Cheval and Olsen. The Columbia Valley AVA and the Walla Walla AVA were both created in 1984, a year after the Yakima AVA. And the Snake River AVA, created in 2007, is not in Washington. It straddles Oregon and Idaho.

“Wine is earth’s answer to the sun.”

—Margaret Fuller,
American journalist
(1810 – 1850)

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