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 Andrea Vogt
The industry is aware they purchased a problem when they
expanded so rapidly,” Keller says, “but they are also driving the
demand to clean up their act.”
Some, like Hogue Cellars, started rejecting grapes from infected
plants. That got growers’ attention. Now, Hogue requires all its
grape suppliers to test material before it goes into the wine
supply.
Recognizing that a well-funded program for certifying clean
vines was a matter of self-preservation for everyone, the wine
industry has begun lobbying state and federal legislators to help
secure funding for the Prosser research center, whose program to
certify, monitor, and protect the Northwest region’s grape supply
is called the Northwest Grape Foundation Service, one of just two
such regional services in the United States. The other is the Plant
Foundation Service at UC Davis in California. The grape service
programs at WSU Prosser and UC Davis are now poised to be two major
anchors for a new national certification and regulatory program
being set up for the American wine industry. The National Clean
Plant Network will create at least four nationally recognized grape
repositories (WSU, UC Davis, Missouri State University, and Cornell
University). The state legislature has also recently stepped up its
support, appropriating $1.5 million for a new laboratory facility
that features separate “dirty rooms” and “clean rooms” for handling
disease-infested varieties. Last year, five new viticulture and
enology positions were created at WSU.
While Washington’s industry continues to expand—an average of
one or two wineries open in Washington State each week—most of the
Northwest Grape Foundation Service’s expansion this year has been a
result of becoming a regional, rather than solely statewide,
organization that also serves Oregon and Idaho. This year, all the
new grape selections—29 total—were to satisfy other geographical
areas outside of eastern Washington (mostly Pinot Gris, Chardonnay,
and Pinot Noir destined for Oregon, Idaho, and western
Washington).
One of the biggest challenges now is predicting and responding
quickly to the market’s whims.
“We saw Pinot Noir sales start soaring as soon as the movie
Sideways came out,” Keller says. Vineyard after vineyard of
Riesling was pulled out of Washington State in the 70s and 80s and
replaced with Merlot and Chardonnay, he adds. Now Riesling’s hot
again.
“Growers call me and say, ‘I need Riesling, how many cuttings
can you give me right now?’ I say, ‘Five,’ and they say, ‘Well I
need 50,000!’ The temptation [to go elsewhere] is always
there.”
Alongside Pinot Noir and Riesling, Italian Sangiovese and the
Tempranillo from Spain are on the hot list. But to meet demand,
growers here must either bring in the plant material legally from
out-of-state sources, which can be expensive, or wait the two years
it takes to introduce a new variety. The process goes like this.
First, Ballard procures clean plants, usually from Foundation Plant
Service at UC Davis. Then, using a dissecting microscope, he snips
a tiny tip of the plant, about the size of a grain of sand. In a
tissue culture lab free of bacteria, yeast, and fungi (cleaner than
a hospital operating room, he boasts) Ballard uses an autoclave to
clean and sterilize the vials and nutrient mix into which the tips
are inserted. By two weeks they are the size of a pinhead. By two
months, the size of a pea. Once the plants are big enough to be
moved to the greenhouse, they are again “cleaned” or indexed for
viruses. After one year in the field, the plants are indexed again,
and if they are clean, released to the nurseries. The nurseries
then propagate the clean plants in order to fulfill demand.
Meanwhile, back at Prosser, the original is planted in the new
“foundation-block” vineyard, its exact location detailed on the
secret map, pulled out only when it’s time to finally cut wood—and
deliver the long-awaited new variety to the state’s certified
nurseries.
“This is really the only way we are going to survive,” stresses
Wessels. “It’s a long-term strategy for an industry that is doing
really well. We want to do everything we can to protect it.”
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