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31 Pacific Northwest Where the Land Does the Talking Draw a line down the Pacific coast from Puget Sound to the California border, and you'll find two of America's most distinct wine regions separated by a state line but united by a shared instinct: let the land do the talking. Washington's story starts with the desert. East of the Cascade rain shadow, the Columbia Valley receives less annual rainfall than Napa, its vineyards baked by long summer days and cooled by nights that can drop 40 degrees before dawn. That diurnal swing builds structure into everything grown here — the muscular Cabernet Sauvignon of Red Mountain, the peppery Syrah of Walla Walla, the electric Riesling that put Washington on the map before Cabernet ever did. Nearly 1,000 wineries now work this high desert, and few of them are household names — by design. Cross into Oregon and the climate changes entirely. The Willamette Valley trades desert heat for maritime cool, its volcanic and marine sedimentary soils drawing comparisons to Burgundy that Oregon winemakers have spent forty years earning rather than borrowing. Pinot Noir is the valley's signature, but travel further south into the Rogue and Umpqua Valleys and warmer- climate varietals — Tempranillo, Syrah, even Cabernet — start to appear. What ties the region together isn't a grape or a climate — it's scale. Oregon has more wineries per capita than any state in the country, and the overwhelming majority of both states' producers are family-run, small-lot operations, often just one generation removed from the first vines planted on the property. These aren't corporate labels chasing volume. They're winemakers who moved here for the land, stayed for the wine, and built something worth a family's name on the label. The following pages introduce you to some of the best. Western Washington. Central Washington, Walla Walla Valley Oregon's Willamette Valley, Columbia Valley and Southern Oregon, Idaho August Cellars, Willamette, OR Alloro Vineyards, Sherman, OR

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