The Washington State wine industry is a $2.4 billion-dollar industry, employing over 6,000 workers.1 As the second largest wine producing state in the United States, behind California, the heart of the wine region is the quaint city of Walla Walla, Washington which sits on the 46° N latitude – the same latitude as the world renowned French wine regions of Bordeaux and Burgundy.2
Unfortunately, winemaking in Walla Walla faces an existential threat from the climate crisis. Daytime and nighttime temperatures have increased, and the diurnal shift has been reduced between highs and lows that is critical to growing grapes. “Walla Walla is definitely changing. The curve we’re on is every year is getting hotter than the last,” said Chris Kontos, owner of Kontos Cellars.3
Why are the challenges facing a small city producing wine that sometimes retails for over $100 a bottle relevant to the broader climate crisis?
Because learning how Walla Walla is reducing its carbon footprint, how it is helping farmworkers manage vines in increasingly extreme heat, and how the area is adapting, growing, and harvesting practices can provide important lessons for food growing regions around the world.
While some of the worst impacts of the climate crisis remain on the horizon, the immediate risk to grapes is increasing wildfires. “Smoke works its way into grape skins,” Chris Figgins, owner of the prestigious Leonetti Cellar, said recently to the Seattle Times.4 “We’re still a couple of weeks away from harvest, but I’ll be picking enough fruit to… see whether we have smoke-taint or not.”
Of course, the impacts of the climate crisis aren’t just affecting the taste of wine. It’s threatening an entire industry that is much of the backbone of Washington State’s agricultural economy – in a state that is increasingly divided between rural Eastern Washington and Seattle. The numbers are already stark: the median household income in King County, where Seattle is located, is $89,418,5 while in Walla Walla County it is $56,533.6 In many ways, as the climate crisis becomes more pronounced, the income gap between rural and urban counties could worsen.
How is the wine industry reducing carbon pollution, and what is Eastern Washington doing to adapt and support farmworkers?
“A lot of wineries are keenly aware of our carbon footprint. At our winery, we have farmed our estate vineyards according to strict organic protocols. We have made our glass lighter and have worked hard to keep our distribution limited on the West Coast,”7 said renowned winemaker Nina Buty of Buty Wines.
What about helping farmworkers? Buty said that the health of workers is paramount to everything they do, and they have already been making adjustments based on rising temperatures. “Walla Walla is a warm region which means that days start earlier and earlier – with workers now in the vineyard by 4 a.m. and done by noon. There’s a lot of pressure to move to machine farming but we are doing our best to resist,” Buty said.
The Walla Walla Valley is also hyper focused on climate impacts on water, since mountain snowmelt provides more than half of Washington State’s water supply.8 While vineyards are by design more drought tolerant than, say, growing wheat or corn, as glaciers recede, winemakers recognize the urgent need to explore different locations for vineyards and make changes in vine management practices.9
If there was a tone of optimism talking with winemakers, it is from the meaningful connections they are making with the global wine community to learn best practices to deal with climate change – including managing impacts of wildfires, drought, and increasing temperatures. Winemaker Nina Buty said, “One of the things that gives me hope is the collaboration we can gain through learning from our partners in other wine regions like Australia and elsewhere in around the world.”
So while many wineries in Walla Walla are focused locally on the impacts of the climate crisis, they know that to help defeat climate change they have to look globally too. The economy and way of life of Eastern Washington – and rural America – may well depend on it.
1 Washington Wine Industry Report 2015.
2 Walla Walla Valley Wine Alliance Prospectus.
3 Interview with Chris Kontos, October 22, 2020.
4 Seattle Times, September 11, 2020.
5 U.S. Census.
6 U.S. Census.
7 Interview with Nina Buty, October 22, 2020.
8 State of Washington Department of Ecology.
9 The Nature Conservancy.