The Columbia Gorge AVA is one of America's most geographically dramatic wine regions, a 40-mile corridor along the Columbia River where the Cascade Mountains create a dramatic east-west climate gradient. The western end, near Hood River and White Salmon, is cool and wet with Pacific marine influence; the eastern end, near The Dalles, is semi-arid high desert. This range of conditions allows an extraordinary diversity of varieties to thrive within a single appellation.
The Washington side of the Gorge, primarily the communities of White Salmon, Underwood, and Bingen, has developed a small but serious wine community producing Syrah, Riesling, Pinot Gris, and Grenache from vineyards on the north-facing slopes above the Columbia. The combination of basalt soils, cool Pacific influence from the west, and warm interior air from the east creates a tension in the wines that is distinctly Gorge.
The Columbia Gorge is genuinely shared between Washington and Oregon, wineries on both sides of the river draw fruit from both states, and visitors typically cross the bridge to combine the Oregon producers (around Hood River) with the Washington producers. Vancouver and the Clark County area provide a different style of wine country experience: urban tasting rooms drawing on Columbia Valley fruit rather than estate-grown Gorge vineyards.
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