Implementation of Senate House Bill 1812:

If a winery claims only  "Washington" as the appellation of origin, the  wine will need to contain at least 95% Washington grapes under this new state law.  Washington grapes could be from (a) an AVA located entirely in Washington, (b) an AVA located partly in Washington, or (c) a non-AVA location in  Washington.  For purposes of the Washington law, grapes grown in Oregon but within a cross-border AVA--e.g., the  Columbia Valley, Columbia Gorge or Walla Walla AVAs--would count toward  the Washington content requirement.  However, under federal law, to use the name "Washington", the wine would need to contain at least 75% Washington grapes, and cross-border AVA grapes would not qualify for that purpose.  So, for example, to use only the name "Washington" as the appellation of origin, a wine could not be made from 95% Walla Walla AVA grapes grown in the Oregon portion of that  AVA.

If a winery claims  "Washington" and an AVA, for example,  "Walla Walla", as the appellations of origin,  the wine will need to contain at least 95% Washington grapes (for state law purposes) and 85% Walla Walla AVA grapes and 75% Washington grapes (for federal purposes).  For example, if a wine contains 85% Walla Walla AVA grapes, then in order to satisfy the new Washington law requirement, an additional 10% of the wine must be from (a), (b) or  (c) above. However, again, the winery would be required to comply with the federal law requiring 75% state content in order to use "Washington" on the  label.  

Finally, if a winery claims only an AVA, for example, "Walla Walla", as  the appellation of origin, then it would be required to satisfy only the 85% AVA content requirement under federal  law.

L to R: Carol Newhouse, Dan Newhouse-Director of Department of Agriculture, Governor Chris Gregoire, Jean Leonard-WAWGG Lobbyist, Anne McGrath-WAWGG Lobbyist, Representative Judy Warnick-13th Legislative District. 

WAWGG Federal Issues

April 2009