Establishment of the Lake Chelan Viticultural Area
Federal Register: April 29, 2009 (Volume 74, Number 81)
Rules and Regulations
Page 19409-19416
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
DOCID:fr29ap09-5
DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY
Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau 27 CFR Part 9
TTB Docket No. 2008-0006; T.D. TTB-76; Re: Notice No. 87
RIN 1513-AB42
Establishment of the Lake Chelan Viticultural Area (2007R-103P)
AGENCY: Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau, Treasury.
ACTION: Final rule; Treasury decision.
SUMMARY: This Treasury decision establishes the 24,040-acre ``Lake
Chelan'' American viticultural area in Chelan County, Washington. It lies within the larger Columbia Valley viticultural area in north- central Washington. We designate viticultural areas to allow vintners to better describe the origin of their wines and to allow consumers to better identify wines they may purchase.
DATES: Effective Date: May 29, 2009.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Christopher Thiemann, Regulations and
Rulings Division, Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau, 1310 G
Street, NW., Room 200E, Washington, DC 20220; phone 202-927-8210.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
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Background on Viticultural Areas
TTB Authority
Section 105(e) of the Federal Alcohol Administration Act (FAA Act), 27 U.S.C. 205(e), authorizes the Secretary of the Treasury to prescribe regulations for the labeling of wine, distilled spirits, and malt beverages. The FAA Act requires that these regulations, among other things, prohibit consumer deception and the use of misleading statements on labels, and ensure that labels provide the consumer with adequate information as to the identity and quality of the product. The
Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) administers the regulations promulgated under the FAA Act.
Part 4 of the TTB regulations (27 CFR part 4) allows the establishment of definitive viticultural areas and the use of their names as appellations of origin on wine labels and in wine advertisements. Part 9 of the TTB regulations (27 CFR part 9) contains the list of approved viticultural areas.
Definition
Section 4.25(e)(1)(i) of the TTB regulations (27 CFR 4.25(e)(1)(i)) defines a viticultural area for American wine as a delimited grape- growing region distinguishable by geographical features, the boundaries of which have been recognized and defined in part 9 of the regulations.
These designations allow vintners and consumers to attribute a given quality, reputation, or other characteristic of a wine made from grapes grown in an area to its geographical origin. The establishment of viticultural areas allows vintners to describe more accurately the origin of their wines to consumers and helps consumers to identify wines they may purchase. Establishment of a viticultural area is neither an approval nor an endorsement by TTB of the wine produced in that area.
Requirements
Section 4.25(e)(2) of the TTB regulations outlines the procedure for proposing an American viticultural area and provides that any interested party may petition TTB to establish a grape-growing region as a viticultural area. Section 9.3(b) of the TTB regulations requires the petition to include--
Evidence that the proposed viticultural area is locally and/or nationally known by the name specified in the petition;
Historical or current evidence that supports setting the boundary of the proposed viticultural area as the petition specifies;
Evidence relating to the geographical features, such as climate, soils, elevation, and physical features, that distinguish the proposed viticultural area from surrounding areas;
A description of the specific boundary of the proposed viticultural area, based on features found on United States Geological
Survey (USGS) maps; and
A copy of the appropriate USGS map(s) with the proposed viticultural area's boundary prominently marked.
Lake Chelan Petition
Alan J. Busacca, PhD, a geologist licensed in Washington State and a nationally certified professional soil scientist with Vinitas
Vineyard Consultants, submitted a petition on behalf of the Lake Chelan
Wine Growers Association to establish the 24,040-acre Lake Chelan
American viticultural area in north-central Washington. Some of the petition evidence and documentation provided relies on the previous research and writings of Dr. Busacca. Additional petition resources include Government-published climatic, topographic, and soils data, as well as maps, municipal resources, commercial publications, personal correspondence, and anecdotal information.
The Lake Chelan Valley lies about 112 miles east-northeast of
Seattle, according to USGS and commercial maps. The petitioner explained that the proposed Lake Chelan viticultural area lies entirely within the large, established Columbia Valley viticultural area (27 CFR 9.74). TTB notes that the Lake Chelan region lies to the east of the
Puget Sound viticultural area (27 CFR 9.151) and to the north of other
Washington State viticultural areas. The proposed Lake Chelan viticultural area neither borders nor includes any portion of any other
Washington State viticultural area except the Columbia Valley viticultural area.
The petitioner explained that the proposed Lake Chelan viticultural area includes the southern and eastern portions of the large body of water known as Lake Chelan and its surrounding lands suitable for viticulture. According to the petitioner, at the time of the 2006 petition filing with TTB, the proposed viticultural area included 13 bonded wineries, 140 acres of vineyards, and another 50 acres to be planted to grape vines.
According to the petitioner, distinguishing features of the proposed Lake Chelan viticultural area include its geology, geography, soils, and climate as directly influenced by past alpine glacial activity of the Cascade region. Lake Chelan Valley is the only valley in the Cascade Range in Oregon or Washington that holds a natural lake of its size. The climate of the agricultural and viticultural lands surrounding the lower (eastern) end of the lake is strongly moderated by the thermal effect of the lake on the air temperatures. The glacier that formed during the last ice age and traveled from the Cascade crest to the eastern end of the modern lake left a defining imprint on the landforms of the Lake Chelan Valley. In addition, the petitioner claimed that pumice and ash from eruptions of volcanoes in the Cascade
Range, principally Glacier Peak to the west of the proposed viticultural area, formed soils that are ashier and more pumiceous than those in any other established viticultural area in Washington State.
We summarize below the supporting evidence submitted with the petition.
Name Evidence
The ``Chelan'' geographic name derives from the name that Alexander
Ross, an American fur trader, in about 1824 used to describe the
``Tsill-anes,'' a native people living along the south shore of Lake
Chelan, according to ``Chelan County--Thumbnail History,'' an article from the Washington State Department of Archeology and Historic
Preservation, The Online Encyclopedia of Washington State History at http://www.historylink.org.
The ``Lake Chelan'' name appears on the USGS Chelan, Manson, and
Winesap quadrangle maps. The USGS Chelan map, sections 11 and 12, T27N and R23N, identifies an area to the north-northwest of the small town of Chelan as the ``Lake Chelan Golf and Country Club.'' The DeLorme
Washington Atlas and Gazetteer identifies ``Lake Chelan'' on page 83, sections A7, B7, and B8. The American Automobile Association map,
Oregon Washington State Series, identifies ``Lake Chelan'' as a long slender lake extending northwest from the North Cascades National Park southeast to the Chelan Dam, approximately 2 miles northwest of the
Columbia River.
An article entitled ``Chelan and Stehekin, WA,'' dated August 12, 2006, on http://www.nwsource.com, a northwest travel and outdoors Web site, states that Lake Chelan is one of Washington's favorite summer recreation areas.
Boundary Evidence
According to the petitioner and the written boundary description, the proposed Lake Chelan viticultural area encompasses the southernmost and easternmost 12 miles of the 55-mile-long lake and surrounding lands. A bedrock
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ridge, with a pinnacle at a 1,526-foot elevation, divides the approximately 1,200-foot elevation of the south Lake Chelan region from the 707-foot elevation of the Columbia River, according to USGS maps of the area and the petitioner. Lands to the east and southeast of the proposed viticultural area are within the Columbia River airshed and watershed, and have different climates, geology, and soils.
The upper 43 miles of Lake Chelan and its shoreline lie outside of the proposed viticultural area, according to the written boundary description provided in the petition. According to the petitioner, in the northern lake region the surrounding Cascade Range provides significant downward cold air drainage from peaks to valley floor and blocks the sun from the adjacent valley lands. The cold air and shade combine with a steep shoreline terrain to create a region unsuitable for grape growing. Additionally, the North Cascades National Park surrounds the north end of Lake Chelan, and commercial agricultural development is prohibited within its borders.
Lands with viticultural potential in the Lake Chelan Valley area, the petitioner states, are generally at or below 2,000 feet in elevation. High mountains ridges, beyond the boundary of the proposed
Lake Chelan viticultural area, rise over 5,000 feet in elevation to the north and west and to 3,800 feet to the south, cradling the Lake Chelan
Valley region on three sides, according to the petitioner and USGS maps. The petition explains that these high mountains, which have cold climates and forested terrain, are unsuited to viticulture.
History of Viticulture
According to the Chelan Valley Mirror dated May 1, 1947, Urban
DeGrassi, a Jesuit priest, spent several years in the Lake Chelan region teaching Native Americans about agriculture. Based on Father
DeGrassi's teachings, in 1881, John and Peter Wapato, Native Americans of Chelan Valley, started planting fruit eventually including grapes and cherries.
According to an article in the August 6, 1891, edition of the
Chelan Falls Leader, Louis Conti, an Italian immigrant, owned a 60-acre vineyard in the Lake Chelan area. The article stated that a colony of
Italian immigrants, living on the sunnier south side of the lake, planted grape vines on their claimed lands.
Two 1905 photographs from the Chelan County Historical Society show grapes growing in the Lake Chelan area. A photo of grapes on the vine is labeled ``Black Hamburg Grapes--Lake Chelan.'' The petitioner explains that the common name for those grapes is Black Muscat. The other photo, which shows a little boy sitting on the ground beside grapes hanging heavily from a vine, is labeled ``Lake Chelan Grapes.''
The Faletto family continued growing grapes into the early 1900's, according to an e-mail dated November 22, 2005, from family member Rich
Faletto. Mr. Faletto stated of his grandfather, ``Old John was the vintner and winery operator in the valley, producing great wine from
grapevines
brought to the area by a group of Italians.''
The Chelan and Manson areas, within the proposed viticultural area, comprised 154 acres of producing vineyards, according to a November 17, 1949, newspaper article written by Harry R. McMullen. According to the article, that year grape growers received 2 cents a pound, or $40 a ton, from the Welch Company.
Modern Viticulture
The petitioner states that in 1998, Steve Kludt and Bob Christopher replanted apple orchards to grapes within the proposed Lake Chelan viticultural area. Also, in 2000 the Kludt family opened the first bonded winery in the area and in 2001 started selling wine. Vineyard production in the Lake Chelan region increased from over 90 acres in 2004 to 140 acres by 2006. According to the petitioner, 13 bonded wineries operated in the Lake Chelan area as of the 2006 petition submission date.
Proposed Boundary Line
The petitioner explains that the proposed boundary line uses a 2,000-foot elevation line and USGS map section lines in conjunction with roads, mountain peaks, and other map markings in providing a clear, simple perimeter. The proposed Lake Chelan viticultural area boundary line includes lands adjacent to the southernmost 12 miles of the lake, according to the petition.
In determining the proposed boundary line, the petitioner included in the proposed viticultural area only the valley areas with a significant ``lake effect'' climate. The lake affects surrounding lands, the petitioner explains, by favorably moderating the climate, increasing the length of the growing season, and reducing the frequency of damaging or killing vine freezes. The petitioner states that the proposed boundary line excludes from the proposed viticultural area the surrounding mountainous areas and the northern 43 miles of the lake and adjacent lands, all unsuitable for viticulture.
TTB notes that the northeast portion of the boundary of the proposed Lake Chelan viticultural area coincides with 17 miles of the 2,000-foot boundary line of the Columbia Valley viticultural area. When the petition was first submitted to TTB, the proposed northeast boundary line incorporated a series of map section lines and 90-degree turns. After discussions with TTB, the petitioner modified the northeast portion of the boundary line to coincide with the boundary line of the Columbia Valley viticultural area.
The petitioner provides an aerial photo of agriculture within and immediately outside of the proposed Lake Chelan viticultural area. The planted orchards and vineyards are clustered on the low, flat elevations adjoining the northern and southern shorelines of the lake.
The petitioner explains that viticulture fails to thrive outside the proposed boundary line because of high elevations, steep terrain, cold temperatures, and the absence of a moderating lake-effect climate.
Other boundary line considerations include properties of the soil, the influences of the watershed and airshed, the elevations of the surrounding mountains, and the steepness of the terrain.
Distinguishing Features
Cascade Range Geographic Province
The proposed Lake Chelan viticultural area, a part of the Cascade
Range geographic province, the petitioner explains, includes distinctive geology, geography, soils, and climate that contrast to those of the surrounding areas. The geology, the petitioner notes, includes the advance of Cascade alpine glaciers that occurred 14,000 to 18,000 years ago.
The Cascade Mountain Range runs north-south through Washington and
Oregon and divides western and eastern Washington, the petitioner explains. The range creates, to the east, a rain shadow that limits precipitation in the Lake Chelan Valley and on the Columbia Plateau in eastern Washington. The range protects areas to its east from Arctic and Pacific winter storms and further moderates climate.
Lake Chelan Valley is the only valley that the Cascade glacier created in Washington and Oregon and that holds a large natural lake of
Lake Chelan's size. The lake is the third deepest lake in the U.S., the petitioner emphasizes. The soils in the valley formed in glacial sediments layered below the more recent windblown deposition of
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volcanic pumice and ash. Also, the large glacial lake acts as a heat reservoir to produce a unique climate of consistently moderated temperatures.
Columbia Plateau Geographic Province
Most Washington vineyards, the petitioner states, lie on the
Columbia Plateau geographic province, the features of which contrast significantly in several important ways from the Lake Chelan Valley in the Cascade Range geographic province. The distinguishing features of the Columbia Plateau include the bedrock of Tertiary-age basaltic lavas, sediments derived from cataclysmic outburst floods of Lake
Missoula, and bench-and-riser landforms that the recurrent Missoula
Floods created through erosion of the lavas. The topography varies from near moonscapes to megasized gravel bars and slackwater terraces.
The petitioner states that another distinguishing feature of the
Columbia Plateau is the predominant east-west trending valley-and-ridge system that affects the elevation, slope, aspect, heat accumulation, winds, and air drainage of the plateau. Also, plateau elevations vary from 460 feet at the Wahluke Slope viticultural area (27 CFR 9.192) to 970 feet at the Walla Walla Valley viticultural area (27 CFR 9.91), a topography with a significantly lower elevation than that of the Lake
Chelan area of the Cascade Range.
The separate climates of the Columbia Plateau viticultural areas share low winter temperatures with complete vine dormancy and significant fall daytime and nighttime temperature variations. The viticultural areas of the Columbia Plateau lie within the rain shadow of the Cascade Range, and have a drier climate as compared to western
Washington. The combination of distinguishing features in the viticultural areas on the Columbia Plateau, the petitioner concludes, creates a unique annual growing season that contrasts with the Lake
Chelan Valley region in the Cascade Range geographic province.
Geology
The petitioner explains that the most recent ice-age events of the
Earth, 14,000 to 18,000 years ago, played significant roles in creating the differing geological records within the Cascade Range and the
Columbia Plateau.
The region encompassing the proposed Lake Chelan viticultural area, according to the petitioner, includes camel-backed bedrock landforms that the Cascade Range alpine glaciers eroded into the dominantly granitic bedrock of the Lake Chelan area, lake sediments that the alpine glaciers deposited, and bedrock that consists of Cretaceous-age igneous and older metamorphic rocks. The glaciers crushed bedrock in the Lake Chelan region, creating glacial till and outwash sediments that have coarse sandy textures and that are rich in biotite mica. The glacial lake sediments, silty to clayey in texture, include substantive amounts of quartz and mica. As a result, the soil's deep rooting zone for grape vines has distinguishable textures, mineralogy, and nutrients.
The petitioner provides a geologic map of the proposed Lake Chelan viticultural area from the USGS Miscellaneous Investigations Series Map
I-1661, Geologic Map of the Chelan, 30-Minute by 60-Minute Quadrangle,
Washington, accessed online on June 26, 2006. The map identifies the
Cretaceous-age bedrock and the Quaternary-age surface sediments in the
Lake Chelan Valley area. The Cretaceous-age units consist of dark, intrusive igneous tonalites, the petitioner explains. TTB notes that tonalite is an igneous plutonic (intrusive) rock having greater than 20 percent quartz and quartz diorite with 5 to 20 percent quartz. Also, the Quaternary-age units consist of glacial moraines, terraces, lake deposits, and postglacial landslides and alluvial sediments.
According to the petitioner, the Columbia Plateau geologic history, in contrast, stems from the force of a lobe of the western Canadian ice sheet that blocked the Clark Fork River in Idaho and created the huge glacial Lake Missoula in Montana. When the glacial ice dams repeatedly failed, the largest floods of water ever documented on Earth occurred.
The floods overwhelmed the Columbia River and flowed across eastern
Washington, eroding channels in the basalt bedrock and depositing gravel bars in the main basins and fine sandy and silty sediments in the river valleys.
Geography
Elevations vary from approximately 1,100 feet at lake level to 3,276 feet at an unnamed peak in the northwest portion of the proposed
Lake Chelan viticultural area, 1.8 miles northwest of Lake Chelan State
Park on the USGS Manson quadrangle map. The lower elevations, which have gently rising slopes, are along the southern and eastern shoreline of Lake Chelan, as shown on the USGS maps of the region. The petitioner explains that the lower lakeside elevations are known for successful fruit growing. The higher elevations enveloping the Lake Chelan Valley region generally correlate with steep terrain, as shown on the USGS maps of the proposed viticultural area.
According to the petitioner, when the Cascade alpine glaciers descended from the mountain crests to lower elevations, they created the distinctive U-shaped Lake Chelan Valley topography, including the lake depression. The term ``camel-backed'' describes the landforms of the Lake Chelan Valley at low elevations and adjacent surrounding mountains. The Cascade alpine glaciers created other valleys in the region with similar landscapes, including camel-backed topography, and layers of glacial sediment, but not lake basins. Thus, only Lake Chelan
Valley, in contrast to the other regional glacial valleys, has a climate-moderating lake effect.
Climate
According to local growers and temperature statistics, a lake effect moderates air temperature extremes in both summer and winter in the proposed Lake Chelan viticultural area. The combination of moderating summer high and winter low temperatures creates a suitable environment for both viticulture and tree fruit agriculture. According to the petitioner, the strong lake effect moderates the air temperatures of planted areas adjacent north and south of the eastern part of the lake. In those areas, the waters of Lake Chelan create a heat reservoir that absorbs warming solar energy in summer and then reradiates heat energy into cold air in winter. The table below compares the climate in the areas along Lake Chelan to that in similar areas nearby but without lakes.
Climatic Indices for Wine Grapes for Three Sites in Washington State, 1994-2003
Cool climate viticulture Number of days Number of days
Area *
Distance from Lake Chelan suitability
a year 95
(miles)
index **
degF
degF
(days)
Lake Chelan.......................... 0........................
244
89.6
7.1
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Methow Valley........................ 30, north................
176
147.9
13.6
Wenatchee Valley..................... 30, south................
230
102.3
14.1
* Based on data from the National Climate Data Center.
** Number of days between
