HOT SPOT for Pinot Noir: Growing Pinot Noir wine grapes in sandy soil requires frequent, but light watering

摘要

What started out as a challenge to prove someone wrong turned into an award-winning Pinot Noir wine—made in the unlikely wine appellation of Washington's Wahluke Slope. Pinot Noir has the reputation of being one of the most challenging and fickle wine grape cultivars to grow. It needs warm days but cool nights and is very temperature sensitive. Vintners in Oregon's Willamette Valley have developed a cult-like following for many of the Pinot wines produced there, but it's hardly a signature grape for Washington growers. Only 800 tons of Pinot grapes (out of 70,200 tons of total red varieties) were used by Washington wineries in 2008, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture statistics.