The Horse Heaven Hills AVA is an

American Viticultural Area An American Viticultural Area (AVA) is a designated wine grape-growing region in the United States, providing an official appellation for the mutual benefit of wineries and consumers. Winemakers frequently want their consumers to know about t ...

in southeastern

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

, and is part of the larger

Columbia Valley AVA The Columbia Valley AVA is an American Viticultural Area which lies in the Columbia River Plateau, through much of central and southern Washington State, with a small section crossing into the neighboring state of Oregon. The AVA includes the ...

. The Horse Heaven Hills AVA borders the Yakima Valley AVA on the north and the

Columbia River The Columbia River ( Upper Chinook: ' or '; Sahaptin: ''Nch’i-Wàna'' or ''Nchi wana''; Sinixt dialect'' '') is the largest river in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. The river rises in the Rocky Mountains of British Columbia ...

on the south. Elevations in this AVA range from

above sea level Height above mean sea level is a measure of the vertical distance ( height, elevation or altitude) of a location in reference to a historic mean sea level taken as a vertical datum. In geodesy, it is formalized as '' orthometric heights''. Th ...

in the south to above sea level at the northern boundary. Grapes planted in the south-facing slopes of the Horse Heaven Hills benefit from strong winds that arrive from the west via the

Columbia Gorge The Columbia River Gorge is a canyon of the Columbia River in the Pacific Northwest of the United States. Up to deep, the canyon stretches for over as the river winds westward through the Cascade Range, forming the boundary between the state ...

, reducing the likelihood of rot and fungal diseases.

Wineries

Horse Heaven Hills AVA is home to the single largest wine making facility in Washington, the Columbia Crest Winery owned by Chateau Ste. Michelle in Paterson. Alexandria Nicole Cellars has a large vineyard at Destiny Ridge. The AVA is also home to Zephyr Ridge Vineyard, which produces grapes for many wineries in Washington, including Hogue Cellars and Swiftwater Cellars.

Wines

Some of

cult wines Cult wines are wines for which dedicated groups of committed enthusiasts will pay large sums of money. Cult wines are often seen as trophy wines to be collected or as investment wine to be held rather than consumed. Because price is often seen ...

are produced from Cabernet Sauvignon grapes grown in this AVA including the 2002 and 2003 Quilceda Creek Vintners Cabernet Sauvignon, which scored the rare 100 point rating from Robert Parker's ''

The Wine Advocate ''The Wine Advocate'', fully known as ''Robert Parker's Wine Advocate'' and informally abbreviated ''TWA'' or ''WA ''or more recently as ''RP'', is a bimonthly wine publication based in the United States featuring the consumer advice of wine criti ...

''. Only 15 other wines in the US have received this designation, all made from California grapes. Only five other previous vintages have received consecutive perfect scores in ''The Wine Advocates publishing history. The Quilceda Creek wines were blends with grapes from three Red Mountain AVA vineyards and one Horse Heaven Hills AVA vineyard.

References

{{coord, 45.9571, -119.6095, display=title, type:adm2nd_region:US-WA_dim:27000 American Viticultural Areas Geography of Benton County, Washington Geography of Klickitat County, Washington Horse Heaven Hills Washington (state) wine Geography of Yakima County, Washington 2005 establishments in Washington (state)

Wineries

Wines

See also

References