All About Idaho Wine

Venture into the heart of Idaho, where dramatic landscapes and rich history converge to produce wines unlike any other. See the guide https://idaho.guides.winefolly.com/

Despite its lesser-known status, Idaho boasts a rich winemaking heritage dating back to pioneer days. Today, a new generation of winemakers is revitalizing the industry, crafting unique and captivating wines that reflect the region’s diverse terroir. From the scenic Lewis Clark Valley to the sprawling Snake River Valley, each sip tells a story of Idaho’s remarkable viticultural landscape. Join us as we uncork the secrets of Idaho’s wine culture and discover the unexpected delights that await in every glass. Cheers to tasting, learning, and exploring new horizons!

CONTENTS OF THIS VIDEO:

0:00 Introduction

0:47 How Grapes Got To Idaho

1:52 AVA’s

2:23 Lets Try Some Wine!

2:43 Reserve Syrah

4:57 Reisling

6:43 Sparkling Wine

8:09 Conclusion

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this is a place for those of us with a wild Soul dramatic Landscapes lost Trails endless stars and surprise there’s wine here too it’s actually the first state in the northwest of plant wine grapes and no we’re not talking about Oregon or Washington State this wine comes from Idaho [Music] Idaho wine is still very much up and coming so we’re going to discover together What’s Happening Here I want to show you the regions the grapes and give a taste of how Idaho’s landscape expresses itself in the glass it’s very expressive first things first let’s get some context on how grapes got to Idaho in the first place long before Vineyards were here Idaho’s Landscapes were nurtured by Native American tribes like the NES Pierce cordelan banok and shason in 1805 when Louis and Clark traveled through Idaho over Lum pass it marked the beginning of a new era the settlers the first grapes were planted by Pioneers in 1864 in fact the first Vines were actually native American grapes called muscadine very rare very cool from the South but that’s a story for another time after its success wine growing took off in Idaho incoming German and French settlers planted over 40 different wine varieties around Leon including petite verox and petite sarra unfortunately in 1919 prohibition shut down this nent industry what’s worse after the repeal in 1933 only one Winery returned and it stayed like that for almost 40 years today finally wineries are coming back there are now around 70 producers here growing more than 20 different varieties I give you some perspective that’s crazy small these wines are very very rare and Idaho has three official avas American viticulture areas Snake River Valley Lewis Clark Valley and Eagle Foothills so the big question we’re all asking is what are IAH Hawaiians like I think it’s time to try some so when putting together the Wine Folly region guide to Idaho we put a call out to Idaho wine makers to submit their wines for the this video and we got some really interesting samples back these three wines I think give us a good variety of wines to try to sort of taste what’s going on in Idaho starting with this SRA now this wine comes from Louis Clark Valley now remember Louis Clark Valley was actually famous before prohibition and then the wine culture dried up there and it’s only now just getting its start back there’s only about 100 acres planted here and I have a raw and a resling from there that we’ll try today now Louis Clark Valley what makes it interesting is it’s a little bit lower elevation than the rest of the vineyard areas in Idaho which means the season is potentially a little bit longer which means you can plant warmer climate grapes like SRA so another feature about Louis Clark Valley that I find interesting are there glacial till soils is glacial soils have lots of different particles in them and they’re generally well drained which should produce wines with pretty high aromatics let’s see if I’m right W it’s aromatic but not in the way that I’m expecting see most wines from Washington State have explosive fruit aromatics this has explosive aromatics but I smell black peppers and violets it’s very Savory maybe just with a touch of blackberry unexpected I usually get aromatics like this in other regions like say France let’s give it a taste tannin face this wine definitely has high tannin so there’s a lot of structure there and really good acidity as well so we’ve got tannin structure acidity these are things that can make this wine age worthy and it’s got this very Savory nose the alcohol at 14 .5 I think is pretty imbalance for SRA in general so I would say for a SRA wine it’s a Savory style and sarra isn’t the only grape red grape that grows here you’ll also find varieties like Mero Cabernet savol and Cabernet Fran so we might be able to expect to taste some more Savory earthy Styles coming from this region if you find one the next wine that I wanted try is a reesling now reing is one of those grapes that absolutely loves the Sun but it doesn’t like to get too hot so we need a region with tons of sun that manages to stay cool and this is definitely the case in Idaho because of Idaho’s continental climate and short growing season we get lots of sun right when we need it and then it cools down at night which helps help helps maintain acidity in these wines because we have a whole season this grape is very hearty and it can survive those icy cold Winters all right same region Louis Clark Valley so is this going to be a Savory resling as well yes I do smell lime peel and apricot but I also get a lot more minerality than I would expect from an American wine whoa on the palette this wine definitely has a punch up in body showing us that we’re definitely getting perfectly ripe reing grapes here really good texture across the palette it is just slightly off dry um very very wellmade wine in my opinion uh delicious and I expect this wine to develop more petrol likee notes coming up here pretty soon because it is just like right there on the edge like developing that kind of gassiness that you get from an aged reeling which I think would be really exciting to try from a Louis Clark Valley reing like this one now this last wine comes to us from Snake River Valley this is the largest wine growing region in Idaho it has the most planted grape varieties and it’s also the highest elevation getting up to 3,000 ft in elevation which means we have a stronger dial shift hot days cold cold nights which should maintain the acidity in wine this is especially good for white wines and especially good for grapes like this one Chardonnay made in a sparkling Style on the nose wow again super aromatic now Snake River Valley not only has glacial soils but it also has volcanic soils so you can expect wines to deliver some Savory notes this this is very good for red grapes like sarra and tempero but in this wine I get really beautiful mango notes it almost smells like peaches and cream this particular wine sat on the leaves in tourage so sparkling wine method that over 42 months which is longer than some champagne let’s give it a taste whoa really frothy huge bubbles a rich mango note on the palette but bombastic acidity like we need in sparkling wines the Finish is lean and dry it’s a well-balanced wine I’m surprised Idaho you wouldn’t think that this is a place to make high quality wines but we have all the conditions that we need we’ve got a continental climate we’ve got high elevation for good acidity and age worthiness and we have interesting soils like volcanic soils and glacial soils to produce interesting aromatics in these wines I’m excited to see what’s going to happen get yourself out there to Idaho and try some of these wines they’re unexpected and interesting and well worthy of Northwest wine attention and if you’re interested to learn more I would highly recommend checking out wine Folly’s region guide on Idaho you can find the producers the wines and learn more about the terar here and find exactly what you’re looking for I hope this region was fascinating and interesting to you it certainly was fascinating to me until next time happy tasting and what region should Christine and I cover next let us know and until next time peace out