Lewis-Clark Valley Wine Country

The Lewiston area has grown wine since territorial days — French and Italian immigrants planted the valley’s benches in the 1870s–1880s — and the modern industry revived in the 1990s–2000s as vintners recognized the basalt slopes’ warm, dry climate. The Lewis-Clark Valley American Viticultural Area was formally designated in May 2016 — then the newest AVA in the Pacific Northwest — covering roughly 306,600 acres of Idaho and Washington around the confluence at elevations below about 1,500 feet. Downtown Lewiston’s tasting rooms and the canyon-slope wineries pour the AVA’s Bordeaux and Rhone varieties, and the valley’s wine festivals now anchor the spring and fall calendars. The valley’s modern winemakers re-established the industry in the 1990s–2000s, planting the basalt benches and canyon slopes with Bordeaux and Rhone varieties that ripen in the confluence’s warm, dry climate — one of the warmest growing regions in the Pacific Northwest. Downtown Lewiston’s tasting rooms and the valley’s spring and fall wine events now anchor a compact wine trail.