The Winery Willow Mountain of Montana

Discovering the wine region of Montana

Montana is one of the Northernmost states in the United States, bordered on the South and west by Idaho and on the north by Canada. Distilling and brewing are more important beverage industries here than wine production. As the state's name suggests (montana means "mountain" in Spanish), the landscape is characterized by mountain ranges, around which two of the state's major industries (logging and mining) are based. The traditional Grape varieties that seem to work best in Montana's mountainous terrain are Pinot noir, pinot gris, Chardonnay and Gewurztraminer.

This is fortunate, as these are the varieties most commonly grown in the northernmost vineyards of France, with which Montana shares its latitudinal position of 42-49°N. The state covers 215,500 km² (83,500 square miles) across several mountain ranges, the most notable being the Rocky Mountains. The predominance of hills and slopes created by these ranges may seem ideal for quality viticulture (many of the world's most famous wines are produced on hillside sites), but the cool and often unpredictable Climate is not largely conducive to viticulture. Due to the climatic limitations of Montana's wine regions, the state's few wineries turn to fruits such as blueberries, cherries and apples to produce wines.