Wine Grape Harvest Underway
Wine Grape Harvest Underway. I'm Greg Martin with today's Fruit Grower Report.
2014 has been a good year for most of the ag products in the northwest and wine grapes are no different. Kevin Corliss is the Vice-President of Vineyards for Ste. Michelle Wine Estates.
CORLISS: Right now we are kind of pinching ourselves because things are really lining up to be a fantastic harvest. We are just starting to get into the early varieties, sauvignon blanc, quite a bit of that is already in the wineries. We're getting into chardonnay in a big way right now and just starting to sample some reds. These dates are very early and we like that and the weather could not be better.
He is crossing his fingers that there are no weather anomalies that might crop up like an early frost or heavy September rain but all-in-all it does look like it will be another record crop.
CORLISS: Harvest is expected to be a record by a significant amount and that's due to new vineyards coming online. We and other companies have been in an expansion mode and planting new vineyards for the last several years. A lot of those fairly large vineyards are starting to come online and become fully productive.
He sees this growth as an on-going thing in the next few years.
CORLISS: We are still in an expansion mode with red varieties; actively seeking out new vineyard sites and I know that other producers are as well so I would expect to see an expanding base and bigger crops, bigger total state crops.
That's today's Fruit Grower Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network.
