Wine Science Part 2

Wine Science Part 2. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Fruit Grower Report.

Wine Science. A commitment has been made by WSU and the industry to build a wine science center in Richland, Washington. The 45,000 sq. ft.center will be a showcase for WSU’s research and education, while serving as a gathering place for industry collaboration, international students and visiting scholars from around the world. Ryan Pennington is the Public Relations Director for the Washington Wine Commission who is contributing $7.4 million to get it built.

PENNINGTON: The amount that we decided to allocate to this project is equal to the amount that was already approved by the industry back in 2007. Back then we went out to the industry with a referendum to raise the assessments that the industry pay to the Commission to support marketing and everything else that we do. That referendum included an amount but we decided at the time to take less than the full approved amount.

He says they are going back now and raising that assessment to the full approved amount. The wine industry is also currently helping to build and support another facility, the Walter Clore Wine and Culinary Center. Pennington says there is no overlap here.

PENNINGTON: None whatsoever. The Walter Clore Center is a great project but that’s really serving a different need, a more consumer facing need. The Wine Science Center will be a research facility, an educational facility and much more inwardly focused in terms of educating the industry and prospective industry members to enter the industry.

That’s today’s Fruit Grower Report. I’m Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network.