08/27/08 Grapes Looking Great

Grapes Looking Great! I'm Greg Martin with today's Fruit Grower Report. Everyone is starting to ask if the grapes are being harvested yet. Obviously some thirsty wine lovers out there so let's ask the question. How does it look? SCHARLAU: The 2008 looks to be larger than we've ever had in the past. We're looking at about 142-thousand tons and this is up from last year's crop estimate which was about 136-thousand tons. Now that's just a crop estimate. We don't anticipate that's actually the number that will be crushed. That's Vicky Scharlau with the Washington Association of Wine Grape Growers. SCHARLAU: The actual crush number comes in lower than the crop estimate but this year looks to be just another fabulous year. We've got a number of new acres coming on and they're into full production and all the grapes have been very happy with the moderate overall temperatures for the growing season even though we started off with a little bit of a cooler than normal spring there really hasn't been any major heat spikes in mid-season so the grapes are happy, the growers are happy and the winemakers are happy. The cooler spring has caused the harvest season to be pushed back a bit by about a week like many of the other fruits that get harvested at this time of year. But obviously Scharlau is happy with what she sees. We'll talk more tomorrow with Vicky on varieties this year. That's today's Fruit Grower Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.