1/7/09 Grape Harvest

Grape Harvest. I'm Greg Martin with today's Fruit Grower Report. The holidays have come and gone and it seems like a long time ago when the vineyards were full of activity. According to Vicky Scharlau with the Washington Association of Wine Grape Growers this year's crop was a big one. SCHARLAU: The Washington Association of Wine Grape Growers estimated this years crush to be a record actually so we're looking at 137-thousand tons which is about 10-thousand tons more than we had last year but it is down fro this year's crop estimate which is typical. Generally the crop estimate is a larger number that the actual crush estimate from any given harvest. Scharlau says that one of the boosts to this years crops was some of the new players in town. SCHARLAU: It really indicates that Washington State, the newer production has all come into actually having grapes on the vine and some of the new plantings that are maybe 2, 3, 4 years old are finally coming into full production. We had a good growing year. We had good weather. The winemakers were thrilled to death with what they were tasting on the vine. A lot of people are saying some really great things about this crop being very flavorful. SCHARLAU: I think people are going to look back on 2008 and really call it one of the better vintages that we've had in the last decade  I think we've been saying that for the last decade but overall Washington State continues to be truly the perfect climate for wine. That's today's Fruit Grower Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.