Getting to Crush
Getting to Crush. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Fruit Grower Report.
It’s getting to be that time of year when grape harvest gets underway according to Vicky Scharlau, Washington Association of Wine Grape Growers.
SCHARLAU: So I’ve been reading about the beginning of crush in many other parts of the world and the term this year seems to be magnificent so I must say that
Of course in the month of August especially we have seen some really hot weather in the northwest.
SCHARLAU: It seems to be that we dodged a bullet in terms of the weather this year because we’ve had real stable weather and because of that we are looking at a real high quality grape crop. The poor grapes have endured really hot weather recently but the good news is that overall that growth season has provided an opportunity for vine acclimation, so all these little spikes we’ve had in the heat in the past say two, three weeks really hasn’t proved to be detrimental to the grapes at all.
Even the lack of rain over the season has been beneficial according to Scharlau.
SCHARLAU: During that growth period we had real limited rain which is good because it allowed growers to have the ability to manage the canopies and the grape vine could really focus on growing grapes and not just leaves and that’s going to help provide a real ripe grape flavor and the growers are happy about that but the winemakers are ecstatic about that.
That’s today’s Fruit Grower Report. I’m Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.
