Grape Integrity

Grape Integrity. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Fruit Grower Report.

I like to know where things come from and that extends to my wine selection. Vicki Scharlau with the Washington Association of Wine Grape Growers says they are working on it.

SCHARLAU: Washington growers are pushing for grape integrity and the board members of the Washington Association of Wine Grape Growers are really trying to focus on promoting the integrity basically a percentage at a time.

They pushed for a bill to require all Washington wines to contain at least 95% Washington grapes.

SCHARLAU: And it wasn’t something we were fixing, it was really an oversight in terms of a percentage requirement for Washington State grapes. So we dubbed this the Grape Integrity Bill, it did pass and had unanimous support by both the growers and the wineries and it’s really about the integrity of the grapes but about the Washington brand.

So this is about making sure the Washington wine consumer gets what they expect when it says Washington wine on the label. And it goes beyond that as well.

SCHARLAU: The Washington Association of Wine Grape Growers signed on to a petition that was submitted to the Alcohol, Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau that also promotes integrity but also consumer clarity. So this petition will ask TTB to look at the use of the word American on bottles of wine at the national level as an appellation. That appellation currently does not require any more than 75% American wine even though it’s labeled American.

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