It's Wine Time

It’s Wine Time. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Fruit Grower Report.

Grape harvest is underway and looks very promising…that also means we’ll see some very good wine in the very near future according to Robin Pollard, Executive Director of the Washington Wine Commission.

POLLARD: There continues to be a lot of activities and wine events. I think you would be hard pressed to go a weekend and not find a function or some kind of a wine event to attend regardless of where you are in the state of Washington.

Every year they hold a wine auction in Seattle and this year’s event was very fruitful.

POLLARD: We just wrapped up our annual Auction of Washington Wines and a total of $1.5 million dollars was raised for Children’s Hospital as well as the Washington Wine Education Foundation so that was very exciting, had a great attendance at all of our events that entire weekend.

The Wine Commission is getting set to target Chicago with Washington wines.

POLLARD: Again we have about 85 wineries attending with us. The event will be next Monday in Chicago and the response from the wine trade, the retailers, the restaurateurs and distributors in the Chicago area has just been phenomenal. They are so excited about Washington wine so we’re got a great showing gearing up for that.

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