Another Good Grape Harvest

Another Good Grape Harvest. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Fruit Grower Report.

Yesterday we started talking with Vicky Scharlau, executive director of the Washington Association of Wine Grape Growers about this years’ grape harvest and while final numbers appear to be down a bit from early estimates, the grapes are looking good.

SCHARLAU: I think the quality has been excellent. People from the beginning of harvest have talked about this being a vintage to put away in that it’s going to have the kind of quality that you can age and really look back on the harvest of 2009 as one of the better from Washington State but we’ve been saying that for 10 years.

The bottom line for wine grape growers is seeing this vintage become an outstanding wine and Scharlau says that is the case for previous year’s harvests.

SCHARLAU: I do know that after talking to a couple of wineries that they’re saying that the wine that is in the tanks at this point look really, really good. They also said, which was interesting, that some of the newer varieties are coming off this year in greater quantities so we’re seeing a lot of experimentation with a lot of those newer varieties. I think the consumers can really start to look for some interesting new wines from Washington State, some newer varieties that they can start to experiment with on their tables.

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