2012 Wine Grape Crop

2012 Wine Grape Crop. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Fruit Grower Report.

There are some good indications that this year’s wine grape crop just could be the biggest one ever, even with some of the hail damage. Ryan Pennington with the Washington Wine Commission talks about the potential 2012 crop.

PENNINGTON: We have some indications based on the weather of course and new plantings coming online and some recovery of vineyards that were damaged in late 2010. We don’t have the specific figures yet but we do expect a very, very robust crop this year. Probably looking at a new record crop which would be above the crop from 2010 which was 160-thousand tons. So we expect something perhaps approaching 200-thousand this year.

That is of course an educated guess-timate but still very good news for the industry. But is there enough demand for Washington wines to facilitate a large crop like that?

PENNINGTON: Demand for Washington wine continues to grow. As I’ve said, the limitation on the growth of our category isn’t on the demand side. There is demand for all the Washington wine we can make. The limitations on our growth are on the production side so a big robust harvest like this is certainly good news for the industry and good news for our wineries.

Planting continues to increase here in Washington and we can expect to see larger and larger crops being produced.

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