Wine Grape Harvest

Wine Grape Harvest

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

Now that Thanksgiving is over it is also time to wrap up most of the harvest. Apples have had an incredible year and so have wine grapes according to Kristen Alexander, Director of Communications for the Washington Wine Commission.

ALEXANDER: It’s looking really fantastic. Winemakers have heralded this as one of the best harvests in the recent history. They’re even calling it ideal which is really exciting. In short the warmer, drier weather has gifted us with record crop levels. The Commission is predicting 190-thousand tons although to be honest that might be conservative.

She says they have already bumped that number up once.

ALEXANDER: We’re expected to easily surpass the 160-thousand ton record we set back in 2010. That large crop can be attributed to not only the growing conditions but also recovery from freeze we had back in November 2010 if you remember and additional plantings.

Alexander says that the wine industry has some great things to look forward to.

ALEXANDER: I was real excited to pick up Wine Spectator. They have an article right now with the headline, “Washington Succeeds.” And it declares that the quality of our wine remained especially high overall for 2009 and 11. And the magazine even goes so far to use the words “thrilling” and “excellent.”

That means there will be even better things to look forward to in the near future.

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

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