Wine Grape Growers 2014 Annual Conference

I'm Lacy Gray with Washington Ag Today.

The Washington Association of Wine Grape Growers 2014 annual conference will be held at Kennewick's Three Rivers Convention Center February 5 through the 7th. Vicky Scharlau, Executive Director of the Washington Association of Wine Grape Growers, says the industry event normally draws well over 2,200 people.

SCHARLAU: We have about 180 booths at our trade show plus some outside equipment for both wineries and growers to peruse. We have three days of sessions that target growers and wine makers and tasting room staff, so we have a little bit of something for everybody, whether or not you're making the wine, or growing the grapes, or selling and marketing your wine at the tasting room or you're just marketing through channels.

Scharlau explains that there will be educational sessions for all aspects of the industry and will have as the keynote speaker Gene Lester, a USDA Ag Research Service national program leader from Maryland, who will talk on how environmental factors affect wine grape quality. Also on hand for the three day conference will be Italian viticulturist Stefano Poni conducting a session on pruning and canopy management.

SCHARLAU: The theme for this year's whole convention is "Fundamentally Important". So the whole focus on most all of our sessions will be what's fundamental - but what's important in terms of viticulture, enology, and marketing. So it's an educational opportunity for people to take what they know, talk about this with other people within the industry that have similar challenges, or similar successes, and really learn from each other throughout the three day event.

For more information visit wawgg.org.

That's Washington Ag Today.

I'm Lacy Gray on the Ag Information Network.