1,000 Washington Wineries Pt 3
With today’s Fruit Grower Report, I’m Bob Larson. Over 1,000 wineries are now active and licensed in Washington state, and our quality is getting rave reviews from the top wine observers.
Washington Wine Commission president Steve Warner says not only are we delivering on quality for 10 straight years, but we’re also OVER-delivering on price …
WARNER … “To me, when I look at the data, and I’m looking at reviews from, you know, tens of thousands of wines across the world, it’s not only at a certain price point, but it’s across all price points. So, you put up our $70 wine against a $70 wine from France, or our $20 wine or $120 wine, it doesn’t matter. We over-deliver at each of those price points.”
And, Warner says our recognition for quality is spreading …
WARNER … “We hope everybody, in particular in Washington and the Pacific Northwest and beyond, their first point is where’s the Washington wine on the list? And, that is really going to help put us over the top because the quality is there, the price is there, we’re only going to get better.”
Much of that improvement, Warner says comes from our research …
WARNER … “As we get more and more talented winemakers on board, we get more and more talented farmers on board in Eastern Washington. The skies the limit. There’s nowhere to go but up. We’ve already set such a high bar, and then on top of that, we invest nearly 20-25% of our budget each year on viticulture and enology research to grow better grapes, make better wine and we make that research available to everybody in the industry because we want to elevate the entire industry and not just a few.”
Warner says Washington is the New Epicenter of Wine ... and we’re just getting started.
