Oregon Wine Council Pt 1

Oregon Wine Council Pt 1

Bob Larson
Bob Larson
With today’s Fruit Grower Report, I’m Bob Larson. Facing a lot of regulatory challenges as an industry, a new coalition of industry insiders has been formed to represent the Oregon wine community.

Elin Miller is Co-Chair of the brand-new Oregon Wine Council …

MILLER … “The Oregon Wine Council, we formed as a result of, there was a tremendous amount of legislation that was very divisive last spring which would have challenged many of the, let’s say, our member’s businesses and members around the state.”

Miller says that divisiveness in the 2019 legislative session was centered around wine labeling, fruit sales outside the state, purity standards and creating new licensing laws …

MILLER … “Unfortunately, we felt that our interests were not being represented on a statewide basis. And so, this August we ended up forming the Oregon Wine Council officially with a Board of Directors, as noted, which represents entities from the Willamette Valley as well as Southern Oregon. Our goal is to really unify the industry after the divisiveness of last spring.”

So, did this legislation come from lawmakers? …

MILLER … “No, it was actually legislation that was being sponsored by the Oregon Wine Association that we ended up having to fight, and we were members.”

The OWC is a new body aimed at uniting the wine industry statewide.

Tune in tomorrow for more on Oregon’s newest representation for its highly respected wine industry.

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