Wine Grape Harvest 2019 Pt 1
With today’s Fruit Grower Report, I’m Bob Larson. Despite an early October frost that cost growers some volume, the 2019 Washington wine grape harvest results are looking very promising.
At least, that’s what Washington Wine Commission President Steve Warner is hearing …
WARNER … “The word we’re getting from the winemakers and some of the growers is that the quality is going to definitely be there because the mid-section of the growing season was near ideal. We had really, really prefect weather right down the middle of the fairway in comparison to 10-year averages.”
In the end, Warner says a majority of the grapes harvested came in looking pretty good…
WARNER … “For the most part, maybe smaller wineries or wineries that pick at lower yields got their fruit in. It was the higher yields that that were still hanging when we got hit by the mid-October frost. So, for the most part, the quality is there. We just didn’t have the tonnage. As you know Bob, this is agriculture so we never know what Mother Nature’s going to throw at us, but I think overall the quality is going to be outstanding.”
Warner says that’s the thing with agriculture, you need to be ready for anything …
WARNER … “Overall, very happy with the quality, yes.
And it’s, like I said, it’s agriculture. We’ve had years of ups and downs. I mean we were up in ’16, down in ’17, up in ’18, down in ’19. So, we take what Mother Nature will give us and luckily we were only hit on overall yield and not quality.”
Listen tomorrow for more on the weather impact on our 2019 wine grape harvest and our burgeoning wind industry.
