Wine Grape Harvest 2019 Pt 3
With today’s Fruit Grower Report, I’m Bob Larson. Thanks to an early frost, Washington’s 2019 wine grape harvest will see a little bit lighter yield, but our outstanding quality remains intact.A very proud Washington Wine Commission President Steve Warner says our wine quality can compare with the best of them …
WARNER … “As a matter of fact, we had 10-years in a row of having the highest percentage of 90-plus rated wines compared to France, Italy, Spain and California. So, it’s pretty impressive growth in a short period of time and with our investments in viticulture and enology research to grow better grapes, make better wine, I think that we’re going to continue to not only be able to toe-to-toe with the best regions of the world, but I think we’re going to continue to surpass them.”
Warner says we take a back seat to no one, really …
WARNER … “You look at average bottle price of a 90-point rated Washington wine is around $44. Whereas in California, it’s double that and in France it’s triple that for that 90-point rated wines. So, it’s really overdelivering every price point and you pretty much can pick, blindfolded, off a shelf and get a really good quality wine for the price.”
So, our high-quality wines are a real bargain, right?
WARNER … “Yea, I mean it’s, it’s, we like to say ‘overdelivering at every price point.’ I mean my mom was a big K-Mart shopper so the ‘blue light special,’ we don’t want to give that sort of impression. So, it’s really overdelivering at every price point.”
Warner says considering Washington’s first AVA was established in 1983, we’ve reached our prominence in a very short period of time.