Oregon Wine Reopens Pt 2
With today’s Fruit Grower Report, I’m Bob Larson. After two months of silence in Northwest wine tasting rooms, Oregon Governor Kate Brown gave the okay for tasting rooms in 28 counties to reopen.
Oregon Wine Board’s Sally Murdoch says the lengthy closures have been tough on everyone, but some wineries more than others …
MURDOCH … “So, the wineries that are set up 100% on tasting room traffic, yes, it’s been very difficult.”
But, Murdoch says 60-65% of wine sales is off-premise …
MURDOCH … “So, wineries that have good distribution models, thorough distribution models that kind of balance, yes tasting room traffic is great, but I also have lots of wine in stores, they saw a nice little bump in traffic.”
Wine lovers, Murdoch says have had some time on their hands …
MURDOCH … “There is Nilsson data pulled from cash registers, from the weeks of March 14, 21 & 28 when the stay-at-home orders were first being issued, Oregon wine was up 52% in retail sales. The total wine category, which I’m sure you heard, was brisk. That was up 41%.”
One week, Murdoch says saw a huge jump …
MURDOCH … “March 21, that was like the big one. The week ending March 21 sales of Oregon wine were up 77%, which is the second highest week of sales after Christmas. So, we had a really nice little bump and then it kind of normalized as peopled kind of stocked up.”
Listen tomorrow for more on the reopening of some Oregon tasting rooms, and why May is a good month for this news.
