Washington Wine Grape Harvest Pt 3
With today’s Fruit Grower Report, I’m Bob Larson. Washington’s 2020 wine grape crop was smaller, thanks to some late season frost events and smoke from wildfires, but the quality appears to be higher. Go figure!
Steve Warner, president of the Washington State Wine Commission, says West Coast wine states are working together to figure these things out …
WARNER … “And it’s really great to see, I mean, I believe they call it the, if my memory serves me, I think they call it the West Coast Task Force, or the West Coast Smoke Exposure Task Force, and you know you’ve got the best and the brightest minds that are able to pool resources and actually apply for federal grants.”
Warner says Washington is fine with the collaboration because we have a lot at stake …
WARNER … “Because, obviously, our wine industry, the economic impact to our state is very significant and we’re the number one agricultural product in the state of Washington, as it relates to economic impact, you know prior to COVID we were about $2.3-billion in revenue, somewhere around there, and just to put it into perspective apples is about the same level.”
But, Warner says all three states work well together …
WARNER … “When it comes down to it, there are a lot of things where we work together and this is an example. You know, a lot of our international exports is another example. Some other areas of research, we find ways to work together and it’s actually been quite refreshing and it’s really a smart way to do things. I’m actually really happy the direction that it’s going.”
Cabernet Sauvignon was once again Washington’s top volume grape at 29% of the total … followed by Chardonnay at 16%.
