03/27/07 Winemaker Passes

Winemaking Pioneer Passes. I'm Greg Martin with today's Fruit Grower Report. Last Monday, George Carter passed away. For those of you who don't know, that glass of Washington wine you had with supper last night owes a lot to George Carter. Carter was a chemist who worked at the Washington State University Experiment Station in Prosser and made wine for Dr. Walter Clore in the 1960s and `70s, along with Chas Nagel. Kathy Corliss of the Walter Clore Wine and Culinary Center says the relationship between George and Walter was more than just friends. KORLISS: He was a phenomenal, incredible partner to Walt and you know, Walt couldn't have succeeded and done what he did in the state without George because Walt didn't make the wine, George did so one could not have done without the other. Author and winemaker Ron Irvine says George Carter's importance to the industry wasn't singular. IRVINE: When I think about George I have to think about that group of men. George was important individually but they were more important kind of as a group. Clore died in 2003. Carter was 94 when he passed away in Prosser last week. IRVINE: George was and is a wonderful person and his friendship with Walt Clore was  just fun to watch them when they were together. They just covered an unbelievable amount of territory that most people just have no idea how much they did and we're still catching up to them. That's today's Fruit Grower Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.