091407 Building the Winery

Building the Winery. I'm Greg Martin with today's Fruit Grower Report. Rob Mercer has his fingers in a lot of projects. He's a farmer, runs an animation studio and now is part of a group putting together a new winery in Prosser, Washington. Mercer Wine Estates will feature 6 wines. MERCER: In the reds were going to have Merlot and Cabernet and then in the whites were going to have Riesling, Sauvignon Blanc, a Chardonnay and a Pinot Gris. The new winery is joint project and has been a couple of years in the making. MERCER: My father and I have partnered up with the Hogue family, Mike Hogue and Barb and Ron Harley about a year ago. Let's see we planted grapes  this is their second season. I guess we're almost 2 years into the initial start of the adventure. Mercer says the winery came about when they noticed a need for a medium sized winery. MERCER: We felt like there was demand out there for Washington wines and there was not enough wineries in the state to meet the demand in terms of medium scale distribution, still boutique but big enough to distribute over on the East coast and things like that. For their wine maker, they pulled David Forsythe who was the wine maker for Hogue Cellars. MERCER: He's worked with Mike Hogue for a long time and has developed great skills with Washington wines and knows how to consistently make a great wine and do it on a large enough scale that it worked for what we were doing. He's I think technically one of the best in the state if not the best in the state. He's got a great palate an knows wines  knows Washington wines inside and out. That's today's Fruit Grower Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.