09/17/07 Great Grape Crop

Great Grape Crop. I'm Greg Martin with today's Fruit Grower Report. It's grape harvesting time and from the noise being made it appears it's going to be a good year. Eastern Washington wineries are beginning to harvest a crop that the National Ag Statistics Service says is about 9% bigger than last year. Executive Director of the Washington Wine Grape Growers, Vicky Scharlau. SCHARLAU: Well luck for the wine connoisseurs of the world, the Washington wine crop is looking healthy and wonderful and it looks to be another vintage year. NASS estimates this year's crop at a record 131-thousand tons from approximately 30-thousand acres of grapes. Rob Mercer with Mercer Wine Estates is pleased with not only the crop but the whole growing season. MERCER: Yea it's been  jeez what a great fall and perfect growing conditions. It should be an excellent harvest if this keeps up. It's just been outstanding so far. So far according to Mercer they have been harvesting white varieties and says things are going well. MERCER: Really well. We started bringing in whites, we actually have some Chardonnay in the winery already, some Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Gris and some Riesling I believe as well. I think we've got all 4 white varieties in the winery at this point. Many wine grape festivals are getting under way in the Northwest and it might be a great time to try some of the areas finest new wines. That's today's Fruit Grower Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.