Washington's Wine Industry Growth Pt 1

From the Ag Information Network, I’m Bob Larson with today’s Fruit Grower Report. It’s certainly no secret, especially to wine lovers, that the wine industry in Washington state has seen tremendous growth over the past 30 or 40 years.

The Wine Bible author, Karen MacNeil says the pace at which Washington’s wine industry has developed has been very impressive …

MacNEIL … “The industry, really, sort of collapsed, the way I think of it is it kind of collapsed maybe 100 years of knowledge into 20 really fast years.”

And that, MacNeil says is something you just don’t see very often …

MacNEIL … “It’s just been stellar to watch and to see the sophistication of some of the wines. It’s uh, yeah, it’s been moving at a very fast clip.”

But is there anything that sets Washington’s wine industry apart from, say, California? …

MacNEIL … “I think, what makes them different in many ways is that a lot of the originators in Washington were farmers. They were fruit farmers. They really knew other crops well.”

MacNeil says California’s wine industry began with more of a business sense …

MacNEIL … “And in Washington, there were a lot of people who knew how to grow things. In many cases, they had to teach themselves business and had to also move from orchards, or any number of other things, to grapes per se.”

Tune in tomorrow for more on Washington’s rapidly growing wine industry.