Monday, Jun. 04, 2007

Washington wine industry having grape growth

By Mary Hopkin, Wine Press Northwest

Under a burning sun, Shaw Vineyards crews poked cabernet sauvignon grape vine starts into soil on a hillside overlooking Mattawa that until a few months ago was an apple orchard.

Newly planted grapes also are crawling up trellises at Cold Creek Vineyards west of the Hanford site, Ste. Michelle Wine Estate's oldest vineyard.

And young merlot and petit verdot vines have just been planted at the company's Canoe Ridge Estate Vineyard near Paterson.

Wine grape growers are expanding vineyards throughout the region, producing more grapes and improving quality by planting new varieties.

"The growth in fine wine is soaring, we have the key vineyard sites and we need more fruit," said Keith Love, spokesman for Ste. Michelle Wine Estates.

Traditionally, vineyard growth has taken place in bursts, following trends as new varieties become popular.

Eric Henriksen, general manager of Shaw Vineyards, is adding 250 acres of grapes this year to the 900 he already has in the ground in Mattawa and Franklin County and on Red Mountain, and plans to plant another 150 acres next year.

"It seems like it goes in fits and spurts. We went through a slow period for a while, but now the contracts were available and we had the land," he said.

In 1993, Washington had about 11,000 acres planted in wine grapes -- 7,100 acres of white varieties and 4,000 acres of red varieties. By 1999, wine grape acreage more than doubled to 24,000, and white varieties were overtaken by red, which accounted for 13,500 acres.

Then there was a lull. In January 2002, there were 28,000 acres of grapes planted in Washington -- only 4,000 more than three years earlier.

"After 9/11 the fine wine business suffered," Love said. "The restaurant business was slow and took a huge hit."

Paul Champoux, owner of Champoux vineyards and chairman of the Washington Association of Wine Grape Growers, said that slowdown kept growers from investing in new vines.

"We were unsure of what was going to happen. The price of everything was going up," he said.

But now, with the number of wineries in the state topping 500 and wine grape production up 9 percent in 2006, Champoux and others are more certain of their future.

"We are planting 500 to 600 acres in the Horse Heaven Hills," he said. "And they all have a place to go."

Growers are optimistic about the future of the state's wine industry, but they still are business operators who don't like to speculate. It's always better to have a contract in hand to sell the grapes before you plant them.

"The demand for Washington wines is increasing, so to deal with the increase we have to increase the supply of grapes," Champoux said.

Growers aren't just expanding -- they also are doing a lot of shuffling of varieties.

It's all about location, said Rob Andrews, co-owner of Andrews Horse Heaven Ranch and McKinley Springs Vineyards, which produce grapes for about 18 wineries.

"Location is making the choice, not the varietals. Over the years we have seen certain areas that produce outstanding varieties so growers are refining where they are planting varieties to produce higher quality," he said.

Tom Judkins Jr., who owns Inland Desert Nursery in Benton City, has been supplying young grape vines to area growers since 1980.

"It seems like this year and last year there is certainly an expansion in most of the varieties -- a lot of plantings going in -- and there's plenty of demand for next year too, the way people are talking," he said.

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