Jun 2, 2015

Washington drought boosting state’s winemaking production

California is the No. 1 wine producing state in the country. Even when conditions are less than ideal, production numbers are through the roof.

Is that going to change?

According to The New York Times, wine producers in Napa and Sonoma should avoid looking in the review mirror. Washington state’s wine-grape acreage is growing rapidly.

Here’s more from the The New York Times,

Washington’s winemaking production has more than doubled in the past decade, and the expansion may be accelerating, wine researchers and growers say, for an unlikely sounding reason: drought.

Water shortages plague a vast area of the West, including Washington, where Gov. Jay Inslee last month declared a statewide drought emergency. But grapes require far less water than other crops. And the problem runs much deeper in California, where the drought, exacerbated by climate change, has entered its fourth year and farmers, including some in wine-producing areas in central California, are dealing with cuts of 25 percent or more in their water allotments.

At the same time, warmer winters in northern climes — from Oregon, which is also gripped by drought, up through British Columbia — are creating new farming terrain, ripe for grape cultivation. Old-fashioned pressures of supply, demand and return on investment are doing the rest.

According to the publication, wine-grape acreage in Washington has increased by 22 percent since 2010. That totals about 50,000 acres.

California wine producers are still experiencing success — they harvested the largest crop on record last year — but Washington state is on the upswing, especially because land is cheaper.

Some Washington wineries said there was more demand for their products than the grapes grown in the state could currently provide, which has forced them to reach out to other places for grapes … like California.