The Wine Knows

The USDA has released its 2007 grape report for Washington state. As expected, it reported that Washington's wine grape crop was 127,000 tons, up 6 percent over 2006 and 15 percent over 2005. California's wine grape crop was 3.16 million tons, up from 3.13 million in 2006. New York was No. 3 at 41,000 tons. Oregon was No. 4 at 38,000 tons, up from 34,400 in 2006 and 25,000 tons in 2005.

Chardonnay remains Washington's No. 1 wine grape, though production of the white variety was down 7 percent. Meanwhile, Riesling rocketed up to 26,000 tons, within 700 tons of surpassing Chardonnay into the No. 1 position.

Cabernet was the state's No. 3 grape at 21,800 tons, while Merlot production increased 12 percent of 2006 to 21,300 tons.

Interestingly, Malbec hit the radar on this report for the first time with 700 tons of fruit harvested, equalling Sangiovese and sliding in right behind Pinot Noir, which was 800 tons.

The average price per ton for all wine grapes in Washington was $954 in 2007, up $12 from 2006. In California, the average price per ton was $582. Meanwhile, Oregon's price per ton leads the nation at a robust $1,800 per ton.

Wine grape acreage in Washington was No. 2 in the nation at 30,500. California is by far No. 1 at 480,000 acres for wine grapes. Oregon's acreage was about 13,000 acres.

I'm not exactly sure why Idaho is not on this list. It has more than 1,000 acres of wine grapes. Even a modest crop of three tons per acre would put it ahead of North Carolina and Missouri, which are listed.

Washington also crushed 272,000 tons of juice grapes, primarily Concords, by far the most in the nation. New York is No. 2 at 135,000 tons.