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While
much of Washington’s farm sector has been struggling the past
few years, the state's wine industry has been doing pretty well.
The state’s 300 wine grape growers expect to harvest a record
118,000 tons this fall, according to the Washington Association
of Wine Grape Growers. That’s about 16 percent more than last
year.
Acreage has been expanding as well. The USDA recently reported that
wine grapes are now grown on 28,000 acres in the state. “Industry
growth has been phenomenal the last couple years,” said Ray
Folwell, a Washington State University agricultural economist. He
has been following the industry for more than 30 years.
The state’s 200 wineries generate annual sales of $700 million
around the world, and their products continue to earn accolades.
Washington was named the “Wine Region of the Year” for
2001 by Wine Enthusiast Magazine.
As welcome as industry growth has been, it has come with challenges.
Wine grape growers and wine makers have had trouble finding enough
qualified employees and upgrading the skills of the employees they
have.
“There was a period of time where it was hard to keep vineyard
managers and winemakers,” said Jack Watson, chair of WSU Cooperative
Extension office in Benton County. “They were bouncing from
one job to another.”
Watson, who has been working with the wine industry for 22 years,
and Sara Spayd, an enologist and extension food scientist at the
WSU Prosser Irrigated Agriculture Research and Extension Center,
have attracted 100 to 200 people to short courses on vineyard nutrition
management, grape diseases, and grape varieties and clones.
“We no sooner got done with them and people started asking
us when we were going to do them again because they wanted to attend
or send their employees,” Watson said. "Sara
and I are the sole extension component for viticulture. How are
we going to organize and focus our efforts to take care of this
recurring need for education, not just for people who are entering
the industry, but people who have been in it for awhile.”
With funding from the industry, Watson and Spayd are developing
professional certificate programs in viticulture and enology. Each
will consist of 10 courses over two years. “To add some rigor,
there will be some homework and testing.” Watson said.
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Keith
Oliver, left, vineyard manager for
Olsen Brothers, and Jack Watson, Cooperative Extension educator,
Benton County, discuss the cropping level of Chardonnay vines
at one of the Olsen vineyards near Prosser.
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The viticulture certificate program
will be offered for the first time in November. The enology certificate
program probably will not start for another year, according to
Watson. Final arrangements are pending.
The certificate programs are one
component of a growing response to the wine industry’s needs
for formal and non-formal educational programs expressed in the
results of a 2001 industry survey funded by the Washington Viticulture
and Enology Education Consortium. WSU began offering a new viticulture
and enology option in its horticulture program this fall.
Folwell, who is serving as interim
coordinator of WSU's viticulture and enology program, is working
out the details of an initiative to the legislature that might
provide additional educational resources, both at WSU, including
extension, and at community colleges in the consortium.
The consortium partners include
Washington State University (Pullman and Tri-Cities), Walla Walla
Community College, Yakima Valley Community College, Columbia Basin
College and Wentachee Valley College.
The initiative, if approved first
by WSU and later by the legislature, would provide the devoted
teaching and extension faculty needed to continue and enhance
the world class position the Washington industry has achieved
as a producer of premium table wines, according to Folwell.
Folwell said as many as seven
faculty positions with support dollars could be added to WSU plus
additional faculty and resources at community colleges.
“You have to
realize that when this industry was started, some of the talent
was imported from California, either as consultants or permanent
employees,” Folwell said. “Now we are trying to develop
our own supply of viticulturists and enologists who are used to
cool climate conditions for producing quality wine grapes.”
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