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Some vineyard and winery owners beginning to feel growing
pains from bumper crops and expansion.
Ed Merriman, the Capital Press, Nov. 31, 2001
CANBY, Ore. - Winegrapes left hanging on vines at Saint
Josef's vineyard near Canby are a sign of growing pains affecting Oregon's
rapidly expanding wine industry.
For Joe and Lilli Fleischmann, who own the St. Josef's
vineyard and winery and also serve as winemaker and hostess at their chalet-style
wine cellar and tasting room, growth in the state's winegrape industry
is bittersweet.
"Our piece of the pie is not so big as it used
to be. Overproduction has depressed prices for grapes and for the wine,"
said Joe Fleischmann. When the Fleischmanns planted their wine grapes
and built their winery in the 1983, about 92 wineries were operating in
the state and they were able to sell all the wine and wine grapes they
could produce.
Demand for Oregon wines at that time exceeded supply
and prices were strong. Then word spread of similarities between Oregon's
climate, terrain and soil, and those found in the prestigious wine grape-producing
areas of France, Fleischmann said. Vineyards and wineries sprouted up
across the state faster than the industry could open new markets. The
glut of grapes these days led to grapes left rotting on the vines at the
family's vineyard this year. In the past when he had excess winegrape
production, Fleischmann said he had no trouble selling them to other wineries.
"There's no demand for the grapes because everyone
has too many. I think people were surprised by the big production this
year. There's no sense harvesting them if you don't have room in your
tanks," he said.
Kirsten Wall, executive director of Oregon Wine Growers
Association, said that by 1999 the number of wineries operating in Oregon
had swelled from 92 in 1983 to 168 by 1999.
Then in a surge of winery construction that caught the
industry by surprise, another 18 wineries were built in 2000 alone, bringing
the total statewide to 186, Wall said. During the 1990s the number of
vineyards statewide rose from 350 in 1991 to nearly 500 by 2000, representing
an increase in wine grape acreage from 6,050 acres to 10,500 acres.
Some of the increase in both vineyard production and
wineries came at the expense of existing winery owners such as the Fleischmanns.
According to reports from the Oregon Agricultural Statistics
Service, only about 8,100 acres of the 10,500 acres of wine grapes planted
statewide in 2000 were actually harvested. Despite the un-harvested acreage,
excellent growing conditions produced a record crop of 18,600 tons of
wine grapes, breaking Oregon's old record of 18,500 tons in 1997.
In addition to bumper crops, the past four years have
been remarkable in terms of the quality of the grapes. Compared with 1997,
the 2001 grape crop is easily 25 percent higher quality, she said. Wall
said the bumper crops have pushed production capacity to the limits and
played a major role in construction of such a large number of new wineries.
While this growth has forced producers into the distasteful position of
leaving good wine grapes to go un-harvested, Wall said there's also a
sweet reward waiting for those who persevere.
"The exciting part is now that we have this surplus
acreage and production capacity, we have enough supply to really go out
and do some more aggressive marketing." she said.
That's exactly what the Oregon Wine Advisory Board is
preparing to do with a surge in funding for promotion and research programs
that's coming in from a $25 per ton assessment on wine grapes, said Betty
O'Brien, OWAB interim executive director. This week the board brought
in wine industry consultants from markets targeted for expanded wine exports
- England, Canada and Japan.
Following a marketing planning session with members
of the wine board Nov. 27, the consultants participated in a workshop
co-sponsored by the Northwest Wine Coalition. It was attended by 50 representatives
from 40 wineries and vineyards in Oregon interested in getting into the
wine export business or expanding existing imports, O'Brien said.
With the industry pretty much saturated at this point,
O'Brien said it's important for people interested in entering the wine
business in Oregon to put together a solid marketing plan before taking
that giant step.In the face of increasing competition, "I suggest
that before getting into this wonderful, exciting, romantic business,
people need to learn as much as they can and develop a. solid plan for
how they're going to market their grapes or wines," O'Brien said.
For the Fleischmanns, despite the stresses, the business
offers fulfillment. The whole Fleischmann family gets involved, including
an artist son-in-law, Carl McNight, who draws pictures depicted on Saint
Josef wine labels. Joe thrives on making the wine and Lillien joys, working
in the tasting room as
hostess.
"It's fun. You meet people from all over," she
said.
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