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Friday, February 29, 2008
Popular Barnard Griffin Winery to build 10,000-square-foot facility and boost Gorge wine business
Portland Business Journal
One of Washington's largest family-owned wineries is building a 10,000-square-foot tasting room and wine production facility on the Washington side of the Columbia Gorge wine region between the Maryhill Museum and Maryhill Winery.
The project by Barnard Griffin Winery Inc. is the Richland, Washington-based winery's first expansion outside the Tri-Cities, where it was founded in 1983. Best known for its merlot and chardonnay, the $5-million-a-year winery produced 74,000 cases in 2007, up from 68,000 in 2006.
The move underscores the growing importance of the Columbia Gorge as a wine-producing region. In the four years since the region earned an American Viticultural Area designation, the number of wineries has grown by nearly one-third, to more than 30. The appellation, which straddles the Columbia River, encompasses about 280 square miles and nearly 700 vineyard acres.
Idaho to
Launch New Wine Testing Service
Western Farmer-Stockman -
http://westernfarmerstockman.com
October 16, 2007
Idaho's 30 wineries will soon have a new
wine-quality testing service provided by the
University of Idaho's Food Technology Center in
Caldwell.
This is a first for the Gem State, and one which
provides a growing wine industry with a chance
to assure appearance, fragrance, sensation and
finish of their products meet standards before
they are run out for commercial wine tastings.
"There's been no wine lab in Idaho, so the
producers who have tested their wines have been
shipping their samples to California," says Drew
Delgetty, FTC manager. Later this fall, he'll
test juices from grapes before and after harvest
and will evaluate wines themselves before
they're bottled.
"When your competing with California and
Washington wines, you have to have the right
balance of acids and sugars, the right content
of alcohol and the right volatile acid – and
your wines must be free of defective flavors and
aromas," he explains.
"Everyone is very excited," notes Sherise Jones,
executive director of the Idaho Grape Growers
and Wine Producers Commission. That's why they
contributed $3,000 toward testing equipment at
the FTC.
Since April, 22 Idaho wineries have enjoyed the
right to use the appellation of "Snake River
Valley" on their wine labels. They're located
within a newly appointed American Viticultural
Area that spans the western Snake River plain
from eastern Oregon to Buhl, and are now banding
together in their marketing efforts.
"Quality is our focus," says Jones. "Any wine
country is only as good as its worst wine."
Delgetty says he expects to continue testing
this year through November. Mostly he will be
checking out rieslings, gewürztraminers,
chardonnays, cabernet sauvignons and merlots.
The project joins dozens of others at the FTC
pilot plant, a 3,500-square-foot facility in
which Idaho food-related businesses design new
products, processes and packaging and modify old
ones.
