Wine Grape Harvest Underway in Yakima Valley

The Yakima Valley wine grape harvest is starting and the Executive Director of Wine Yakima Valley says grapes benefited from the weather. Barb Glover says it was a cool winter that didn't see any major damage and a warm spring and summer. She says with 30 percent of the wineries and 61 percent of production here in the Yakima Valley the area plays a big role in the rest of the state when it comes to wineries and wine production.

Glover says many wineries will celebrate the Crush and thanksgiving in wine country and then they'll wrap up operations and spend the winter making great wine to serve beginning in February when many wineries wake up from the winter to celebrate the Red Wine and Chocolate event and to start serving wine made from grapes harvested this month. w
Washington state’s wine grape harvest grew by 14 percent in 2018, for a grand total of 261,000 tons crushed. It was the second largest harvest in Washington’s history, behind the record-breaking total of 270,000 tons in 2016.