Regional
Washington's First Wine Summit Meeting
Continued emphasis on wine quality and broadened consumer awareness were identified as two of the most important priorities for Washington winegrowers and producers at the Washington Wine Industry Summit held in Kennewick, Wash. at the end of November.
The meeting, the first of its kind for the Washington wine industry, was intended to allow all the state's important stakeholder communities--growers, producers, distributors and public officials--a voice in identifying the industry's near- and long-term challenges and opportunities. And that's exactly what the 100-plus participants accomplished, with the help of panel discussions and a guided process of establishing industry priorities.
"We were successful in bringing together a broad assortment of industry members, including growers and producers of all sizes, as well as various governmental agencies," said Industry Summit organizer Tim Hightower, president of the Washington Wine Institute (WWI) and owner/ winemaker of Hightower Cellars in Benton City, Wash. At the end of the session, he said, "We got a broad spectrum of issues and an understanding of what the participants felt was important to moving the industry forward."
In a way, it is a mark of how young the Washington wine industry is that a meeting of this kind didn't happen sooner. Yet the success of the meeting is also a measure of just how far the state's wine industry has come in the last two decades--and how important an economic force it has become.
The second largest wine producing state in the U.S., Washington is home to more than 360 wineries, 350 winegrape growers and 36,000 acres of vinifera grapes. In her conference presentation, Valoria Loveland, director of the Washington Department of Agriculture, told the attendees that their industry contributes $3 billion annually to the state's economy. Included in that figure, according to the Washington Wine Commission (WWC), are 14,000 full-time wine-related jobs and nearly $700 million worth of retail wine value, based on 2004 figures.
The economic impact of the Washington wine industry makes it vitally important, Loveland said, that participants at the summit continue to "come together on a regular basis to help you better market and promote your wine."
To begin the process of identifying priorities, two panel discussions kicked off the working portion of the meeting.
The first panel attacked the broad subject of the "State of the Washington Wine Industry." Moderator Mark Maghie, WWI's legal counsel, told the assembly that it is confronted with what someone once called "insurmountable opportunities"--but that to capitalize on that position, it also needs to understand the challenges. Accordingly, panel members were asked to answer the question: "What keeps you up at night?"
Kay Simon, winemaker and co-owner of Chinook Wines in Prosser, noted that one of her concerns is the possible effect of rapid growth on industry cohesion. Simon said that two important reasons for the industry's success have been the collegiality among winemakers and growers and a shared commitment to making quality wines. As industry growth booms, she pointed out, it will be a challenge to maintain these qualities.
Panel member Chris Figgins, of Leonetti Cellar in Walla Walla, expressed his concern that the industry needs "to learn a lot more about what goes on below the ground" in order to maintain wine quality. He pointed out that the state has never had to deal with issues such as phylloxera, but that as new vineyard growth occurs, new problems will be faced. He saw a coming "second generation" of vines as a "big opportunity to advance," both in viticultural knowledge and in wine quality.
Grower Brenton Roy, of Oasis Farms in Prosser, noted that while Washington is a high-cost-of-production state, growers and producers have a strong reputation for high quality and value. In order to maintain that in the future, he said, it is vital that the historically strong cooperation between growers and producers be guarded, protected and emphasized. At the same time, he noted, it is also important that growers be open to innovation, and that the industry invest more heavily in research to better capitalize on sales growth opportunities.
Doug Gore, senior vice president for winemaking and vineyards at Ste. Michelle Wine Estates, emphasized the opportunities he feels the industry is poised to exploit. He said that it has done a great job in telling its story to the world's wine media, but that "we still haven't reached the consumer" as effectively. Despite its growth, there is still much to learn about things such as site selection, clones, spacing and trellising. The industry is poised, he said, to go after great opportunities for growth, but it needs to be sure to "get it right" and not lose the advantages the industry currently has.
Matt Mabus, partner in Western Washington distributor Cordon Selections, told the audience that while Washington has reached the point where its wines "command respect on the world stage," it is still true that the majority of the state's wineries are very small. He expressed concern that the dramatic increase in new wineries poses risks to the state's reputation for quality if too many new ventures are undertaken with insufficient viticultural and/or enological knowledge. More educational resources, he said, are important, so that new ventures won't "jeopardize what has been accomplished so far."
With these comments as context, the second panel focused on "Doing Business in Washington: Facts vs. Fiction." Representatives from the public sector (Washington State Liquor Control Board, Department of Revenue, Department of Agriculture and Washington State University) presented comments on issues as diverse as use taxes on tasting room samples, international export processes, direct shipping and state liquor stores.
Attendees adjourned for a lunch break, where they had an opportunity to hear the unique perspective of speaker Allen Shoup, now of Long Shadows Vintners and former CEO of Stimson Lane (now Ste. Michelle Wine Estates), widely regarded as one of the founding fathers of the Washington wine industry.
In his remarks, Shoup recounted the modern history of Washington wine, and offered some of his own themes for the future for participants to consider. It is important, he said, that the industry develop a program to more effectively tell Washington's viticulture story--to better explain how the uniqueness of the growing area helps create the character of the wine. Along with this, it is vital that more viticu ltural research be done to advance grape quality, and that the industry continue to keep its emphasis on unity--something Shoup feels is unique in the world of wine.
Concluding his talk, Shoup asserted, "If you could create the world's most perfect viticultural region, all the important factors you would want show up here in Washington."
With that endorsement ringing in their minds, conference participants returned to an afternoon of priority-setting. Guided by Stuart Elway of Elway Research in Seattle, participants were broken into groups and asked to identify the industry's current strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.
This resulted in a list of 20 factors, five for each category (see Table 1). Using an interactive polling system from Elway Research, each participant chose a number ranking using individual keypads to rate the importance of each factor, as well as the industry's ability to impact each factor.
The result of this exercise was a rank-ordered list of factors that the participants as a group thought were the most important, and which the industry would be most able to affect positively.
The premise of this process was that the participants' top-ranked issues would represent the best opportunity for the industry to make the largest contribution to future success. There are, of course, many other important factors for the industry to consider, as the participants identified, but the highest leverage was to be gained from the top six prioritized factors.
The top priority factors as judged by summit participants were:
(W&V Oregon correspondent Cole Danehower has published the Oregon Wine Report since 1998, and in 2004 won the James Beard Foundation Journalism Award for best newsletter. Contact him through edit@wineandvines.com.)
The meeting, the first of its kind for the Washington wine industry, was intended to allow all the state's important stakeholder communities--growers, producers, distributors and public officials--a voice in identifying the industry's near- and long-term challenges and opportunities. And that's exactly what the 100-plus participants accomplished, with the help of panel discussions and a guided process of establishing industry priorities.
"We were successful in bringing together a broad assortment of industry members, including growers and producers of all sizes, as well as various governmental agencies," said Industry Summit organizer Tim Hightower, president of the Washington Wine Institute (WWI) and owner/ winemaker of Hightower Cellars in Benton City, Wash. At the end of the session, he said, "We got a broad spectrum of issues and an understanding of what the participants felt was important to moving the industry forward."
In a way, it is a mark of how young the Washington wine industry is that a meeting of this kind didn't happen sooner. Yet the success of the meeting is also a measure of just how far the state's wine industry has come in the last two decades--and how important an economic force it has become.
The second largest wine producing state in the U.S., Washington is home to more than 360 wineries, 350 winegrape growers and 36,000 acres of vinifera grapes. In her conference presentation, Valoria Loveland, director of the Washington Department of Agriculture, told the attendees that their industry contributes $3 billion annually to the state's economy. Included in that figure, according to the Washington Wine Commission (WWC), are 14,000 full-time wine-related jobs and nearly $700 million worth of retail wine value, based on 2004 figures.
The economic impact of the Washington wine industry makes it vitally important, Loveland said, that participants at the summit continue to "come together on a regular basis to help you better market and promote your wine."
To begin the process of identifying priorities, two panel discussions kicked off the working portion of the meeting.
The first panel attacked the broad subject of the "State of the Washington Wine Industry." Moderator Mark Maghie, WWI's legal counsel, told the assembly that it is confronted with what someone once called "insurmountable opportunities"--but that to capitalize on that position, it also needs to understand the challenges. Accordingly, panel members were asked to answer the question: "What keeps you up at night?"
Kay Simon, winemaker and co-owner of Chinook Wines in Prosser, noted that one of her concerns is the possible effect of rapid growth on industry cohesion. Simon said that two important reasons for the industry's success have been the collegiality among winemakers and growers and a shared commitment to making quality wines. As industry growth booms, she pointed out, it will be a challenge to maintain these qualities.
Panel member Chris Figgins, of Leonetti Cellar in Walla Walla, expressed his concern that the industry needs "to learn a lot more about what goes on below the ground" in order to maintain wine quality. He pointed out that the state has never had to deal with issues such as phylloxera, but that as new vineyard growth occurs, new problems will be faced. He saw a coming "second generation" of vines as a "big opportunity to advance," both in viticultural knowledge and in wine quality.
Grower Brenton Roy, of Oasis Farms in Prosser, noted that while Washington is a high-cost-of-production state, growers and producers have a strong reputation for high quality and value. In order to maintain that in the future, he said, it is vital that the historically strong cooperation between growers and producers be guarded, protected and emphasized. At the same time, he noted, it is also important that growers be open to innovation, and that the industry invest more heavily in research to better capitalize on sales growth opportunities.
Doug Gore, senior vice president for winemaking and vineyards at Ste. Michelle Wine Estates, emphasized the opportunities he feels the industry is poised to exploit. He said that it has done a great job in telling its story to the world's wine media, but that "we still haven't reached the consumer" as effectively. Despite its growth, there is still much to learn about things such as site selection, clones, spacing and trellising. The industry is poised, he said, to go after great opportunities for growth, but it needs to be sure to "get it right" and not lose the advantages the industry currently has.
Matt Mabus, partner in Western Washington distributor Cordon Selections, told the audience that while Washington has reached the point where its wines "command respect on the world stage," it is still true that the majority of the state's wineries are very small. He expressed concern that the dramatic increase in new wineries poses risks to the state's reputation for quality if too many new ventures are undertaken with insufficient viticultural and/or enological knowledge. More educational resources, he said, are important, so that new ventures won't "jeopardize what has been accomplished so far."
With these comments as context, the second panel focused on "Doing Business in Washington: Facts vs. Fiction." Representatives from the public sector (Washington State Liquor Control Board, Department of Revenue, Department of Agriculture and Washington State University) presented comments on issues as diverse as use taxes on tasting room samples, international export processes, direct shipping and state liquor stores.
Attendees adjourned for a lunch break, where they had an opportunity to hear the unique perspective of speaker Allen Shoup, now of Long Shadows Vintners and former CEO of Stimson Lane (now Ste. Michelle Wine Estates), widely regarded as one of the founding fathers of the Washington wine industry.
In his remarks, Shoup recounted the modern history of Washington wine, and offered some of his own themes for the future for participants to consider. It is important, he said, that the industry develop a program to more effectively tell Washington's viticulture story--to better explain how the uniqueness of the growing area helps create the character of the wine. Along with this, it is vital that more viticu ltural research be done to advance grape quality, and that the industry continue to keep its emphasis on unity--something Shoup feels is unique in the world of wine.
Concluding his talk, Shoup asserted, "If you could create the world's most perfect viticultural region, all the important factors you would want show up here in Washington."
With that endorsement ringing in their minds, conference participants returned to an afternoon of priority-setting. Guided by Stuart Elway of Elway Research in Seattle, participants were broken into groups and asked to identify the industry's current strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.
This resulted in a list of 20 factors, five for each category (see Table 1). Using an interactive polling system from Elway Research, each participant chose a number ranking using individual keypads to rate the importance of each factor, as well as the industry's ability to impact each factor.
The result of this exercise was a rank-ordered list of factors that the participants as a group thought were the most important, and which the industry would be most able to affect positively.
The premise of this process was that the participants' top-ranked issues would represent the best opportunity for the industry to make the largest contribution to future success. There are, of course, many other important factors for the industry to consider, as the participants identified, but the highest leverage was to be gained from the top six prioritized factors.
The top priority factors as judged by summit participants were:
- Quality/value
- Improved consumer perception/awareness of Washington wines
- Still inadequate consumer awareness
- Cohesiveness/collegiality
- Wine and grape quality assurance (education/winter kill)
- Washington is "brandable"
| Washington Wine Industry Strengths |
|
| Washington Wine Industry Weaknesses |
|
| Washington Wine Industry Opportunities |
External positive characteristics which can enhance the industry's success:
|
| Washington Wine Industry Threats |
External factors the industry has little or no control over, which could jeopardize success:
|
SHARE »
