In the Wine World right now, there are more grapes and wine than consumers. It happens regularly . . . It takes years to get a vineyard into production. When times seem good, people plant; a few years later, there is a surplus. Some years, all the wine regions have good production, and Bingo, a big surplus.

Here in Washington, it seems like everything is in surplus: apples, hops, potatoes, and certainly wine grapes.

For years, consumption of Washington wines increased by about 10% a year, doubling every seven years. Then consumption plateaued, and production blasted past.

One company bottles 2/3 of all wine in Washington: Chateau Ste. Michelle Wine Estates. Last year, they cut their suppliers’ contracts by 40%! That leaves over 80,000 tons of grapes homeless—over 3,000 large truckloads—more than twice the total state production when I started in 1983.

Marginal vineyards are being pulled out. The question is, what can we plant that won’t lose money?

Because we decided to stop producing wine as of this year, we are in the Boat of Homeless Grapes. We have been selling some grapes the past few years. Getting record prices on some varieties, except, oops, if they haven’t paid for them, have they been sold? Many new wineries don’t realize how much it costs to turn grapes into wine and get it sold. Growers get hung out to dry because they can’t cover the bill. They need to pay for bottles, etc., and they have to be paid before delivery. I guess we should have also. So thank you when you pay your bill on time! If you want to buy a tanker load of wine, there are many available for very low prices! If you want to make a few gallons of wine, reach out to us.