More than 600 wineries (including Pacific Rim of course) are calling Washington State home. That is more than three times the number of wineries that were in Washington 10 years ago. Of course, many of those wineries are fairly small. Still, this is a testament to the Washington State wine industry’s dynamism. The planted acreage is following up the growth in wineries and has raised to 33,000 acre from 24,000 in 1999 (though the average acreage per winery went from 122 acres/winery in 1999 to 55 acres/winery in 2009). As a comparison, Napa Valley alone has 44,000 acres planted and New Zealand has 70,000 acres planted (that makes Washington looks so small, doesn’t it?). According to the latest Nielsen data, Washington was one of the fastest growing appellation sold in grocery store across the country. I’ll raise a glass of Washington Riesling to that!
