Many Northwest wine tastings for groups are done over Zoom nowadays.
Here at in southeast Washington, winemaker and owner explains some of his favorite flavors in a video for wine club members with his son:
鈥淲e always seem to get that little bit of dustiness in this wine, that we talk about from Red Mountain,鈥� Hoppes says.
The sales generated from this video tasting with patrons is important. It鈥檚 one of the key ways wineries can reach their customers right now during the pandemic. Tasting rooms and restaurants have been closed. Events are canceled.
Beyond the dearth of traditional wine sales, there鈥檚 a surge of juice coming this harvest.
Across the Northwest, there are and not enough demand. It started with an overly optimistic industry planting too much. Then came the coronavirus pandemic.
Now, vineyard managers and wineries are being forced to think creatively to cope with 2020鈥檚 bumper crop.
鈥淚 can鈥檛 remember it ever being like this,鈥� says Hoppes. 鈥淚 think it鈥檚 going to take four or five years for a big correction to kind of happen.鈥�
It鈥檚 so bad that several winemakers who work with Hoppes have told him they鈥檙e just skipping the 2020 vintage.
Drip, Drip
Just up the hill on Red Mountain, Dick Boushey inspects the drip irrigation at . The black tubing runs along the rows and precisely drops water at the base of each vine. The water makes tiny pools that reflect the morning light. The dripping water creates a tiny symphony of plinking.
Bouchey says the problem starts here with a glut of wine grapes.
鈥淚鈥檝e been farming for 40 years and I鈥檝e seen this happen a few times,鈥� Bouchey says. 鈥淣ot this dramatic.鈥�
grows some of the highest-valued grapes in the state: Red Mountain cabernet.
But several wineries that normally buy Boushey鈥檚 fruit have canceled their orders, leaving his valuable grapes hanging on the vine.
Boushey estimates there are nearly 10,000 surplus acres of grapes in Washington state.
鈥淚 always thought I was in a pretty secure place,鈥� Bouchey says. 鈥淲e sell to 50 different wineries. Well, all 50 are kind of struggling [now].鈥�
Dropping Fruit
Even the biggest players are getting a bit crushed.
, based in Woodinville, Washington, is one of the country鈥檚 giant premium winemakers. The company owns about 3,900 acres across Washington, Oregon and California, and contracts about another 27,000 acres across those three states.
Kevin Corliss is Ste. Michelle鈥檚 VP of Vineyards. He says this year, the company actually paid its Washington growers to drop fruit on the ground.
鈥淲e had 100% of them respond by doing things that reduced their crop and enhanced the quality,鈥� Corliss says.
At in Walla Walla, and his team are bottling a 2018 merlot. It鈥檚 a deafening rattle-and-clink cacophony that fills up the large winery. But there鈥檚 uncertainty about the 2020 vintage.
鈥淲hat鈥檚 difficult is right now we don鈥檛 know how long COVID is going to be with us. I know that it鈥檚 there, and we have to react to it,鈥� Nicault says.
Pinot Pickle
While much of the Northwest is awash in wine grapes, too much spring rain in Oregon has created the opposite problem: there鈥檚 a shortage of Willamette Valley鈥檚 famous pinot noir grapes.
, president of the , says most growers in Oregon are down some 5 to 20% in crop because of a cool June. That鈥檚 when grapes bloom and set their fruit. He says that natural thinning will help soften the effects of oversupply and the way COVID-19 has rattled the restaurant, resort and tasting room markets.
鈥淚n a market that is down from COVID, most people are not looking at a catastrophe, but there will be slightly more grape tonnage looking for a home this year,鈥� Danowski says.
The latest suggests that wine sales in grocery stores are up over last year and that consumers are looking to buy increasing amounts of high-quality (or higher-priced) bottles.
But of , near Talent, Oregon, says smaller wineries selling mainly through tasting rooms are being incredibly hard hit.
鈥淢ost of the southern Oregon wineries are principally selling for their own tasting rooms. They don鈥檛 have distribution into grocery stores,鈥� Moore says. 鈥淭here is a stranglehold. Unless you are a large winery, distributors don鈥檛 really want to deal with you. The whole distribution system is set up to work with large wineries.鈥�
As a result, Moore says the smaller wineries are hesitant to buy even their regular grapes this fall.
Eugenia Keegan heads Oregon鈥檚 Jackson Family Wines. She says having a lean harvest isn't such a big problem given how COVID-19 is depressing sales.
鈥淪o this is a really lovely balancing of nature right here. I think we will be at a perfect equilibrium,鈥� Keegan says.
The grape glut in much of the Northwest is forcing some wineries to think in terms of lower-price-point second labels 鈥� wines that consumers can drink soon after they鈥檙e made, instead of age in the barrel for three years.
And that may be a silver lining for wine lovers looking for pandemic deals. So consumers might watch for some bargain-priced, high-quality 2020 reds, ros茅s and whites.
