Idaho vintners ready to take next step

The grape harvest has just been completed, and the growing number of Idaho wine makers is looking to the future, ready to take the next step that will make their industry even more profitable.

The Associated Press

http://www.magicvalley.com/news/business/index.asp?StoryID=6645

"Most people don’t know we have a wine industry here. It’s finally starting to grow," said Ron Bitner, a veteran who has been growing grapes for a quarter century. "What we’d really like to get going here in the valley is tourism."

Bitner, who produces limited-distribution wine under his own label, sees the wine industry in southwestern Idaho poised to take off the same way it did in Washington’s Yakima Valley in the 1980s.

The Idaho Wine Commission counts 23 wineries in the state, eight more than just two years ago. A handful are as far south as Magic Valley. A University of Idaho study estimated wine as a $30 million industry three years ago in Canyon County alone, where there are 10 wineries. Statewide the revenue total was $45 million.

The commission believes enough wineries are concentrated in Canyon County to make them a draw for tourists, and officials are working with the state Transportation Department and the Boise Visitors and Convention Bureau to direct travelers into the county on what could become a wine trail, offering escorted tours of wineries.

"There is a lot of tourism potential here," said Bitner, a commission member. "I think the wine grape industry in Idaho is on an upward climb."

The popularity of wine for dining and entertaining has boosted the industry that now tends 2,000 acres of wine grapes throughout the state, mostly in Canyon County.

The county has two full-time wine scientists working out of the University of Idaho Research and Extension Center in Parma. Food technologist Jungmin Lee is currently analyzing the factors that influence the quality of wine produced from grapes grown in the region.

The Williamson family has been growing apples, peaches, and other fruit for generations in the area. It is one of the new entrants into the winery business this year after growing grapes under contract for another winery. Roger Williamson called it a natural progression.

"We were looking for a way to diversify. With the grapes we were getting from our vineyard, we knew we could produce a high-quality wine," Roger Williamson said.