Friday, March 27, 2020
CapitalPress.com
3
Oregon Wine Board updates strategic plan
Industry members
from across the state
weigh in on needs,
opportunity
By GEORGE PLAVEN
Capital Press
PORTLAND — Ore-
gon might produce just a
tiny fraction of the world’s
wine, but the industry has
gained undeniable momen-
tum in recent years.
While dollar sales of
U.S. wine remained mostly
flat in 2019, Oregon-la-
beled wines bucked the
trend with
1 2 . 4 %
growth.
According
to data from
Nielsen, a
global mar-
ket research
c o m p a n y,
Tom
O r e g o n Danowski
wines are
now available in nearly
half of all liquor stores,
grocery stores and other
points of distribution — an
all-time high.
Tom Danowski, presi-
dent and CEO of the Ore-
gon Wine Board, said Ore-
gon’s reputation for wine
quality is driving greater
demand in the market-
place. But with increas-
ing popularity comes new
challenges, especially as
wineries and vineyards
adopt new business mod-
els to capitalize on the
enthusiasm.
Between 2018 and 2019,
the Wine Board spent
roughly 12 months meeting
with hundreds of producers
across the state to develop
a new strategic plan, out-
lining priorities for scien-
tific research, marketing
and promotion of Oregon
wines across the country.
“Oregon fruit and the
Oregon name on a label
of wine is meaningful to
the marketplace in a way
that it might not have been
20 years ago,” Danowski
said. “There’s more global
demand for Oregon (wine)
now, creating a new set
of pressures and business
opportunities.”
Fueling demand
Established by the Leg-
islature in 2003, the Oregon
Wine Board is a semi-inde-
pendent state agency sup-
porting winemakers and
vintners.
The board gets most of
its funding from a $25-per-
ton grape tax for all wine-
growers, as well as an
excise tax levied on about
80 larger wineries that sell
more than 40,000 gallons,
or 16,800 cases, of wine
in-state. Financial reports
from 2018-19 show the
board received a little more
than $2 million from the
tonnage tax, and $326,184
from the excise tax at 2
cents per gallon.
Danowski said Oregon
winegrowers are harvest-
ing 4 times as many grapes
today as when the board
was first created. In 2018,
harvest eclipsed 100,000
tons for the first time, while
the number of wineries also
reached 793, up 24 from
the previous year.
“That’s why we wanted
to start this process,”
Danowski said of the stra-
tegic plan update.
Though Oregon makes
up just 1.6% of U.S. wine
production — and 0.15%
of global production —
Danowski said Oregon
wines account for a dispro-
portionately large 18% of
all American wines scoring
COVID-19 worries
Sam
Tannahill,
co-founder of A to Z Wine-
works in Newberg, Ore.,
said the strategic plan must
focus on uniting the Ore-
gon wine industry, from the
Willamette Valley to the
Columbia Basin and South-
ern Oregon.
Tannahill is a board
member of the newly
formed Oregon Wine Coa-
lition, a trade group that
formed out of industry dis-
sent over several bills in the
2019 Legislature intended
George Plaven/Capital Press File to protect Oregon’s brand
Mikel Mann, a wine specialist at RoxyAnn Winery in name and reputation, but
Medford, Ore., pours a glass of red wine for guests in that opponents argued
the tasting room.
would have damaged out-
of-state markets for Oregon
90 points or higher in Wine sensible way,” Danowski grapes.
Spectator magazine.
said, that doesn’t strain
Looking forward, Tan-
That, in turn, is fueling assets in rural commu- nahill said the Oregon Wine
demand for Oregon grapes. nities. A study by Full Board needs to be more
Nearly one-quarter of the Glass Research pegs the responsive and adaptable to
crop is now sold to wineries value of wine tourism at changes in the industry.
$787 million per year in
The strategic plan will
outside the state.
also be critical as wineries
“It’s now a viable busi- Oregon.
ness to grow grapes in Ore-
“That is the way that recover from the COVID-
gon and sell them outside of consumers from around the 19 coronavirus outbreak
Oregon,” Danowski said. country fall in love with that has cut deeply into their
“We want that. We need Oregon,” Danowski said. business, Tannahill said.
that marketplace to help us “They get to see the vine- Smaller wineries especially
yard, and be in the tasting rely on direct-to-consumer
expand.”
Market expansion is one room.”
sales in their tasting rooms.
On the research side,
of eight priority areas iden-
“I think a lot of people
tified in the new strategic Danowski
said
grow- are just trying to keep their
plan, split between research ers want to see more work businesses running,” Tanna-
being done to improve wine hill said.
and marketing initiatives.
The longer the pan-
For example, Danowski quality and enhance sustain-
said the Wine Board is able production practices. demic lasts, the more win-
working on a certification Oregon wines will never eries could face make-or-
program for wine profes- be the cheapest, Danowski break decisions, Tannahill
sionals and restaurateurs said — the average bot- said. Smart marketing will
to learn about Oregon’s tle of Oregon-labeled wine be especially important as
wine varieties and growing costs $16.41, versus the winemakers look to rebuild
regions to help them spread U.S. average of $7.42 per their customer relationships.
the word to their customers. bottle — yet that high qual-
“Once the immediate cri-
“They are now some of ity is what justifies the price sis passes, it will be time to
our best evangelists around and continues to propel the ramp up communication
and help our folks upstream
the country, having been industry.
“You’d think if the pric- and downstream,” Tanna-
educated about Oregon
ing was out of line, this hill said. “Oregon was a
wine,” Danowski said.
Other marketing prior- momentum would slow real bright spot in the wine
ities include growing the down,” Danowski said. industry. I’d hate to see us
wine tourism economy “in a “Quality is a key element.” lose that momentum.”
Lawsuit may complicate boost in available Oregon dam water
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
An environmentalist law-
suit threatens to complicate a
planned boost in the amount
of irrigation water diverted
from behind 13 dams in Ore-
gon’s Willamette River Basin.
The legal challenge marks
the latest snag in a process
of allocating water from the
flood control reservoirs that’s
dragged on for about 30 years.
If the lawsuit succeeds in
creating additional delays and
difficulties, it’s hard to see
how Willamette Valley farm-
ers will ever access more of
the stored water, said Mary
Anne Cooper, vice president
of public policy for the Ore-
gon Farm Bureau.
The Farm Bureau was
already concerned about
the U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers proposal, argu-
ing it dedicates insufficient
water for the future needs of
agriculture.
“We’re not happy about
it, either,” Cooper said. “We
want the ag bucket to grow.”
Under a proposal that Con-
gress is expected to vote on
this year, the federal agency
would devote up to 327,650
Corps of Engineers
The Lookout Point Dam on the Middle Fork Willamette
River is one of 13 in Oregon’s Willamette Basin. The U.S.
Army Corps of Engineers and Oregon Water Resources
Department have proposed specific allocations for the
1.6 million acre-feet stored annually behind the dams.
acre-feet of water to agricul-
ture from the 1.6 million acre-
feet that can be stored behind
the dams.
That’s a considerable
increase from the 74,000
acre-feet that farmers are cur-
rently contracted to use, but
substantially lower than the
450,000 acre-feet sought by
the Farm Bureau.
Another 159,750 acre-
feet would be allocated for
municipal and industrial uses,
while more than 1.1 million
acre-feet would go to fish and
wildlife habitat.
The complaint filed by
Waterwatch of Oregon,
Northwest
Environmen-
tal Defense Center and Wil-
dearth Guardian argues the
federal government’s alloca-
tion plan should be blocked
for violating the Endangered
Species Act.
Rather than only studying
the effects of divvying up the
water on threatened salmon
and steelhead, the agency
should have analyzed the
allocation in the entire con-
text of impacts from Willa-
mette River Flood Control
Project dams, the plaintiffs
claim.
A “consultation” over the
effect of dams on protected
species is already underway
among federal agencies, but
the allocation plan would
prejudice that process and
foreclose the possibility of
more water being dedicated
to fish, the complaint said.
“The reallocation plan
will tie the Corps’ hands and
limit the agencies’ ability to
develop reasonable and pru-
dent alternative measures that
may be necessary to protect
those fish species from the
impacts of the Project, which
will, in turn, further jeop-
ardize their existence,” the
complaint said.
The plaintiffs have asked
a federal judge to stop the
agency from submitting a
report containing those rec-
ommendations to Congress
for approval, as well as reim-
bursement of the environ-
mental groups’ litigation
expenses.
Congress initially asked
the Army Corps to examine
water allocations in the Wil-
lamette basin in 1988, which
led to a more extensive feasi-
bility study.
However, that study was
halted after salmon and steel-
head in the river were listed
as threatened in 2000 and
only re-started in 2015, ulti-
mately leading to the agen-
cy’s current proposal.
Aside from being dis-
appointed with the amount
of water devoted to agri-
culture, the Farm Bureau
is also worried about the
treatment of existing irriga-
tors who rely on water from
behind the dams.
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