SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) – Washington state’s booming wine industry produced a record harvest of wine grapes in 2016 after cooler weather lengthened the growing season, officials said Wednesday.
Last year’s harvest in Washington, the second-largest producer of premium wines in the U.S., tallied 270,000 tons, beating the state’s previous record of 227,000 tons in 2014, according to the Washington State Wine Commission, which represents licensed wineries and wine grape growers.
As recently as 2012, the state produced just 188,000 tons of grapes.
California is by far the nation’s largest wine producer. A preliminary report for 2016 showed that farmers there grew 4 million tons of grapes, up 8.5 percent from the year before but short of a record. California’s final report on the grape crush is due March 10.
In Washington, the 2016 haul was up 22 percent from 2015. Red varieties outpaced white, totaling 58 percent of the harvest. Cabernet Sauvignon was the top variety.