After a very rough couple of years, the two words being used to describe the Oregon wine community are recovery and resiliency.  And that is especially true with the 2022 harvest underway.  The Oregon Wine Boards’ Sarah Murdoch said those words reflect the confidence in what Oregon wineries are producing.

 

“Resiliency is something we’ve always had as Oregonians and it’s really carried us through some pretty big catastrophes. And so, it was nice to see that that met with recovery as we’re looking at these numbers for the report.”

 

The value numbers, Murdoch said are impressive.

 

"The aggregate value of Oregon wine grape production is 72%, in 2021, over 2020. And so, when you’re seeing numbers, you know, I’ve been doing messaging for this report for, I don’t know, five or six years and I don’t think I’ve seen a number that high.”

 

Different, Murdoch said from volume numbers.

 

“And I’m glad that the report teased out some of those numbers. So, in 2019 our production was nine percent higher. And then 53% was the increase just for production.”

 

"Crop value is up 14% compared to 2019. So, yes, I think you’re completely seeing something that even when compared to a good year like 2019, we’re still crushing the benchmarks.”

  

Murdoch added Oregon wine exports also rose by 8.9% over 2020, with the leading export market Canada accounting for 46% of export sales.

 

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