Warner: 2021 Heat Led To Smaller Crop, But Great Grapes

While the 2021 Washington wine grape harvest was smaller than in years past, Steve Warner, President of the Washington State Wine Commission said the quality of the fruit was phenomenal. He noted smaller yields last year were a direct result of unprecedented weather.

“You know, we got of to a really good start. We were really excited about the ’21 vintage and then, you know, we hit that massive heat dome. First time I’d heard of a heat dome used in a sentence, but we, I think we had in some areas we had up to four days of temperatures approaching 118 degrees.”

While tonnage was down, Warner said there were many positives.

“That did have an effect, obviously, on berry size. It was, you know, one of the warmest if not the warmest growing seasons that we’ve had on record. I love our farmers. They live this day in and day out and they said it could have been worse, and we’re pretty, I guess overall, glad it wasn’t worse.”

Since 2015, Cabernet Sauvignon has been the most produced variety in Washington, last year, it accounted for 28% of the total crop.

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