History of Washington State Wine industry and it's global future - Research Paper Example

This will be followed by the global future of the industry. The Washington wine is produced from grapes grown in the Washington region and this industry ranks second in the overall production of wine, falling only second to California. The industry has seen immense growth and development and the number of vineyards has grown to over 30,000, which cater to the export needs to almost forty different countries from around the world. The main production of wine takes place in the eastern half of the state, and this half is desert like in nature.

Irrigation and water rights are a major interest to the industry and this is solely due to the rain shadow of the Cascade regions (Matthews). Also the Viticulture of the state is also a result of the high levels of sunlight that the area receives. The wine industry was started way back in 1825, when the first wine grapes were planted by Hudson’s Bay Company at the Ford Vancouver. As time passed by 1910, the state saw a high level of increase in the growing of grapes across the state (Gregutt).

The credits for pioneers of the plantations however go to the French, Italians and Germans. There were number of efforts for the Wine Projects from wine experts and historians like Ron Irvine and Dr. Walter Clore. These experts were the ones to start the early planting at Fort Vancouver. The year 1854 saw the hybrid varieties of grapes and these were got to the Puget Sound region. As time passed by 1860, wine grapes were being started to plant in the region of the Walla Walla valley. The early 1900s specifically around 1903, found a large number of irrigation projects that were developed.

During this time there was a large melt down of the Cascade Mountains and this was a huge opportunity for the people as the soil in these areas was rich volcanic and the weather here was sunny and arid. It was now that the Yakima and Columbia regions also saw the plantations of Italian and German varieties. As time passed by this