Wash. wineries getting bigger as production grows

WALLA WALLA, Wash. — When it comes to wine production, Washington state still can't touch California, which produces 90 percent of all U.S. wine.

Robin Pollard of the Washington Wine Commission says small, boutique wineries still dominate Washington's wine industry. But the massive storage and fermentation tanks being erected in Washington's wine corridors show that things are changing.

Precept Brands recently opened its 53,000-square-foot production facility in Walla Walla. Up the road in Richland, Goose Ridge Vineyards just completed construction of its own new facility that will enable the winery to bottle 325,000 cases this year and even more in the future.