Vintners head to Portland for good news

More than 1,200 vintners, vineyard managers, distributors and vendors will make their way to the Oregon Convention Center this week for the Oregon Wine Industry Symposium. For the most part, what they'll hear is good news: strong sales and predictions of fair weather ahead.

Experts addressing the $2.7 billion industry's largest annual gathering say Oregon wines appear to be in a strong position heading into the 2012 growing season.

“Given the length and depth of this recession, we are percolating along pretty well as an industry,” said Kurt Wittman, an executive with Northwest Farm Credit Services, a major wine-industry lender. “We are continuing to see sales climb, which is obviously a very positive trend.”

Wittman's own study of 13 well-established wineries in his company's portfolio shows an average of 10 percent pre-tax profit, based on the latest figures available. The number of wineries involved in the study, though only a small percentage of Oregon's more than 400 commercial operations, still represents nearly a quarter of the nearly 2 million cases of Oregon wine sold last year.

“For any industry trying to weather an ongoing recession,” he said, “a 10 percent margin is extremely impressive.”