Wine industry to descend on Kennewick

KENNEWICK — Wade Wolfe has been in the Washington wine industry a long time, yet he continues to be amazed by its sustained growth.

The owner and winemaker of Thurston Wolfe Winery in Prosser will provide one of the highlights of this week's annual convention of the Washington Association of Wine Grape Growers when he delivers his "year in review" address to more than 2,000 members of the wine industry.

"Weather will be dominant," he said, referring to 2011's challenging conditions that caused a 20 percent reduction in crop. "We'll talk about what the crop looked like and how the weather impacted it."

Wolfe came to Washington in 1978 as a viticulturist for Chateau Ste. Michelle and later was general manager for Hogue Cellars. In between, he and his wife, Becky, started their own small winery in Prosser. When he retired from Hogue in 2004, he turned his focus full time on Thurston Wolfe.

Wolfe will deliver his report Wednesday at the Three Rivers Convention Center in Kennewick, where the grape growers have met annually for the past half-decade.