The wine industry says that the pandemic is squeezing it out of business. However, the reopening of tasting rooms in Washington state has consumers returning.
The Washington Wine Growers Association says that they lost a lot over several months of closures.
According to Vick Scharlau, the executive director, “They estimated the total economic impact of decreased grape sales to be at $225 million dollars. Again, that’s on grapes, and then, when you compound that to include wine sales figures, we’re up to $885 million dollars lost to the economy of the state of Washing from COVID impacts on the wine industry.”
Following the trends seen in other industries, small family owned wineries have had an especially difficult time.